《英语写作与翻译二零一六年》.docVIP

广东外语外贸大学2003年硕士研究生入学考试 英语写作与翻译 Task 1: Summary Writing (40%) Directions: Read carefully the following passage and summarize its contents in 100-120 words. Note that you must not copy complete sentences directly from the original. Failure to do so would incur deduction of your scores. Passage Killing for Sport It wouldn’t be quite true to say that “some of my best friends are hunters.” Still, I do number among my respected acquaintances some who not only kill for the sake of killing but count it among their keenest pleasures. And I can think of no better illustration of the fact that men may be separated at some point by fathomless abyss yet share elsewhere much common ground. To me, it is inconceivable that anyone can think an animal more interesting dead than alive, I can also easily prove, to my own satisfaction, that killing “for sport” is the perfect type of that pure evil for which metaphysicians have sometimes sought. Most wicked deeds are done because the doer proposes some good for himself. The liar lies to gain some end; the swindler and the thief want things which, if honestly got, might be good in themselves. Even the murderer is usually removing some impediment to normal desires. Though all of these are selfish or unscrupulous, their deeds are not gratuitously evil. But the killer for sport seems to have no such excusable motive. He seems merely to prefer death to life, darkness to light. He seems to get nothing other than the satisfaction of saying: “Something which wanted to live is dead. Because I can bring terror and agony, I assure myself that I have power. Because of me there is that much less vitality, consciousness and perhaps joy in the universe. I am the spirit that denies.” When a man wantonly destroys one of the works of man, we call him “Vandal.” When he wantonly destroys one of the works of God, we call him “Sportsman.” The hunter-for-food may be as wicked and as misguided as vegetarians sometimes say, but he does not kill for the sake of k