unit 12高英.doc

morality has oddly enough taken place in a world where private morality -- a sense of the supreme importance of purely personal honor, honesty, and integrity -- seems to be declining. (2) What is the new immorality the writer criticizes? The new immorality the writer criticizes is that many people tend to accept and take for granted personal dishonesty, and as a result, they are not likely to feel ashamed when they are caught cheat- ing or doing something dishonest, but claim that they have a strong social conscience and social morality. i Para_?aphs13 These three paragraphs make up the beginning part of the argumentative essay. In this part, by citing some typical facts and examples, the writer exhibits a paradox of our age that social morality seems to be growing strong, but private morality seems to be declining. The two questions below are to be answered. (1) What is presented in the first two paragraphs? Two typical examples to show a paradox of our age are given that social morality seems to be making progress while private morality seems to be deteriorating. (2) What do we find in the third paragraph? The paradox exhibited by the two examples, and more revealing examples. 1. provost n. a high-ranking administrative official of a university The provosts of some colleges of the university were present at the graduation ceremony. The provost presided over the faculty meeting yesterday. 2. reprehensible adj. deserving to be reprehended; deserving to be criticized or rebuked Plagiarism was a morally reprehensible act. It was reprehensible of him to steal from his mother. 3. rig vt. to arrange the outcome of sth. dishonestly They claimed that the result of the election was rigged. Some stockholders rigged the stock market. 4. Yet most of these five, like most of the college cheaters, would probably profess a strong social consciousness, g~ However,