江苏专版2018年高考英语二轮复习增分篇专题巧突破专题三阅读理解专题限时检测二十二阅读理解词义猜测类之短语猜测题或句意理解题.docVIP

专题限时检测(二十二)阅读理解词义猜测类之短语猜测题或句意理解题 (加★的为短语猜测题或句意理解题，本卷限时23分钟) A (2017·南京市、盐城市高三模拟考试)Youve probably heard such reports. The number of college students majoring in the humanities (人文学科) is decreasing quickly. The news has caused a flood of high-minded essays criticizing the development as a symbol of American decline. The bright side is this: The destruction of the humanities by the humanities is, finally, coming to an end. No more will literature, as part of an academic curriculum, put out the light of literature. No longer will the reading of, say, “King Lear” or D．H. Lawrences “Women in Love” result in the annoying stuff of multiple-choice quizzes, exam essays and homework assignments. The discouraging fact is that for every college professor who made Shakespeare or Lawrence come alive for the lucky few, there were countless others who made the reading of literary masterpieces seem like two_hours_in_the_dentists_chair. The remarkably insignificant fact that, a half-century ago, 14% of the undergraduate population majored in the humanities (mostly in literature, but also in art, philosophy, history, classics and religion) as opposed to 7% today has given rise to serious reflections on the nature and purpose of an education in the liberal arts. Such reflections always come to the same conclusion: We are told that the lack of a formal education, mostly in literature, leads to numerous harmful personal conditions, such as the inability to think critically, to write clearly, to be curious about other people and places, to engage with great literature after graduation, to recognize truth, beauty and goodness. These serious anxieties are grand, admirably virtuous and virtuously admirable. They are also a mere fantasy. The college teaching of literature is a relatively recent phenomenon. Literature did not even become part of the university curriculum until the end of the 19th century. Before that, what came to be called the humanities consisted of learning Greek and Latin,