GRE阅读机经：2018年10月21日考试高分必看

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Most recent work on the history of leisure in Europe has been based on the central hypothesis of a fundamental discontinuity between preindustrial and industrial societies. According to this view, the modern idea of leisure did not exist in medieval and early modern Europe: the modern distinction between the categories of work and leisure was a product of industrial capitalism. Preindustrial societies had festivals (together with informal and irregular breaks from work), while industrial societies have leisure in the form of weekends and vacations. The emergence of leisure is there-fore part of the process of modernization. If this theory is correct, there is what Michel Foucault called a conceptual rupture between the two periods, and so the very idea of a history of leisure before the Industrial Revolution is an anachronism.

To reject the idea that leisure has had a continuous history from the Middle Ages to the present is not to deny that late medieval and early modern Europeans engaged in many pursuits that are now commonly considered leisure or sporting activities— jousting, hunting, tennis, card playing, travel, and so on—or that Europe in this period was dominated by a privileged class that engaged in these pursuits. What is involved in the discontinuity hypothesis is the recognition that the people of the Middle Ages and early modern Europe did not regard as belonging to a common category activities (hunting and gambling, for example) that are usually classified together today under the heading of leisure. Consider fencing: today it may be considered a “sport,” but for the gentleman of the Renaissance it was an art or science. Conversely, activities that today may be considered serious, notably warfare, were often described as pastimes.

Serious pitfalls therefore confront historians of leisure who assume continuity and who work with the modern concepts of leisure and sport, projecting them back onto the past without asking about the meanings contemporaries gave to their activities.

However, the discontinuity hypothesis can pose problems of its own. Historians holding this view attempt to avoid anachronism by means of a simple dichotomy, cutting European history into two eras, preindustrial and industrial, setting up the binary opposition between a “festival culture” and a “leisure culture.” The dichotomy remains of use insofar as it reminds us that the rise of industrial capitalism was not purely a phenomenon of economic history, but had social and cultural preconditions and consequences. The dichotomy, however, leads to distortions when it reduces a great variety of medieval and early modern European ideas, assumptions, and practices to the simple formula implied by the phrase “festival culture.”

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

A. refute the idea that the history of leisure is discontinuous

B. show why one of two approaches is more useful in studying the history of leisure

C. suggest the need for a new, more inclusive concept to replace the concept of leisure

D. trace the development of a theory about the history of leisure

E. point out the basis for, and the limits of, an approach to the history of leisure

正确答案：E

题目解析：第1段主要讲了recent work on the history of leisure的basis即hypothesis of discontinuity, 然后讲了这个hypothesis的主要内容。之后第二第三段，都是对这个hypothesis的补充说明，第二段说它不并代表否认medieval 和 Early modern 的欧洲有那些今天认为是leisure的追求，第三段说那些不用这个hypothesis的历史学家都有serious pitfalls即过去人们对leisure和sports的概念和现在完全不同。第三段开头即陈述这个hypothesis有Problem，然后说历史学家使用dichotomy这个“approach”。然后具体讲dichotomy这个方法和它的problem也就是limit，即后文所说的distortion。因此全文是围绕basis和limits展开的，所以选E。

2. The author of the passage asserts that the “dichotomy” (last paragraph) can lead to which of the following?

A. Reliance on only one of several equally valid theoretical approaches

B. The imposition of modern conceptions and meanings on past societies

C. Failure to take into account the complexity of certain features of European culture

D. Failure to utilize new conceptual categories in the study of the history of leisure

E. Failure to take account of the distinction between preindustrial and industrial societies

正确答案：C

题目解析：本题是细节题，The dichotomy, however, leads to distortions when it reduces a great variety of medieval and early modern European ideas, assumptions, and practices to the simple formula implied by the phrase “festival culture.” 当他把中世纪和早期现代欧洲的理念，假设和实践都缩减到一个简单的公式——“节日文化”的时候，二分法导致了一种扭曲。解题关键是 reduces a great variety of 和simple。对应Failure to take into account the complexity ,所以选C。

3. Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage as a whole?

A. Two hypotheses are discussed, and evidence in support of one is presented.

B. A hypothesis is presented and discussed, and a limitation to the hypothesis is identified.

C. A hypothesis is proposed, its supposed advantages are shown to be real, and its supposed disadvantages are shown to be illusory.

D. A problem is identified, two hypotheses are advanced to resolve it, and both are rejected.

E. A problem is identified, two resolutions are proposed, and a solution combining elements of both is recommended.

正确答案：B

题目解析：本题需要在了解全文框架的基础上进行解答。文章第1段提出一个hypothesis，第二第三段围绕展开，最后点出这个hypothesis的问题和不足。所以选B。

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