Traditionally, the study of history has had fixed boundaries and focal points — periods, countries, dramatic events, and great leaders. It also has had clear and firm notions of scholarly procedure: how one inquires into a historical problem, how one presents and documents one’s findings, what constitutes admissible and adequate proof.

Anyone who has followed recent historical literature can testify to the revolution that is taking place in historical studies. The currently fashionable subjects come directly from the sociology catalog: childhood, work, leisure. The new subjects are accompanied by new methods. Where history once was primarily narrative, it is now entirely analytic. The old questions “What happened?” and “How did it happen?” have given way to the question “Why did it happen?” Prominent among the methods used to answer the question “Why” is psychoanalysis, and its use has given rise to psychohistory.

Psychohistory does not merely use psychological explanations in historical contexts. Historians have always used such explanations when they were appropriate and when there was sufficient evidence for them. But this pragmatic use of psychology is not what psychohistorians intend. They are committed, not just to psychology in general, but to Freudian psychoanalysis. This commitment precludes a commitment to history as historians have always understood it. Psychohistory derives its “facts” not from history, the detailed records of events and their consequences, but from psychoanalysis of the individuals who made history, and deduces its theories not from this or that instance in their lives, but from a view of human nature that transcends history. It denies the basic criterion of historical evidence: that evidence be publicly accessible to, and therefore assessable by, all historians. And it violates the basic tenet of historical method: that historians be alert to the negative instances that would refute their theses. Psychohistorians, convinced of the absolute rightness of their own theories, are also convinced that theirs is the “deepest” explanation of any event, that other explanations fall short of the truth.

Psychohistory is not content to violate the discipline of history (in the sense of the proper mode of studying and writing about the past); it also violates the past itself. It denies to the past an integrity and will of its own, in which people acted out of a variety of motives and in which events had a multiplicity of causes and effects. It imposes upon the past the same determinism that it imposes upon the present, thus robbing people and events of their individuality and of their complexity. Instead of respecting the particularity of the past, it assimilates all events, past and present, into a single deterministic schema that is presumed to be true at all times and in all circumstances.

1. Which of the following best states the main point of the text?

[A] The approach of psychohistorians to historical study is currently in vogue even though it lacks the rigor and verifiability of traditional historical method.

[B] Traditional historians can benefit from studying the techniques and findings of psychohistorians.

[C] Areas of sociological study such as childhood and work are of little interest to traditional historians.

[D] The psychological assessment of an individual’s behavior and attitudes is more informative than the details of his or her daily life.

2. The author mentions which of the following as a characteristic of the practice of psychohistorians?

[A] The lives of historical figures are presented in episodic rather than narrative form.

[B] Archives used by psychohistorians to gather material are not accessible to other scholars.

[C] Past and current events are all placed within the same deterministic diagram.

[D] Events in the adult life of a historical figure are seen to be more consequential than are those in the childhood of the figure.

3. The author of the text suggests that psychohistorians view history primarily as

[A] a report of events, causes, and effects that is generally accepted by historians but which is, for the most part, unverifiable.

[B] an episodic account that lacks cohesion because records of the role of childhood, work, and leisure in the lives of historical figures are rare.

[C] an uncharted sea of seemingly unexplainable events that have meaning only when examined as discrete units.

[D] a record the way in which a closed set of immutable psychological laws seems to have shaped events.

4. The author of the text puts the word “deepest” (line 14, paragraph 3) in quotation marks most probably in order to

[A] signal her reservations about the accuracy of psychohistorians’ claims for their work.

[B] draw attention to a contradiction in the psychohistorians’ method.

[C] emphasize the major difference between the traditional historians’ method and that of psychohistorians.

[D] disassociate her opinion of the psychohistorians’ claims from her opinion of their method.

5. In presenting her analysis, the author does all of the following EXCEPT.

[A] Make general statements without reference to specific examples.

[B] Describe some of the criteria employed by traditional historians.

[C] Question the adequacy of the psychohistorians’ interpretation of events.

[D] Point out inconsistencies in the psychohistorians’ application of their methods.

[答案与考点解析]

1. 【答案】A

【考点解析】这是一道中心主旨题。从第二段开始出现全文的主要谈论内容，第二段的最后一句出现了全文所谈论的中心“psychohistory”，在第二段中谈到了“psychohistory”的流行性，在第二段和第三段中作者谈到了“psychohistory”缺乏历史科学研究的“严密性和可考证性”。由此分析可见本题的正确选项应该是包含“psychohistory”和“history”概念的选项A。考生在解题时要善于首先捕捉全文的中心主旨句，并通过阅读和理解去把握原文所表达的思想。

2. 【答案】C

【考点解析】这是一道审题定位题。通过题干中的“psychohistorians”可将本题的答案信息确定在第三、四段，但是题干并没有明确指出本题准确的信息来源。但是题干中的“practice”(实践)一词暗示考生本题的答案信息可能在尾段，因为人们一般阐述问题的规律是：从理论谈到实践。如果不出万一本文的尾段应该谈到“psychohistorians”的实践问题。通过阅读尾段，尤其是尾段尾句，我们可得出本题的正确选项应该是C。这道题的难点在于审题定位。审题定位不是一个简单的问题，需要考生对文章的叙述结构和人类的表达习惯有所认识。

3. 【答案】D

【考点解析】这是一道审题定位题。通过题干中的“psychohistorians view history primarily as”可判断本题是要考生找出“psychohistorians”如何看待(view…as)历史(history)，即要考生找出“psychohistorians”对历史的看法和态度。根据行文和表达规律，这道题的答案信息应该在第三段，准确地说在第三段的第五句话，因为这句话包含“history”一词。通过阅读和理解第三段的第四、五、六句话，我们可以推导出本题的正确选项应该是突出“psychological”含义的选项D。考生在解题时一定要注意英语行文和表达的规则。

4. 【答案】A

【考点解析】这是一道标点符号题。本题题干已将本题的答案信息确定在第三段的倒数第二行。此处引号所表达的含义是“所谓最深刻的”，即实际上是“不深刻的”。故本题的正确选项应该是含有“reservations”(有保留)一词的选项A。考生在破解阅读理解题型时一定要注意标点符号的应用，以及它们所产生的相应的含义。

5. 【答案】D

【考点解析】本题是一道写作手法题型。这是一道比较难的题，旨在考察考生的语言基本功，尤其是写作手法和文章结构方面的知识。本题A、B、C中所涉及的内容可分别在第三段第六、七、八句、第一段第一、二句以及第三段的尾句找到。本文并没有谈到“psychohistorians”在应用自己方法方面的前后矛盾不一致性，故本题的正确选项应该是选项D。考生在解题时应注意原文中常用的写作手法。

[参考译文]

传统上，历史研究具有固定的界限和焦点——时期、国家、引人注目的事件，和伟大的领袖。在学术过程上的观念也非常清晰和坚定：研究者是如何探究历史问题的，他们是如何展示他们的发现并归纳成文档的，有什么令人信服的足够的证据。

凡是注意最近的历史文献的人都能证明在历史研究上正在发生一场革命。目前最流行的题材直接来源于社会学领域：儿童时代，工作，休闲。伴随着新的题材的是新的研究方法。过去的历史主要是叙述性的，现在则完全变成分析性的了。过去的问题是“发生了什么?”和“怎么发生的?”，现在它们则让位给了“为什么会发生?”。在用来回答“为什么”这一问题的方法中，最突出的是心理分析，而对这种方法的使用则导致了心理历史学的兴起。

心理历史学并不仅仅在历史环境下使用心理解释。过去，历史学家也总是在适当并有足够证据支持的时候使用这样的解释。但这种对心理学的实用主义的应用并不是心理历史学家所希望的。他们通常不只局限于心理学，而是要使用弗洛伊德的心理分析。这样，就同过去历史学家所理解的历史大相径庭了。心理历史学不是从历史，从事件的详细记录和它们的前因后果中来获取“事实”，而是对造成历史的个人进行心理分析，从中获取“事实”;不是从这些创造历史的人物一生的这个或那个实例中演绎出理论，而是从超越历史的人类本性的角度来推导理论。它否定关于历史证据的基本标准，即：这些证据应该是公众能够了解的，因此，也就是所有历史学家都能够了解的。它还违反了历史学方法的基本原则：历史学家要警惕能够驳倒他们的论题的反面事例。心理历史学家，则相信他们的理论绝对正确，而且确信他们的理论是对任何事件的“最深刻”的解释，而其它的解释都远离真实。

心理历史学家并不满足于破坏历史学的规范(在正确研究和书写过去的意义上);它还要破坏过去本身。它否定过去是一个整体并有自身的发展规律，人们在这个整体中出于各种不同的动机行事，事件的发生是由多种原因和影响共同造成的。它把决定当前情况的决定论强加给过去，这就剥夺了人和事件的独特性和复杂性。它不是尊重过去的特殊性，而是把过去和现在的所有事件都吸收到一个单一的决定论模式中，假设这个模式在任意时间和任意环境中都是正确的。