Modern/Influential Thinkers This passage is adapted from Emily Greene Balch’s Nobel Lecture, “Toward Human Unity or Beyond Nationalism,” given on April 7, 1948. ©2021 by The Nobel Foundation. A characteristic of our time is the prevalence of nationalism. This is still spreading, affecting new communities, more peripheral regions, and so-called backward peoples. [71] Just like all awesome movements, it has its good and its bad sides. As the particularism of the feudal Middle Ages in Europe was outgrown, great national states [72] united men in larger and more reasonably constituted units than those brought together by inheritance and conquest. Politically it was a cohesive and constructive force. In its cultural and romantic aspects, also, there is in it much that is precious, especially in the fields of [73] horticulture and herbology.
On the other hand, nationalism has proved excessively dangerous in its divisiveness and its self-adulation. It has given us an anarchic world of powerful armed bodies, with traditions steeped in conquest and military glory, and of competing commercial peoples as ruthless in their economic self-seeking as in their wars. It has given us a considerable number of states, each claiming complete and unlimited sovereignty, living side by side without being integrated in any way or under any curb, governed by an uneasy balance of power manipulated by diplomatic maneuvering, based not on [74] principals accepted by all but on reasons of state, recognizing no common religious or ethical control nor any accepted rules of conduct, and united by no common purpose. At the same time they are, alas, furnished with [75] vast increased powers of physical destruction and with the latest and most dreadful of modern weapons—psychological control of men’s minds through the arts of propaganda and “thought control,” by means of censorship and otherwise.
This divided condition of a nationalistic world is in marked contrast to the relative universalism of various earlier historical periods. We recall, for instance, the eighteenth-century éclaircissement when human reason and gentle manners were exalted and the French language was the joint possession of civilized people.
We recall the universalism of the Christian Middle Ages, [76] which recognized one dogma, the authoritative church commanding large revenues, and one language for all who could read and write.
We recall still earlier the period of the great Roman peace, with one classic tradition, one political model, and one literary medium.
The dangers of this divided nationalist world have been experienced. [77] They have been studied and investigated, but it has been easier to see the need of some new way of uniting the peoples than to realize it.
Considering much that tends toward the unity of mankind, we have noted such matters as liberty, democracy, humaneness, public spirit, [78] revocation of coercion and violence, spiritual universalism, common cultural treasures, sameness of physical environment and habits, technical control of time and space, and the tendency to universalize both achievements and ideas.
In thinking of trends to unify mankind, [79] they must face squarely, without underrating them, all that tends to the contrary. [80] Nevertheless democracy and the cult of humaneness mark our age, but also greed, violence, the self-adulation of national and racial groups, the fanaticism of political cults like fascism or nazism, the glorification of might and power for their own sake, the blind reliance on violence as that before which all idealism is but a dissolving mist. All these things we know only too well.
This passage has been excerpted and adapted from the original, including minor punctuation changes, spelling changes, and other modifications that have not substantially changed content or intent. Which of the following choices best matches the tone of the passage?
Just like all awesome movements, it has its good and its bad sides. Not Answered A) NO CHANGE B) When statistically compared with other significant philosophical and political positions, it similarly has its advantageous and disadvantageous facets. C) Like all great movements, it has its super amazing and its really terrible sides, you know? D) Like all great movements, it has its good and its bad sides. united Not Answered A) NO CHANGE B) are uniting C) have united D) will have united horticulture and herbology. Not Answered A) NO CHANGE B) astrology and sociology. C) literature, art, and folklore. D) mathematics, science, and technology. principals Not Answered A) NO CHANGE B) principials C) principles D) princeples vast increased powers Not Answered A) NO CHANGE B) vastly increased powers C) vastly increase powers D) vast increase powers which recognized one dogma, the authoritative church commanding large revenues, and one language for all who could read and write. Not Answered A) NO CHANGE B) which recognized one dogma, one authoritative church commanding large revenues, and used the same language for all who could read and write. C) which recognized one dogma, had an authoritative church that commanded large revenues, and one language, used by everyone who could read and write. D) which recognized one dogma, one authoritative church commanding large revenues, and one language for all who could read and write. Which of the following choices represents the clearest and most concise way to convey all of the information in the sentence?
They have been studied and investigated, but it has been easier to see the need of some new way of uniting the peoples than to realize it. Not Answered A) NO CHANGE B) They have been studied and investigated, but it has been easier to see the need of it than to realize it, some new way of uniting the peoples. C) It has been easier to see the need of some new way of uniting the peoples than to realize it; they have been studied and investigated. D) They have been studied and investigated, but as they have been researched and examined, it has been easier to see the need of some new way of uniting the peoples than to realize it. revocation Not Answered A) NO CHANGE B) refutation C) recantation D) repudiation they Not Answered A) NO CHANGE B) we C) it D) he Nevertheless Not Answered A) NO CHANGE B) Similarly C) Not only D) Therefore
Here are the best choices for each of the questions based on the tone, clarity, and conciseness of the passage:
Just like all awesome movements, it has its good and its bad sides.
united
horticulture and herbology.
principals
vast increased powers
which recognized one dogma, the authoritative church commanding large revenues, and one language for all who could read and write.
They have been studied and investigated, but it has been easier to see the need of some new way of uniting the peoples than to realize it.
revocation
they
Nevertheless
These choices reflect a balance of maintaining the original tone and improving clarity and correctness where necessary.