阅读理解，回答21-25题 Humanities professors have come up with a seem
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阅读理解，回答21-25题
Humanities professors have come up with a seemingly foolproof defense against those ** trash degrees in, say,English literature or philosophy as wasted tuition dollars, one-way tickets to unemployment. Oh no,****- the humanities prepare students to succeed in the working world just as***all those alleged ** majors, maybe even better.
We offer tools of thought. We teach our students to understand and analyze****We help them develop powers of expression, written and verbal. The lengthy**** assign enhance their capacity to do independent work. At our best, we teach them how to reason - and reasoning undergirds every successful****. In the short term, such a defense may seem **. But it is dead wrong
The humanities are not about success. They’re about questioning success and every important****. Socrates taught us this, and we shouldn' t forget it.
Sure, someone who studies ** or philosophy is learning to think clearly and write well. But those skills are means to an end. That end as Plato said is learning how to live one’S life. "This discussion is not **** questions, but aboutthe way one should live.
That' s what' s at the hea****** - informed, thoughtful dialogue about the way we ought to conduct life. This dialogue honors no pieties: All positions are **; all values are up for discussion. Socrates, who probably concentrates the spirit of the humanities better than anyone, spent his time **** Athens asking people if they thought they were living virtuous lives. He believed that his city was getting proud and lazy, like an overfed****, and that it needed him, the stinging gadfly, to wake it up. The Athenians had to ask themselves if the lives they were leading really were good Socrates didn' t help them work their way to success; he helped *** their way to insight and virtue.Now, Americans are in love with **** for their children in particular. As a parent of sons in their 20s, I understand this and sympathize with it. But our job as humanists isn' t to second whatever values happen to be in **** society. We’re here to question those values and maybe offer alternatives.
We ** think in binaries. Vanilla is the opposite of chocolate. The opposite of success -often defined today as high-status work and a big paycheck is **. But the great **** us that this is not necessarily true.
The****** against conventional success; far from it. Many of our students go on to
distinguished ** in law and business. But I like to think they do so with a fuller social and than most people. For they have approached success as a matter of debate, not as an idol of worship. They have **** the options. They have called "success" into question and, after doe consideration, they **** to pursue it. I have to imagine that such people are far better employees than those who have moved lockstep into their *****, I also believe that self-aware, questioning people tend to be far more successful in the long run.
What makes **** different isn’t their power of expression, their capacity to frame an argument or their ability to do independent work Yes, these are valuable qualities, and we humanities teachers try to cultivate them. But true ***** are exceptional because they have been, and are, engaged in the activity that ****** - seeking to understand themselves and how they ought to lead their lives.If some of our ****have their way. the humanities will survive. but is name only. The humanities**synonymous with unreflective training for corporate success.
What would Socrates think?
Why did Socrates spend his time rambling around Athens asking Atheniansquestions? A.To find out if they live well. B.To wake up the local lazy people, C.To teach them how to be successful. D.To help them gain insight and virtue.
