2019公共管理硕士MPA之英语精读篇(3)

　　Many historians of the twentieth century look back at the fifteenth century and say, “Machiavelli was the first political scientist in history.” They say that he looked at politics for the first time with the factual eye of a scientist. He was only interested in the facts. He thought that politics and morality didn’t go

　　together very often, but he studied ideas of right and wrong, along with politics; government leaders, he wrote, could use these ideas to get and keep power.

　　In Machiavelli’s opinion, the nature of human beings is usually evil, so a good person must always fail. He thought it was important for a political leader to know how to be bad. In fact, Machiavelli saw leaders of government as people above ordinary human beings; so he believed, they are also above ordinary morality. Good and evil, he said, are only ideas that weak people use to excuse weakness; powerful people use these ideas to keep other people weak. They can lead because they want power and because they fight for it. Also, these leaders are not usually afraid to leave morality behind, so they don’t have ideas of right or wrong to stop them. They think only of power. It is nice, Machiavelli said, if political leaders can also be good people, but they must know how to be bad when the time comes.

　　Machiavelli said that it is natural to fight for power and that there are two methods people use: law and physical force. The first method is the way of human beings. They do this to get and keep power.

　　People are evil, in Machiavelli’s opinion, so war and fighting are always in the world; they are a natural part of it. Political leaders know the way of nature, of people, and animals, and they use their knowledge to get what they want.

　　1. According to the passage, a political scientist is a person who ______.

　　A.studies politics and science at the same time

　　B.studies science in a political way

　　C.knows politics as well as science

　　D.studies politics in a scientific way

　　2. According to the passage, what does Machavelli think of the ideas of right and wrong?

　　A.There is nothing absolutely right or wrong.

　　B.Political leaders know the ideas of right and wrong and use them to stop themselves from doing sth. wrong.

　　C.Weak people use the ideas to keep inward peace.

　　D.Compared with power, ideas of right and wrong are nothing to political leaders.

　　3. Which of the following can be included into the opinion of Machiavelli?

　　A.Political leaders are special human beings and have different morality.

　　B.Human beings are usually bad and are certain to fail.

　　C.Powerful people use ideas of right and wrong to control themselves.

　　D.Political leaders should keep morality in mind.

　　4. What does Machiavelli think of political leaders?

　　A.Political leaders would never be good people.

　　B.Political leaders are afraid to desert morality.

　　C.Political leaders only think of power and ignore morality.

　　D.Political leaders are evil in nature while the common people are not.

　　5. What is the passage mainly talking about?

　　A.The behavior of politicians.

　　B.The similarity between human beings and animals.

　　C.The difference between political leaders and common people.

　　D.The scientific view of politics.