早稲田文2017 II

II

Read the following three passages and mark the most appropriate choice ( a ~ d ) for each item (15―24) on the separate answer sheet.

(A)

It was a hybrid of philosophy, linguistics, mathematics, and electrical engineering. Beginning in the 1940s, cybernetics ― a new vision of techno-perfection ― set off the first chorus of cyber-hype about the ultimate power and value of computers. While evoking religious faith in science, the inventor of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener, warned of the danger in ceding control of moral judgment to machines. Shortly after Wiener delivered his warning, author Kurt Vonnegut published an anti-cybernetic novel. Player Piano (1950) projected a world where automata do everything, resulting in a techno-tyranny ruled by machines and their slaves ― button pushers, office bureaucrats, and corporate managers.

As a science, cybernetics mutated into robotics and artificial intelligence; as an ideology, it provided the springboard for contemporary visions of an earthly technological heaven. Cybernetics also served as the scientific basis for stories such as those written by Isaac Asimov, who rejected earlier fictional depictions of killer robots. Asimov's Laws of Robotics demonstrated a cybernetic guarantee that obedience and servitude would be programmed into robot technology, a general vision of technological safety still employed today.

15. The writers Norbert Wiener and Kurt Vonnegut both believed that

(a) all technology leads to the enslavement of humanity.

(b) giving machines too much power could be dangerous.

(c) office workers would be replaced by automatic processes.

(d) science was a replacement for religion in the modern world.

16. In its use by writers such as Isaac Asimov, cybernetics

(a) always created more problems than it solved.

(b) established a system in which robots would always do what humans wish.

(c) is the main reason why we do not accept robotics in the modern world.

(d) was the basis for the continuing conflict between man and machine.

(B)

The most wonderful repository of knowledge in the world before modern times, the fabled Library of Alexandria, no longer exists. But the question of how it came to disappear is a mystery that suffers from having numerous possible agents of its destruction. The earliest historical personage to be accused of being responsible for the end of the library was Julius Caesar, In 48 BC, the Egyptian fleet interposed between Caesar and one of his major enemies at sea near Alexandria. At this point, he ordered the ships in the city's harbor to be set on fire. The fire spread and destroyed the Egyptian fleet. Unfortunately, it also burned down part of the city ― the area where the great library stood. Nevertheless, after this event, the library remained operative until at least the late 3rd century AD, when military action under Emperor Aurelian also caused significant damage. More destruction came another hundred years later when Emperor Theodosius tried to end paganism throughout the Empire in 391 AD. All pagan temples were ordered to be destroyed, including part of the Library of Alexandria.

Whether the Romans under various emperors completely destroyed the library is unclear, since another individual to be blamed for the destruction was the Muslim Caliph Omar, after the capture of the city by Muslim forces in the mid-7th century. When asked what to do with the great library containing all the knowledge of the world, Caliph Omar is said to have answered, "If what is written in them agrees with the Book of God, they are not required; if it disagrees, they are not desired. Destroy them therefore." But these reports were written about 300 years later by a Christian bishop who spent a great deal of time writing about Muslim atrocities without much historical documentation.

So who did destroy the Library of Alexandria? Unfortunately, most of the writers had an ax to grind and consequently must be seen as biased. The real tragedy of course is not the uncertainty of knowing who to blame for the library's destruction but that so much of ancient history, literature and learning was lost forever.

17. The question of who is to blame for destroying the Library of Alexandria is

(a) impossible to answer because records are untrustworthy.

(b) less important than how and why it was destroyed.

(c) still a mystery for lack of any credible historical suspects.

(d) worth pursuing to reveal how the tragedy happened.

18. When the Muslims conquered Alexandria in the 7th century,

(a) finding what the archives contained made the Caliph hesitate to burn them.

(b) the Caliph did not expect what would become of the library in 300 years.

(c) the Caliph's actions are not completely evident from the sources.

(d) the oppression of paganism was finally avenged by the Caliph.

19. The author considers the Library of Alexandria to be remarkable because it

(a) contained so much knowledge from such various nations.

(b) stood at the same place so steadfastly so long.

(c) survived so many man-made disasters so heroically.

(d) was attacked by such strong religious groups so many times.

(C)

"We don't see things as they are ― we see them as we are" (Anais Nin). This is true not only of individuals, but also of human groups, especially groups defined by people's native language. As individuals, we often see things differently because we are different persons. As speakers of different languages we see them differently because every language gives its speakers a particular set of tools for seeing and interpreting the world. This applies both to the visible world of colors and light, and the "invisible" world of emotions, relationships, social structures, and mental life.

Oliver Sacks writes revealingly about the ways of seeing the world characteristic of the people on a Micronesian island, where most people are color-blind, and thus cannot distinguish between some colors. The vegetation on the island, which for Sacks and his "color- normal" companions "was at first a confusion of greens," to the color-blind people on the island "was a polyphony of brightnesses, shapes, and textures, easily identified and distinguished from each other." When asked how they can distinguish, for example, yellow bananas from green ones, an islander replied: "We don't just go by color. We look, we feel, we smell, we know ― we take everything into consideration, and you just take color!"

Speakers of languages that have no color words as such, and have instead a rich visual vocabulary focusing on brightness and visual patterns, such as the Warlpiri people in Central Australia, are hot necessarily color-blind, but they, too, "take everything into consideration," not just color ― not because their physical perception is different but because, for cultural reasons (including their way of life), their interest in the visual world is different. Like any other language, English, too, has its own in-built culture-specific forms of perception, or rather attention ― and native speakers of English are often blind to them because of their familiarity. This blindness to what is familiar applies also to Anglophone scholars and leads to various forms of Anglocentrism in English-based human sciences, not only in description but also in theory formation. In Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote: "The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity."

I used this quotation in an earlier attempt to challenge one of the most influential theories in human sciences in recent times, Berlin and Kay's theory of "color universals". My purpose was to draw attention to how our native languages can blind us to the world as it presents itself to other people. The glow of the "B&K color theory" has since dimmed considerably (though it still has many adherents); but the blinding power of English as the global language of science and the unquestioned tool for interpreting the world has only grown. My goal is to try to convince speakers of English, including Anglophone scholars in the humanities and social sciences, that while English is a language of global significance, it is not a neutral instrument, and that if this is not recognized, English can at times become a conceptual prison.

20. According to the author of the passage, Anai's Nin's statement implies that

(a) humans are not necessarily confined within their own world.

(b) no individual has a neutral point of view.

(c) we ought to interpret our experiences in objective terms.

(d) what counts is a subjective frame of reference.

21. According to Oliver Sacks, the color-blind people on the Micronesian island

(a) had difficulty in distinguishing colored things around them.

(b) learned to perceive without relying upon any colors at all.

(c) regarded color as just one of the many tools of recognition.

(d) were able to tell colors apart as easily as "color-normal" people do.

22. By quoting Ludwig Wittgenstein, the author intends to show

(a) how familiarity can be an obstacle to learning.

(b) how keen the philosopher's insight is.

(c) that scholars should do research on the basis of their mother tongue.

(d) that simplicity is probably the best way to inquire into the invisible reality.

23. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?

(a) Color blindness caused Australia's Warlpiri people to acquire particular modes of attention.

(b) Native languages can distort an objective view of the world.

(c) The author's efforts have helped weaken the influence of a certain color theory.

(d) When we describe what we see, we in effect describe ourselves.

24. Which title best expresses the author's conclusion?

(a) Accepting Cultural Diversity for a Better Future

(b) How Linguistic Relativity Affects Our Worldview

(c) The Hazards of English as a Default Language

(d) The Unique Role Color Blindness Plays in Human Perception