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20 Oct 2012, 06:35
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi,
I am not able to understand the below two questions, lets us discuss them. Let me know your answers with explanation/reasoning. I'll provide the answers later.
From Romania to Germany, from Tallinn to
Belgrade, a major historical process—the death of
communism—is taking place. The German
Democratic Republic no longer exists as a separate
5 state. And the former German Democratic Republic
will serve as the first measure of the price a post-
Communist society has to pay for entering the normal
European orbit. In Yugoslavia we will see whether
the federation can survive without communism.
10 One thing seems common to all these countries:
dictatorship has been defeated and freedom has won,
yet the victory of freedom has not yet meant the
triumph of democracy. Democracy is something
more than freedom. Democracy is freedom
15 institutionalized, freedom submitted to the limits of
the law, freedom functioning as an object of
compromise between the major political forces on the
scene.
We have freedom, but we still have not achieved
20 the democratic order. That is why this freedom is so
fragile. In the years of democratic opposition to
communism, we supposed that the easiest thing
would be to introduce changes in the economy. In
fact, we thought that the march from a planned econ25
omy to a market economy would take place within
the framework of the bureaucratic system, and that
the market within the Communist state would
explode the totalitarian structures. Only then would
the time come to build the institutions of a civil soci30
ety; and only at the end, with the completion of the
market economy and the civil society, would the time
of great political transformations finally arrive.
The opposite happened. First came the big political
change, the great shock, which either broke the
35 monopoly and the principle of Communist Party rule
or simply pushed the Communists out of power.
Then came the creation of civil society, whose institutions
were created in great pain, and which had
trouble negotiating the empty space of freedom.
40 Only then, as the third moment of change, the final
task was undertaken: that of transforming the totalitarian
economy into a normal economy where different
forms of ownership and different economic actors
will live one next to the other.
45 Today we are in a typical moment of transition.
No one can say where we are headed. The people of
the democratic opposition have the feeling that we
won. We taste the sweetness of our victory the same
way the Communists, only yesterday our prison
50 guards, taste the bitterness of their defeat. Yet, even
as we are conscious of our victory, we feel that we
are, in a strange way, losing. In Bulgaria the
Communists have won the parliamentary elections
and will govern the country, without losing their
55 social legitimacy. In Romania the National Salvation
Front, largely dominated by people from the old
Communist bureaucracy, has won. In other countries
democratic institutions seem shaky, and the political
horizon is cloudy. The masquerade goes on: dozens
60 of groups and parties are created, each announces
similar slogans, each accuses its adversaries of all
possible sins, and each declares itself representative
of the national interest. Personal disputes are more
important than disputes over values. Arguments over
65 values are fiercer than arguments over ideas.
Which one of the following does the author imply may have contributed to the difficulties involved in creating a new democratic order in eastern Europe?
I. The people who existed under the totalitarian
structure have not had the experience
of “negotiating the empty space of
freedom.”
II. Mistaking the order in which political,
economic, and social restructuring would
occur.
III. Excessive self-interest among the new
political activists.
(A) I only
(B) II only
(C) I and III only
(D) II and III only
(E) I, II, and III
By stating “even as we are conscious of our victory, we feel that we are, in a strange way, losing” (lines 50–52) the author means that
(A) some of the old governments are still
unwilling to grant freedom at the individual
level.
(B) some of the new governments are not
strong enough to exist as a single
federation.
(C) some of the new democratic governments
are electing to retain the old political
parties.
(D) no new parties have been created to fill the
vacuum created by the victory of freedom.
(E) some of the new governments are reverting
I am not able to understand the below two questions, lets us discuss them. Let me know your answers with explanation/reasoning. I'll provide the answers later.
From Romania to Germany, from Tallinn to
Belgrade, a major historical process—the death of
communism—is taking place. The German
Democratic Republic no longer exists as a separate
5 state. And the former German Democratic Republic
will serve as the first measure of the price a post-
Communist society has to pay for entering the normal
European orbit. In Yugoslavia we will see whether
the federation can survive without communism.
10 One thing seems common to all these countries:
dictatorship has been defeated and freedom has won,
yet the victory of freedom has not yet meant the
triumph of democracy. Democracy is something
more than freedom. Democracy is freedom
15 institutionalized, freedom submitted to the limits of
the law, freedom functioning as an object of
compromise between the major political forces on the
scene.
We have freedom, but we still have not achieved
20 the democratic order. That is why this freedom is so
fragile. In the years of democratic opposition to
communism, we supposed that the easiest thing
would be to introduce changes in the economy. In
fact, we thought that the march from a planned econ25
omy to a market economy would take place within
the framework of the bureaucratic system, and that
the market within the Communist state would
explode the totalitarian structures. Only then would
the time come to build the institutions of a civil soci30
ety; and only at the end, with the completion of the
market economy and the civil society, would the time
of great political transformations finally arrive.
The opposite happened. First came the big political
change, the great shock, which either broke the
35 monopoly and the principle of Communist Party rule
or simply pushed the Communists out of power.
Then came the creation of civil society, whose institutions
were created in great pain, and which had
trouble negotiating the empty space of freedom.
40 Only then, as the third moment of change, the final
task was undertaken: that of transforming the totalitarian
economy into a normal economy where different
forms of ownership and different economic actors
will live one next to the other.
45 Today we are in a typical moment of transition.
No one can say where we are headed. The people of
the democratic opposition have the feeling that we
won. We taste the sweetness of our victory the same
way the Communists, only yesterday our prison
50 guards, taste the bitterness of their defeat. Yet, even
as we are conscious of our victory, we feel that we
are, in a strange way, losing. In Bulgaria the
Communists have won the parliamentary elections
and will govern the country, without losing their
55 social legitimacy. In Romania the National Salvation
Front, largely dominated by people from the old
Communist bureaucracy, has won. In other countries
democratic institutions seem shaky, and the political
horizon is cloudy. The masquerade goes on: dozens
60 of groups and parties are created, each announces
similar slogans, each accuses its adversaries of all
possible sins, and each declares itself representative
of the national interest. Personal disputes are more
important than disputes over values. Arguments over
65 values are fiercer than arguments over ideas.
Which one of the following does the author imply may have contributed to the difficulties involved in creating a new democratic order in eastern Europe?
I. The people who existed under the totalitarian
structure have not had the experience
of “negotiating the empty space of
freedom.”
II. Mistaking the order in which political,
economic, and social restructuring would
occur.
III. Excessive self-interest among the new
political activists.
(A) I only
(B) II only
(C) I and III only
(D) II and III only
(E) I, II, and III
By stating “even as we are conscious of our victory, we feel that we are, in a strange way, losing” (lines 50–52) the author means that
(A) some of the old governments are still
unwilling to grant freedom at the individual
level.
(B) some of the new governments are not
strong enough to exist as a single
federation.
(C) some of the new democratic governments
are electing to retain the old political
parties.
(D) no new parties have been created to fill the
vacuum created by the victory of freedom.
(E) some of the new governments are reverting
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20 Nov 2012, 04:31
Kudos
Bookmarks
THE passage is not hard but the question is not hard. I cannot infer something from the relative section of the passage.
31 Dec 2012, 01:50
Kudos
Bookmarks
the structure is
we get some change
but it is not as good as we think
something bad is happening after we win
AE
hard passage.
we get some change
but it is not as good as we think
something bad is happening after we win
AE
hard passage.
