A．in order to convince the reader that fruit has no int……
TEXT D
Suppose you go into a
fruiter’s shop, wanting an apple--you take up one, and on biting it you find it
is sour; you look at it, and see that it is hard and green. You take up another
one, and that, too, is hard, green, and sour. The shopman offers you a third;
but before biting it, you examine it, and you find that it is hard and green,
and you immediately say that you will not have it, as it must be sour, like
those that you have already tried.
Nothing can be simpler than
that, you think; but if you will take the trouble to analyze and trace out into
its logical elements what has been done by the mind, you will be greatly
surprised. In the first place you have performed that operation of induction.
You find that, in two experiences, hardness and greenness in apples went
together with sourness. It was so in the first ease, and it was confirmed by the
second. True, it is a very small basis, but still it is enough from which to
make the induction; you generalize the facts, and you expect to find sourness in
apples where you get hardness and greenness. You found upon that a general law,
that all hard and green apples are sour; and that, so far as it goes, is a
perfect induction. Well, having got your natural law in this way, when you are
offered another apple which you find is hard and green, you say, "All hard and
green apples are sour; this apple is hard and green; therefore, this apple is
sour. "That train of reasoning is what logicians call a syllogism, and has all
its various parts and terra--its major premises, its minor premises, and its
conclusion. And, by the help of further reasoning, which, if drawn out, would
have to be exhibited in two or three other syllogisms, you arrive at your final
determination. "I will not have that apple." So that, you see, you have, in the
first place, established a law by induction, and reasoned out the special
particular case
Well now, suppose, having got your conclusion of
the law, that at sometime afterwards, you are discus- sing the qualities of
apple with a friend; you will say to him, "It is a very curious thing, but I
find that all hard and green apples are sour!" Your friend says to you, "But how
do you know that" You at once reply, "Oh, because I have tried them over and
over again, and have always found them to be so," Well, if we were talking
science instead of common sense, we should call that an experimental
verification. And, if still opposed, you go further, and say, "I have heard from
people in Somersetshire and Devonshire, where a large number of apples are
grown, and in London, where many apples are sold and eaten, that they have
observed the same thing. It is also found to be the case in Normandy, and in
North America. In short, I find the universal experience of mankind wherever
attention had been directed to the subject." Whereon your friend, unless he is a
very unreasonable man, agrees with you, and is convinced that you are quite
fight in the conclusion you have drawn. He believes, although perhaps he does
not know he believes it, that the more extensive verifications have been made,
the more results of the same kind are arrived at--that the more varied the
conditions under which the same re-suits are attained, the more certain is the
ultimate conclusion, and he disputes the question no further. He sees that the
experiment has been tried under all sorts of conditions, as to time, place, and
people, with the same result; and he says to you, therefore, that the law you.
have laid down must be a good one, and he must believe it. (654)
Apples are used ______.
A．in order to convince the reader that fruit has no intellect
B．to illustrate the subject of the passage
C．to give color to the story
D．to show how foolish logic is
