SECTION A
In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening, take notes on the important points. Your notes will not be marked, but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture. When the lecture is over, you will be given two minutes to check your notes, and another ten minutes to complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE. Use the blank sheet for note-taking.
The Classical Sense of Good Government
Politics plays an extremely important role in human society. Political philosophers started to discuss the quality of good government thousands of years ago. Among the forerunners are Plato, Aristotle, and Machiavelli.
Ⅰ. Plato’s Political Proposal
A. It is an irony for Plato to discuss good government because he 1 politics. 1. ______.
B. Plato believed that political freedom could not be helpful. In fact, they usually led
to uncertainty and dangerous changes.
C. Plato feared 2 because other disciplines are very orderly and predictable. 2. ______.
D. In Plato’s opinion, justice consisted of everybody doing what he or
she 3 by natural talent. 3. ______.
Ⅱ. Aristotle’s Political Proposal<
A. Aristotle believed that every state is a kind of 4 4. ______.
B. Aristotle believed that people in a state would be rather similar, and did not foresee
the ethnic and cultural diversity of modern states.
C. Aristotle believed that polis, or 5 , is the highest state of 5. ______.
human social and political development, and can ensure good life for everybody.
D. According to Aristotle, in order to achieve the best quality of life,
people must try to 6 6. ______.
Ⅲ. Stoicism and Machiavelli
A. Stoicism means 7 one lives in. 7. ______.
B. Stoicism believes that the world is made up of virtue and vice, and the world
is a difficult and disorderly place where happiness is unusual.
C. Plato and Aristotle presented what politics 8 , but Machiavelli discussed 8. ______.
what politics 9 and how it actually functions. 9. ______.
D. Machiavelli believed that just being 10 does not promise 10. ______.
good leadership.