Passage 8
According to Hill and Spicer, the term “nation-state” is a misnomer, since the ideal model of a monolingual, culturally homogeneous state has never existed, not even among Europeans, who invented the nation-state concept and introduced it to the rest of the world. Modern European states, they argue, emerged after the Renaissance through the rise of nations (i.e., specific ethnic groups) to positions of political and economic dominance over a number of other ethnic groups within the bounded political territories. The term “nation-state”, Hill and Spicer argue, obscures the internal cultural and linguistic diversity of states that could more accurately be called “conquest states.” The resurgence of multiple ethnic groups within a single state, Hill says, is not “potentially threating to the sovereign jurisdiction of the state,” as Urban and Sherzer suggest; rather, the assertion of cultural differences threatens to reveal ethnocentric beliefs and practices upon which conquest states were historically founded and thus to open up the possibility for a “nations-state” in which conquered ethnic groups enjoy equal rights with the conquering ethnic group but do not face the threat of persecution or cultural assimilation into the dominant ethnic group.
1. The primary purpose of the passage is to
A. discuss issues relating to a form of political organization by raising doubts about the terminology used to refer to it
B. trace changes in a form of political organization by examining the evolution of the terminology used to refer to
C. justify the continued use of an established term for an evolving form of political organization
D. question the accuracy of a new term for a form of political organization
E. compare two terms for a form of political organization
2. The author of the passage quotes Urban and Sherzer most probably in order to
A. introduce a discussion of the legal ramifications of expanding the nation-state concept
B. summarize a claim about one possible effect of asserting cultural differences within a state
C. shift the focus of discussion from internal threats that states face to external threats that they face
D. point out similarities between the threats to states seen by Urban and Sherzer and those seen by Hill
E. describe one way an ethnocentric practice has affected attempts to assert cultural differences within a state
3. According to the passage, Hill and Spicer define nations as which of the following?
A. coalitions of distinct ethnic groups with similar concerns
B. Distinct ethnic groups
C. Culturally homogeneous states
D. Linguistically diverse states
E. Territorially bounded states
答案：A B B
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