有谁可以帮忙解读一下这篇文章吗？PREP上的，完全看不懂啊

lemonsure1983

Colonialhistorian David Allen's intensive study of five communities inseventeenth-century Massachusetts is a model of meticulous scholarship on thedetailed microcosmic level, and is convincing up to a point. Allen suggeststhat much more coherence and direct continuity existed between English andcolonial agricultural practices and administrative organization than otherhistorians have suggested. However, he overstates his case with the declarationthat he has proved "the remarkable extent to which diversity in NewEngland local institutions was directly imitative of regional differences inthe mother country.

Such an assertionignores critical differences between seventeenth—century England and New England. First,England was overcrowded and land-hungry; New England was sparsely populated andlabor-hungry. Second, England suffered the normal European rate of mortality;New England, especially in the first generation of English colonists, wasvirtually free from infectious diseases. Third, England had an all-embracingstate church; in New England membership in a church was restricted to theelect. Fourth, a high proportion of English villagers lived under paternalisticresident squires; no such class existed in New England. By narrowing his focusto village institutions and ignoring these critical differences, which studiesby Greven, Demos, and Lockridge have shown to be so important, Allen hascreated a somewhat distorted picture of reality.

Allen's work is arather extreme example of the "country community" school ofseventeenth-century English history whose intemperate excesses in removing allnational issues from the history of that period have been exposed by ProfessorClive Holmes. What conclusion can be drawn, for example, from Allen's discoverythat Puritan clergy who had come to the colonies from East Anglia wereone-third to one-half as likely to return to England by 1660 as were Puritanministers from western and northern England? We are not told in what way, if atall, this discovery illuminates historical understanding. Studies of localhistory have enormously expanded our horizons, but it is a mistake for theirauthors to conclude that village institutions are all that mattered, simplybecause their functions are all that the records of village institutions reveal.

1. The passage suggests that Professor Clive Holmes would most likely agree with which of the following statements?

• AAn understanding of seventeenth-century English local institutions requires a consideration of national issues.
• BThe "country community" school of seventeenth- century English history distorts historical evidence in order to establish continuity between old and new institutions.
• CMost historians distort reality by focusing on national concerns to the exclusion of local concerns.
• DNational issues are best understood from the perspective of those at the local level.
• ELocal histories of seventeenth-century English villages have contributed little to the understanding of village life.
  

2. It can be inferred from the passage that the author of the passage considers Allen's "discovery" (see highlighted text) to be

• Aalready known to earlier historians
• Bbased on a logical fallacy
• Cimprobable but nevertheless convincing
• Dan unexplained, isolated fact
• Ea new, insightful observation
  

3. It can be inferred that the author of the passage considers Allen's research on seventeenth-century Massachusetts colonies to be

• Ainconsequential but interesting
• Blargely derivative
• Cdetailed but problematic
• Dhighly commendable
• Eoverly theoretical
  

4. According to the passage, which of the following was true of most villages in seventeenth-century England?

• AThe resident squire had significant authority.
• BChurch members were selected on the basis of their social status within the community.
• CLow population density restricted agricultural and economic growth.
• DThere was little diversity in local institutions from one region to another.
• ENational events had little impact on local customs and administrative organization.
  

5. The author of the passage is primarily concerned with

• Asubstantiating a claim about a historical event
• Breconciling two opposing ideas about a historical era
• Cdisputing evidence a scholar uses to substantiate a claim about a historical event
• Danalyzing two approaches to scholarly research and evaluating their methodologies
• Ecriticizing a particular study and the approach to historical scholarship it represents
  

mrbeann

Colonial historian David Allen’s（学者，一般有观点，可能有反驳） intensive study of five communities in seventeenth-century Massachusetts is a model of meticulous scholarship on the detailed microcosmic level, and is convincing up to a point.（主题，第一句，重点读：colonial, communities） Allen suggests that(观点，重点读) much more coherence and direct continuity existed between English and colonial agricultural practices and administrative organization than other historians have suggested（A观点1: coherence, direct continuity）. However（转折，重点读）, he overstates his case with the declaration that he has proved "the remarkable extent to which diversity in New England local institutions was directly imitative of regional differences in the mother country.”（作者观点1，反驳A: overstates, imitative）

Such an assertion ignores critical differences between seventeenth-century England and New England.（作者观点2: ignore differences） First, (列举，快读)England was overcrowded and land-hungry; New England was sparsely populated and labor-hungry. Second, England suffered the normal European rate of mortality; New England, especially in the first generation of English colonists, was virtually free from infectious diseases. Third, England had an all-embracing state church; in New England membership in a church was restricted to the elect. Fourth, a high proportion of English villagers lived under paternalistic resident squires; no such class existed in New England. By narrowing his focus to village institutions and ignoring these critical differences, which studies by Greven, Demos, and Lockridge have shown to be so important, Allen has created a somewhat distorted picture of reality.（承接作者观点2: distorted ）

Allen's work is a rather extreme example of the "country community" school of seventeenth-century English history whose intemperate excesses in removing all national issues from the history of that period have been exposed by Professor Clive Holmes.(作者观点3: removing all national issues) What conclusion can be drawn, for example(举例，快读), from Allen's discovery that Puritan clergy who had come to the colonies from East Anglia were one-third to one-half as likely to return to England by 1660 as were Puritan ministers from western and northern England? We are not told in what way, if at all, this discovery illuminates historical understanding. Studies of local history have enormously expanded our horizons, but it is a mistake for their authors to conclude that village institutions are all that mattered, simply because their functions are all that the records of village institutions reveal.（承接作者观点3: mistake）