社科院英語真題

社科院2008年英語部分真題

Patterns ofculture
by RUTH BENEDICT

Custom has not been commonly regarded as asubject of any great moment. The inner workings of our own brains we feel to beuniquely worthy of investigation， but custom have a way of thinking， is behaviour at its most commonplace. As a matter of fact， it is the other way around.Traditional custom， taken the world over， is a mass of detailed behaviour more astonishing than what any oneperson can ever evolve in individual actions，no matter how aberrant. Yet that is a rather trivial aspect of thematter. The fact of first-rate importance is the predominant role that customplays in experience and in belief， and the very great varieties it may manifest.