48.至51.題為題組
         As a German-born Jewish American, Hannah Arendt impressed the world with her political report onthe trial of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in her dispatch, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on theBanality of Evil. Arendt argued that Eichmann, though working for Nazi Germany in the massacre of theJewish people, was no more than a thoughtless and ignorant cog mobilized by the evil Nazi party. The deedsof Eichmann were abhorrent, but the evildoer himself was, according to Arendt, “terrifyingly normal.” Hewas not a cruel soldier but a mindless bureaucrat who spent his entire life following orders. However,Arendt’s articles on the normality of evil put her under severe criticism as she was accused of playing downthe genocide of the Jews in WWII. Some even claimed Arendt identified more with the Nazis than with theJews.
         In fact, Arendt made it clear that Eichmann should be hanged for his crimes and that the Holocaustwas undoubtedly an appalling act of mass murder in human history. For decades after WWII, the Nazi hasbeen universally depicted as monsters while Arendt intended to challenge how we understand the Nazis.She later proved Eichmann’s participation in the genocide resulted from a failure of sound thinking andirrational hatred against the Jews. As debilitated Germany struggled in the defeat of WWI, Hitlersuccessfully pinned the blame on the Jews for the collapse of the economy and exploited the anger of thepeople to orchestrate the Holocaust. Eichmann functioned in the administrative machinery, blindly carryingout orders without a thorough consideration of the consequences. In a broader sense, the Nazi committedan assault on thinking and their success remained a warning of how fragile human mind can be in the faceof a dictator who was skilled at manipulating the public voice and sabotaging people’s critical thinkingability.
【題組】48. What is the main purpose of this article?
(A) To examine Adolf Eichmann’s numerous war crimes in depth.
(B) To discuss the effects brought by Nazi Germany to the Jews.
(C) To explore the idea that the genocide of the Jews was abnormal.
(D) To elaborate on Hannah Arendt’s views on a German war criminal.