PART FOUR WRITING SECTION A Directions: Read the following passage. Complete the diagram by using the information from the passage. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer. One of the definitions of a symbol is that it is "something that stands for something else. " We can divide symbols into three kinds: the conventional, the accidental, and the universal symbol. The conventional symbol is the best known in everyday language., The letters t-a-b-1-e stand for the thing "table" we see, touch, and use. But there is no inherent (内在的) relationship between the meaning and its letters or sound. The only reason the word symbolizes the thing is the convention of calling this particular thing by a name. After being repeated over and over, the word is accepted in the language. Besides words, pictures also act as symbols. A flag, for instance, may stand for a specific country, and yet there is no inherent connection between the specific colors and the country for which they stand. It has been accepted after repeated uses. The opposite to the conventional symbol is the accidental symbol. Supposing that someone has had a saddening experience in a city, he will easily connect the name with a mood of sadness when hearing its name, just as he would connect it with a mood of joy had his experience been a happy one. Obviously, there is nothing in the nature of the city that is either sad or joyful. It is the individual experience connected with the city that makes it a symbol of a mood. The connection between the symbol and the experience symbolized is entirely accidental. The universal symbol is one in which there is an inherent relationship between the symbol and the symbolized. Take, for instance, the symbol of fire. Fire gives us the impression of power, of energy, and of lightness. When we use fire as a symbol, we describe the inner experience characterized by the same elements the mood of energy, lightness, movement, etc. The universal symbol is the only one in which the relationship between the symbol and that which is symbolized is not coincidental (巧合的), but inherent. It can be called universal because it is shared by all men, in contrast not only to the accidental symbol, which is entirely personal, but also to the conventional symbol, which is shared by the people of the same convention. Title. 71
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