The term "nationalism" is generally used to describe two phenomena: (1)the members of a nation care about their national identity and(2) that the members of a nation seek to achieve (or sustain) self-determination.
It is traditional, therefore, to distinguish nations from states—whereas a nation often consists of an ethnic or cultural community, a state is a political entity with a high degree of sovereignty. While many states are nations in some sense, there are many nations which are not fully sovereign states. As an example, the Native American Iroquois constitute a nation but not a state, since they do not possess the requisite political authority over their internal or external affairs. If the members of the Iroquois nation were to strive to form a sovereign state in the effort to preserve their identity as a people, they would be exhibiting a state—focused nationalism.
Nationalism has long been ignored as a topic in political philosophy, written off as a relic from bygone times. It has only recently come into the focus of philosophical debate. The surge of nationalism usually presents a morally ambivalent and for this reason often fascinating picture. "National awakenings" and struggles for political independence are often both heroic and inhumanly cruel; the formation of a recognizably national state often responds to deep popular sentiment, but can and does sometimes bring in its wake inhuman consequences, including violent expulsion and "cleansing" of non-nationals, all the way to organized mass murder. The moral debate on nationalism reflects a deep moral tension between solidarity with oppressed national groups on the one hand and repulsion in the face of crimes perpetrated in the name of nationalism on the other.
Nationalism may manifest itself as part of official state ideology or as a popular (non-state) movement and may be expressed along civic, ethnic, cultural, religious or ideological lines. These self-definitions of the nation are used to classify types of nationalism. However, such categories are not mutually exclusive and many nationalist movements combine some or all of these elements to varying degrees. Nationalist movements can also be classified by other criteria, such as scale and location.
Nationalism does not necessarily imply a belief in the superiority of one race over others, but in practice, many nationalists support racial protectionism or racial supremacy. Such racism is typically based upon preference or superiority of the indigenous race of the nation.
The word "ambivalent" ( Line 3, Paragraph 3) most probably means （）
A. attractive for its unique features
B. characterized by a mixture of opposite feelings or attitudes
C. having a p desire for success or achievement
D. requiring full use of your abilities or resources
参考答案：B
解析：
词义题；我们首先分析原文中这个词出现的句子，“The surge of nationalism usually presents a morally ambivalent and for this reason often fascinating picture”，由此可见我们需要寻找的是用来修饰民族主义的出现所带来的在道德上讲______的情形。而后文的分析和解释就是我们判断这个词的含义的依据，从后面我们可以看到“both heroic and inhumanly cruel”，这样的表达，既有英雄主义的一面，也有不人性的残忍的一面。继续寻找，可以看到“…often responds to deep popular sentiment，but can and does sometimes bring in its wake inhuman consequences”这里的意思和前面分析到的意思是类似的，都是说民族主义有善的一面，也有恶的一面，所以我们用来解释ambivalent一词的最好答案就是B选项，一种矛盾的态度和情感的集合体。