Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 34 to 40. An enormous confusion reigns about cultural diversity, which has obscured both the question of its necessity to society and also its relationship to creativity. If human society comprises a multiplicity of diverse cultures, then something must bring them together into a communion of exchange for their mutual enrichment. The history of the ...

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 34 to 40.

An enormous confusion reigns about cultural diversity, which has obscured both the question of its necessity to society and also its relationship to creativity. If human society comprises a multiplicity of diverse cultures, then something must bring them together into a communion of exchange for their mutual enrichment. The history of the last six thousand years shows us how humanity has moved forward, taking with it all the ideas made by different cultures in different civilisations. It is important that we look at cultural diversity in a historical way to understand its importance to Britain today and the world as a whole.

Our concern here is not merely with cultural diversity by itself but with its relationship to human creativity, particularly that which produces art. Different cultures and different types of art are not the same thing. Art can be diverse without being a reflection of cultural diversity. When someone creates art, they use their imagination in a way that isn't limited by society or culture. We need to separate the process of creating art from what already exists in society and different cultures. Traditions, of course, define the nature of society and provide it with an overall cultural framework that can be dynamic and inspire individual creativity. But what emerges from this individual creativity as art does not always replicate or display particular cultural forms.

The value of cultural diversity is not lessened, though, by separating art from society's broader cultural context. They are essential to the definition of society and its identity. However, society will inevitably fall victim to deterioration and collapse as well as cultural fragmentation and intellectual stagnation if its identity is locked in conformity. People can only change the way things are and make new ideas when they are allowed to think, wonder, and imagine. In other words, new ideas produced by individual creativity, underpinned by freedom of thought, create a society able to change and transform itself into a dynamic force in history.