首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
One of the saddest things about the period in which we live is the growing estrangement between America and Europe. This may be
One of the saddest things about the period in which we live is the growing estrangement between America and Europe. This may be
admin
2013-01-22
33
问题
One of the saddest things about the period in which we live is the growing estrangement between America and Europe. This may be a surprising discovery to those who are over impressed by the speed with which turbojets can hop from New York to Paris. But to anyone who is aware of what America once meant to English libertarian poets and philosophers, to the young Ibsen bitterly excoriating European royalty for the murder of Lincoln, to Italian novelists and poets translating the nineteenth century American classics as a demonstration against Fascism, there is something particularly disquieting in the way that the European Left, historically "pro-American" because it identified America with expansive democracy, now punishes America with Europe’s lack of hope in the future.
Although America has obviously not fulfilled the visionary hope entertained for it in the romantic heyday, Americans have, until recently, thought of themselves as an idea, a "proposition" (in Lincoln’s word) set up for the enlightenment and the improvement of mankind. Officially, we live by our original principles; we insist on this boastfully and even inhumanly. And it is precisely this steadfastness to principle that irks Europeans who under so many pressures have had to shift and to change, to compromise and to retreat.
Historically, the obstinacy of America’s faith in "principles" has been staggering—the sacrament of the Constitution, the legacy of the Founding Fathers, the moral Tightness of all our policies, the invincibility of our faith in the equality and perfectibility of man. From the European point of view, there is something impossibly romantic, visionary, and finally outrageous about an attachment to political formulas that arose even before a European revolutionary democracy was born of the French Revolution, and that have survived all the socialist Utopias and internationals. Americans honestly insist on the equality of men even when they deny this equality in practice; they hold fast to romantic doctrines of perfectibility even when such doctrines contradict their actual or their formal faith—whether it be as scientists or as orthodox Christians.
It is a fact that while Americans as a people are notoriously empirical, pragmatic, and unintellectual, they live their lives against a background of unalterable national shibboleths. The same abundance of theory that allowed Walt Whitman to fill out his poetry with philosophical road signs of American optimism allows a president to make pious references to God as an American tradition—references which, despite their somewhat mechanical quality, are not only sincere but which, to most Americans, express the reality of America.
The writer states that, until recently, Americans thought of their country as a ______.
选项
A、source of enlightenment
B、leader in technological progress
C、recipient of a European heritage
D、peacemaker
答案
A
解析
参见文章第2段第1句:“尽管美国显然在浪漫主义高潮时期没有实现其伟大的梦想,但直到最近,美国人还把自己看作是一种思想,认为是他们提出了启迪人类,使人类进步的计划。”因此,本题正确答案为A。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/5GI7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
Internationalairlineshaverediscoveredthebusinesstravelers,themanorwomanwhoregularlyjetsfromcountrytocountryas
A、Bytakingitawaywithher.B、Bycarryingitonherback.C、Byputtingitonasafespot.D、Bypressingitagainstherbody.C
A、Thefast-developingtechnology.B、Thepeoplewhodesigndifferentapplications.C、ThewayhowpeoplemakeuseoftheInternet.
InAmericanhighschoolstoday,it’stakenasagiventhatextracurricular(课外的)activitiesbringstudentsofdifferentracesto
A、Studentsreceivecreditforworkexperience.B、TheProfessorvideotapesclasslecturesforreview.C、Classesareheldatvario
A、Puthisnotesinorderahead.B、Askhimselfalotofquestions.C、Knowhisownneedsandwants.D、Figureoutwhathisaudience
A、Confident.B、Hesitant.C、Determined.D、Doubtful.B对话开始,女士问男士认为经理具体的职责是什么,男士回答说,对这种工作他知道的不多,在女士的一再要求下,男士才支支吾吾地说经理要做许多决策。由此可知,男士
TheEndoftheCashEraInthespringAdamSmithwillreplaceSirEdwardElgarasthefaceonBritain’s£20note.Thefirst
A、Itisbasedonalotofresearch.B、Itcanbefinishedinafewweeks’time.C、Ithasdrawncriticismfromlotsofpeople.D、I
Obama’sWaronSchoolsTheNoChildLeftBehindActhasbeendeadlytopubliceducation.Sowhyhasthepresidentembracedi
随机试题
患者,女性,35岁。因月经过多且经期延长,贫血,血红蛋白仅56g/L,而决定行全子宫切除术。术前主刀医生在考虑手术各步注意事项时,可不必顾虑的是
一般来说,元认知策略可分为()。
在整车销售、售后服务、配件供应、信息反馈的过程中,售后服务是最重要的,是中心内容。()
债务人对同一债权人负担数宗同种类债务,而债务人的履行不足以清偿全部债务时,决定该履行抵充某宗或某几宗债务的现象,称之为()
美国《化学文摘》摘引的医药学期刊达
A.蕈伞型食管癌B.溃疡型食管癌C.缩窄型食管癌D.贲门失弛缓症E.食管良性狭窄(瘢痕)梗阻症状出现较晚,钡餐造影有龛影,提示
关于课堂教学的环境,实验证明学生座位的选择会影响学习,其中坐()是最积极的学习者。
随着炎炎夏日的到来,防晒成为人们出行的必备行为。下列有关防晒的知识正确的是()。
中国妇女发展基金会将委托专业金融机构对中国女足发展基金进行______和______,其收益部分用于______中国女子足球队改善生活和训练条件,开展交流与合作,培养选拔后备力量。填入划横线部分最恰当的一项是()。
甜饼干会导致蛀牙。甜饼干与牙齿接触的时间越长,就越容易导致蛀牙。而饴糖比甜饼干融化得更快,所以吃饴糖比吃甜饼干引起蛀牙的可能性要小。以下哪项最为恰当地指出了上述论证中存在的逻辑漏洞?
最新回复
(
0
)