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  3. If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition—wealth, distinction, control over one’s destiny—must be deemed worth

If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition—wealth, distinction, control over one’s destiny—must be deemed worth

admin2008-12-26  56
问题     If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition—wealth, distinction, control over one’s destiny—must be deemed worthy of the sacrifices made on ambition’s behalf, If the tradition of ambition is to have vitality, it must be widely shared; and it especially must be highly regarded by people who are themselves admired, the educated not least among them. In an odd way, however, it is the educated who have claimed to have given up an ambition as an ideal. What is odd is that they have perhaps most benefited from ambition—if not always their own then that of their parents and grand parents. There is a heavy note of hypocrisy in this, a case of closing the barn door after the horses have escaped—with the educated themselves riding on them.
    Certainly people don’t seem less interested in success and its signs now than formerly. Summer homes, European travel, BMWs—the locations, place names and name brands may change, but such items don’t seem less in demand today than a decade or two years ago. What has happened is that people cannot confess fully to their dreams, as easily and openly as once they could, lest they be thought pushing, acquisitive and vulgar. Instead, we are treated to fine hypocritical spectacles, which now more than ever seem in ample supply: the critic of American materialism with a Southampton summer home; the publisher of radical books who takes his meals in three star restaurants; the journalist advocating participatory democracy in all phases of life, whose own children are enrolled in private schools. For such people and many more perhaps not so exceptional, the proper formulation is, "Succeed at all costs but avoid appearing ambitious".
    The attacks on ambition are many and come from various angles; its public defenders are few and unimpressive, where they are not extremely unattractive. As a result, the support for ambition as a healthy impulse, a quality to be admired and fixed in the mind of the young, is probably lower than it has ever been in the United States. This doesn’t mean that ambition is an end, that people no longer feel its stirrings and promptings, but only that, no longer openly honored, it is less openly professed. Consequences follow from this, of course, some of which are that ambition is driven underground, or made sly. Such, then, is the way things stand: on the left angry critics, on the right stupid supporters, and in the middle, as usual, the majority of earnest people trying to get on in life.
选项 A、its returns well compensate for the sacrifices
B、it is rewarded with money, fame and power
C、its goals are spiritual rather than material
D、it is shared by the rich and the famous
答案A
解析 文中第一段作者开门见山地写道："如果抱负想要受到人们的重视，那么，抱负给人带来的回报如财富、显赫的地位、掌握自己命运的能力必须值得人们为此做出的牺牲"。只有"它的回报足可补偿所做的牺牲"与这个意思最为接近。
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考研英语一

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