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

admin2015-01-15  37

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 on 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 grandparents. 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 do not 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 do not 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, while 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 does not mean that ambition is at an end, that people no longer feel its stirrings and promptings, but only that, no longer openly honored, it is less openly 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.
The last sentence of the first paragraph most probably implies that it is______.

选项 A、customary of the educated to discard ambition in words
B、too late to check ambition once it has been let out
C、dishonest to deny ambition after the fulfillment of the goal
D、impractical for the educated to enjoy benefits from ambition

答案C

解析 本题可参照文章的第1段。从中可知,令人奇怪的是,正是那些受过教育的人声称,他们不再把抱负当做理想了;而他们中的大部分人可能已经从抱负中获得了利益——如果不是从他们自,己的抱负中获得了利益,那么就是从他们的父辈和祖父辈的抱负中获得了利益。这话中显然透着虚伪,如同马跑后才让大家去关马厩门,而受过教育者自己正骑在马上。据此可知,实现了理想后就否认自己有过抱负,显然是虚伪之举。C项与文章的意思相符,因此C项为正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Iahi777K
0

最新回复(0)