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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

admin2015-12-01  12
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 give 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 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, 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 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.
Some people do not openly admit they have ambition because______.
选项 A、they think of it as immoral
B、their pursuits are not fame or wealth
C、ambition is not closely related to material benefits
D、they do not want to appear greedy and contemptible
答案D
解析 本题可参照文章的第2段。从中可知，与过去相比，现在的人们对成功以及成功标志的兴趣似乎并没有减少；别墅的位置、旅游的景点以及轿车的品牌可能会改变，但是，对这类东西的需求似乎并没有减少；有所改变的就是，人们不能够坦承自己的梦想，不能够再像以前那样轻松、公开地表露自己的理想，他们这样做是怕别人说自己爱出风头、贪得无厌以及没有品味；于是，我们现在看到的虚伪现象似乎比以前任何时候都多；对于这些人以及更多与之相似的人来说，恰当的解释是“不惜一切代价获得成功，但避免表现出野心勃勃”。据此可知，人们虽然有抱负，但却不敢表露出来，因为他们担心受到别人的指责。D项与文章的意思相符，因此D项为正确答案。
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