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
The advantage of associating the birth of democracy with the Mayflower Compact is that it is easy to do so. The public believes
The advantage of associating the birth of democracy with the Mayflower Compact is that it is easy to do so. The public believes
admin
2015-07-27
45
问题
The advantage of associating the birth of democracy with the Mayflower Compact is that it is easy to do so. The public believes a simple explanation that on November 11, 1620, when the compact was approved, a cornerstone of American democracy was laid. Certainly it makes it easier on schoolchildren. Making the start of democracy in 1620 relieves students of the responsibility of knowing what happened in the hundred some years before, from the arrival of the Santa Maria to the landing of the Mayflower.
Surely, the compact demonstrated the Englishman’s striking capacity for self-government. And in affirming the principle of majority rule, the Pilgrims showed how far they had come from the days when the king’s whim was law and nobody dared say otherwise.
But the emphasis on the compact is misplaced. Scholarly research in the last century indicates that the compact had nothing to do with the development of the self-government in America. In truth, the Mayflower Compact was no more a cornerstone of American democracy than the Pilgrim hut was the foundation of American architecture. As Samuel Morison so emphatically put it, American democracy "was not born in the cabin of the Mayflower".
The Pilgrims indeed are miscast as the heroes of American democracy. They spurned democracy and would have been shocked to see themselves help up as its defenders. George Willison, regarded as one of the most careful students of the Pilgrims, states that "the merest glance at the history of Plymouth" shows that they were not democrats.
The mythmakers would have us believe that even if the Pilgrims themselves weren’t democratic, the Mayflower Compact itself was. But in fact the compact was expressly designed to check freedom, not promote it. The Pilgrim governor and historian, William Bradford, from whom we have gotten nearly all of the information there is about the Pilgrims, frankly conceded as much. Bradford wrote that the purpose of the compact was to control traitors aboard the Mayflower who were threatening to go their own way when the ship reached land. Because the Pilgrims had decided to settle in an area outside the jurisdiction of their royal patent, some aboard the Mayflower had hinted that upon landing they would "use their own liberty, for none had power to command them". Under the terms of the compact, they couldn’t; the compact required all who lived in the colony to "promise all due submission and obedience" to it.
Moreover, despite the compact’s mention of majority rule, the Pilgrim fathers had no intention of turning over the colony’s government to the people. Plymouth was to be ruled by the elite. And the elite wasn’t shameful in the least about advancing its claims to superiority. When the Mayflower Compact was signed, the elite signed first. The second rank consisted of the "goodmen" and the bottom four servants. No women or children signed.
The public considers the Mayflower Compact as
选项
A、the birth of English democracy.
B、the birth of American responsibility.
C、the birth of American democracy.
D、the birth of American freedom.
答案
C
解析
事实细节题。由题干中的关键词the public可以将信息定位于第一段第二句。从该处可知,公众相信这样一种简单的解释:1620年的11月11日,也就是协议生效的那天,是美国民主的奠基日。由此可见,公众认为“五月花号协议”是“美国民主的诞生”,故[C]正确。“五月花号协议”是由从英国逃离的清教徒签订的,他们虽是英国人,但这份协议的签订是为了摆脱英国的统治,因此[A]不正确;第一段虽然提到了responsibility,但是指对学生而言的,故[B]排除;本段并未提到freedom,虽然下文中出现过,但与本题无关,属于偷换概念的迷惑项,所以[D]也不正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/i0OO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
WhichofthefollowingisNOToneof"LakePoets"?
InWesternCulturesyoudon’topenacloseddoorwithoutknocking,unlessitisyourownoroneclearlyinapublicplace.Or【M1
WhichofthefollowingplaysisNOTwrittenbyEugeneO’Neill?
ErnestHemingwayputsforwardafamousprincipleinliterarywriting,whichis
Itisarguedthatrelatingnegotiationtocommunicationskillsandculturalknowledgeisessential.However,negotiationisnot
Humansareforeverforgettingthattheycan’tcontrolnature.Exactlytwentyyearsago,theTimemagazinecoverstoryannounced【
Humansareforeverforgettingthattheycan’tcontrolnature.Exactlytwentyyearsago,theTimemagazinecoverstoryannounced【
AudienceofWritingAudienceisaveryimportantconceptforwriting.Youneedtoanalyzeyouraudienceintermsofthefollowin
AudienceofWritingAudienceisaveryimportantconceptforwriting.Youneedtoanalyzeyouraudienceintermsofthefollowin
Whyaretheresomanycorporateabusestoday?
随机试题
Manyayoungscientist____________engagedintheresearchwork.
单侧唇裂整复术的较颌适的年龄在3~6个月;目前,多主张在18个月左右行腭裂整复术;牙槽突裂的手术治疗在9~11岁行自体骨移植。
慢性支气管炎所致慢性肺气肿多为
根据《质量管理体系基础与术语》(GB/T19000—2008/ISO9000:2005),建设工程质量控制的定义是()。
企业集团内母公司向子公司的高管人员授予以其本身权益工具结算的股份期权,接受服务企业没有结算义务,接受服务企业应当将该股份支付交易作为权益结算的股份支付进行会计处理。()
车轮:汽车:运输
建立治安防范制度,通过治安信息的收集与分析,不断提高对治安危害的预见性,加强超前控制。()
有人说“大学生村官是飞鸽牌,不是永久牌,不利于农村发展的持续性”。简要评述这一观点。
设曲线y=ax2与y=lnx相切,两曲线及x轴所围图形为D求D绕y轴旋转一周所得旋转体的体积V
(清华大学2008年试题)ThechangesingloballyaveragedtemperaturethathaveoccurredattheEarth’ssurfaceoverthepastcenturya
最新回复
(
0
)