President Coolidge’s statement, "The business of America is business," still points to an important truth today—that business in

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问题     President Coolidge’s statement, "The business of America is business," still points to an important truth today—that business institutions have more prestige (威望) in American society than any other kind of organization, including the government. Why do business institutions possess this great prestige?
    One reason is that Americans view business as being more firmly based on the ideal of competition than other institutions in society. Since competition is seen as the major source of progress and prosperity by most Americans, competitive business institutions are respected. Competition is not only good in itself, it is the means by which other basic American values such as individual freedom, equality of opportunity, and hard work is protected.
    Competition protects the freedom of the individual by ensuring that there is no monopoly (垄断) of power. In contrast to one, all-powerful government, many businesses compete against each other for profits. Theoretically, if one business tries to take unfair advantage of its customers, it will lose to competing business which treats its customers more fairly. Where many businesses compete for the customers’ dollar, they cannot afford to treat them like inferiors or slaves.
    A contrast is often made between business, which is competitive, and government, which is a monopoly. Because business is competitive, many Americans believe that it is more supportive of freedom than government, even though government leaders are elected by the people and business leaders are not. Many Americans believe, then, that competition is as important, or even more important, than democracy in preserving freedom.
    Competition in business is also believed to strengthen the ideal of equality of opportunity. Competition is seen as an open and fair race where success goes to the swiftest person regardless of his or her social class background. Competitive success is commonly seen as the American alternative to social rank based on family background. Business is therefore viewed as an expression of the idea of equality of opportunity rather than the aristocratic (贵族的) idea of inherited privilege.
It can be inferred from the passage that the author believes________.

选项 A、Americans are more ambitious than people in other countries
B、in many countries success often depends on one’s social status
C、American businesses are more democratic than those in other countries
D、business in other countries are not as competitive as those in America

答案B

解析 最后一段第二句中说到“Competition is seen as an open and fair race where success goes to the swiftest person regardless of his or her social class background.”其中“social class background”与选项中的“social status”对应。最后一句也点明了作者的观点,即:商业应该表达的是平等的理念而不是继承特权的贵族理念。因此正确答案为B。其他几项在文中都找不到依据。
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