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oddyuibe

原文：

Woodrow Wilson was referring to the liberal

idea of the economic market when he said that

the free enterprise system is the most efficient

economic system. Maximum freedom means

(5) maximum productiveness; our "openness" is to

be the measure of our stability. Fascination with

this ideal has made Americans defy the "Old

World" categories of settled possessiveness versus

unsettling deprivation, the cupidity of retention

(10) versus the cupidity of seizure, a "status quo"

defended or attacked. The United States, it was

believed, had no status quo ante. Our only "sta-

tion" was the turning of a stationary wheel, spin-

ning faster and faster. We did not base our

(15) system on property but opportunity---which

meant we based it not on stability but on mobil-

ity. The more things changed, that is, the more

rapidly the wheel turned, the steadier we would

be. The conventional picture of class politics is

(20) composed of the Haves, who want a stability to

keep what they have, and the Have-Nots, who

want a touch of instability and change in which

to scramble for the things they have not. But

Americans imagined a condition in which spec-

(25) ulators, self-makers, runners are always using the

new opportunities given by our land. These eco-

nomic leaders (front-runners) would thus he

mainly agents of change. The nonstarters were

considered the ones who wanted stability, a

(30) strong referee to give them some position in the

race, a regulative hand to calm manic specula-

tion; an authority that can call things to a halt,

begin things again from compensatorily stag-

gered "starting lines."

(35) "Reform" in America has been sterile because

it can imagine no change except through the

extension of this metaphor of a race, wider inclu-

sion of competitors, "a piece of the action," as it

were, for the disenfranchised. There is no

(40) attempt to call off the race. Since our only sta-

bility is change, America seems not to honor the

quiet work that achieves social interdependence

and stability. There is, in our legends, no hero-

ism of the office clerk, no stable industrial work

(45) force of the people who actually make the system

work. There is no pride in being an employee

(Wilson asked for a return to the time when

everyone was an employer). There has been no

boasting about our social workers---they are

(50) merely signs of the system's failure, of opportu-

nity denied or not taken, of things to be elimi-

nated. We have no pride in our growing

interdependence, in the fact that our system can

serve others, that we are able to help those in

(55) need; empty boasts from the past make us

ashamed of our present achievements, make us

try to forget or deny them, move away from

them. There is no honor but in the Wonderland

race we must all run, all trying to win, none

(60) winning in the end (for there is no end).

题目：

6. Which of the following metaphors could the author

most appropriately use to summarize his own

assessment of the American economic system

(lines 35-60)?

(A) A windmill

(B) A waterfall

(C) A treadmill

(D) A gyroscope

(E) A bellows

7. It can be inferred from the passage that Woodrow

Wilson's ideas about the economic market

(A) encouraged those who "make the system work"

(lines 45-46)

(B) perpetuated traditional legends about America

(C) revealed the prejudices of a man born wealthy

(D) foreshadowed the stock market crash of 1929

(E) began a tradition of presidential proclamations on

economics

大家觉得这两个题目都应该选什么呢？为什么？谢谢！

watergate

这篇文章好晦涩啊。第六题似乎在A和C之中选一个吧，第七题更是没谱

[em04]

oddyuibe

我仔细读也一遍，也不是很明白。

第六题答案选C: treadmill，我觉得选D: bellows，就是说美国的经济体制可能外面看起来很strong,但实际上很空洞。

第七题答案选B，不明白为什么这么选。