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
(1)Thirty-seven men have been elected President since 1789, and the American people have applied two different standards in eval
(1)Thirty-seven men have been elected President since 1789, and the American people have applied two different standards in eval
admin
2016-11-03
56
问题
(1)Thirty-seven men have been elected President since 1789, and the American people have applied two different standards in evaluating their achievements. The first was formulated by Alexander Hamilton who test-drove the presidency in the Federalist papers. The difficulty of winning the job, he argued, virtually guaranteed it would be held by the best men. "Talents for low intrigue, and the little art of popularity", could "elevate a man to the first honors in a single state". But only "characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue" could impress the nation as a whole. The first seven Presidents, who filled the job for almost a half-century, confirmed Hamilton’s prediction. George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were heroes of the American Revolution. James Madison was the prime mover in the push to write and ratify the Constitution. James Monroe and John Quincy Adams had signal triumphs: Monroe successfully fought against the English troops during the war in 1814, and Adams, as Monroe’s Secretary of State, conceived the Monroe Doctrine, which waved Europe off the western hemisphere. Andrew Jackson, the frontier warrior, beat the Creek Indians in the old Southwest and the British in New Orleans.
(2)It was not until the eighth President, Martin Van Buren, that America aimed lower. Van Buren was a smooth self-made man from upstate New York who clambered to leadership first in his state, then in the Democratic Party nationwide. He was a wire puller and wheeler-dealer. Former President John Quincy Adams praised his "calmness", "gentleness" and "discretion", though not his "profound dissimulation" and "fawning servility". Van Buren was a pol, first, last and always. He showed mat intrigue and the art of popularity were now enough to win the White House. Since 1841, most successful presidential candidates have passed the Van Buren test. The electorate wants leaders who have played the game, even if they haven’t been All-Stars. It’s a low but sensible hurdle; Obama qualifies by that standard.
(3)Voters also don’t take kindly to non-politicians: two businessmen, Wendell Willkie and Ross Perot, made serious runs for the White House, although neither came close. Americans will elect a political neophyte only if he passes the Hamilton test of pre-eminent ability. Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight Eisenhower had never held elective office, but they won their wars. Some Presidents pass both tests: Theodore Roosevelt fought well in the Spanish-American War and in New York State politics. Among the prospective 2008 candidates, only one has shown pre-eminent ability: Rudy Giuliani, in solving the crime problem in the nation’s largest city and in bis response to 9/11.
(4)But is pre-eminent ability a reliable predictor of success? It doesn’t guarantee victory at the polls. Henry Clay was master of legislative finesse who helped broker the Missouri Compromises of 1820-1821, a deal between slave states and free states that kept the two sides from each other’s throats for 30 years. Yet he failed to become President in three tries. Great achievements don’t guarantee great presidencies even when the pre-eminent man wins. The Eisenhower Administration, scorned by eggheads of the left and right while it was going on, has been revised upward by later scholars, and a similar process is lifting Grant’s presidency from the cellar to which an unholy alliance of neo-Confederates and genteel reformers had consigned it. But neither man will ever be considered as great in peace as he was in war.
(5)There have also been ordinary-seeming politicians who became epoch-making Presidents. After the 1932 Democratic Convention picked New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, journalist H. L. Mencken described him as a man "whose competence was plainly in doubt." The Republican nomination of one-term Illinois Congressman Abraham Lincoln in 1860 brought this sneer from diarist George Templeton Strong: "He cut a great many rails, and worked on a flatboat in early youth; all which is somehow presumptive evidence of his statesmanship."
(6)Statesmanship is an art, which means there is always room for inspiration, and for grace. We are right to look for a record of pre-eminent ability when we can find it. But the basic doctrine of republican government, that all men are created equal, can be a surprise bonus for some leaders, as well as a guarantee of rights for all of us. Sometimes greatness appears in unlikely places, even in ordinary pols from Illinois.
Van Buren could win the presidency NOT because ______.
选项
A、of his intrigue and the art of popularity
B、he was a self-made man from upstate New York
C、of his "profound dissimulation" and "fawning servility"
D、the Americans changed their standards
答案
B
解析
B“他来自纽约州的偏远地区,靠自己的奋斗成功”是关于范布伦从政前的介绍,并不是他赢得选举的原因。结合第3段第1、6句可知,A、D符合文意;C具有较大的干扰性,不过经过分析可知C其实是intrigue and the art of popularity的体现,故排除。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/6hFYFFFM
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
______isNOTanAmericanimagistpoet.
______wasaPulitzerPrize-winningprolificAmericanauthorwhowroteTheJungle.
Whichofthefollowingdistinctivefeaturescanbeusedtoseparate[p]and[b]?
______isananti-slaverynoveland"helpedlaythegroundworkfortheCivilWar".
HowtoPracticeEsperanto?Thereareatleast1,000,000Esperantospeakersworldwidefromover100countriesandtheycomefrom
Dr.RablenandDr.OswaldhavejustpublishedastudywhichconcludesthatNobelsciencelaureateslivesignificantlylongertha
Theeconomystoppedshrinkingayearago,butAmerica’sunemploymentproblemisasbigasever.Theofficialjoblessratewas9.
ThenewsismainlyabouttheEU’smeetingto______.
PASSAGETWO
PASSAGEFOURFromthelastfiveparagraphs,whatimpressioncanwegetabouttheman?
随机试题
同一律对思维形式的要求包括两个方面:(1)()。(2)()。
债权人向法院申请发出支付令,法院经审查认为申请不成立的,应当()
患者,烦渴引饮,口干舌燥,尿频量多,舌红苔黄燥,脉洪大,治宜用
某公司拟在一体育馆举办大型周年庆典活动,根据相关要求成立了活动领导小组,并安排公司的一名副经理担任疏散引导组的组长。根据相关规定,疏散引导组职责中不包括()。
下列转让行为中,应被视为股权转让收入明显偏低的有()。
在下列各项中,无法计算出确切结果的是()。
社会工作者小王发现矫正对象小芳情绪不稳定,常常前言不搭后语,幻想有人要害她,躲在家里不敢出门。小芳的丈夫因在外地工作,不常回家。小王察觉到小芳的精神状况有异常后,首先要做的工作是()。[2012年真题]
成本和收益的分离、政策制定的复杂性、寻租等现象,属于下列哪项中的类型或原因?()
下列对IPv6地址FE01:0:0:050D:23:0:0:03D4的简化表示中,错误的是()。
Beingcolor-blind,hecan’tmakea______betweenredandgreen.
最新回复
(
0
)