National characteristics are not easy to pin down, and when pinned down they often turn out to be trivialities or seem to have n

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问题     National characteristics are not easy to pin down, and when pinned down they often turn out to be trivialities or seem to have no connection with one another. Spaniards are cruel to animals; Italian can do nothing without making a deafening noise; the Chinese are addicted to gambling. Obviously such things don’t matter in themselves. Nevertheless, nothing is causeless, anti even the fact that Englishmen have bad teeth can tell one something about the realities of English life.
    Here are a couple of generalizations about England that would be accepted by almost all observers. One is that the English are not gifted artistically. They are not as musical as the Germans or Italians; painting and sculpture have never flourished in England as they have in France. Another is that, as Europeans go, the English are not intellectual. They have a horror of abstract thought; they feel no need for any philosophy or systematic ’world-view’. Nor is this because they are ’practical’, as they are so fond of claiming for themselves. One has only to look at their methods of town planning and water supply, their obstinate clinging to everything that is out of date and a nuisance, a spelling system that defies analysis and a system of weights and measures that is intelligible only to the compilers of arithmetic books, to see how little they care about mere efficiency.
    Another English characteristic which is so much a part of us that we barely notice it is the addiction to hobbies and spare-time occupations, the privateness of English life. We are a nation of flower-lovers, but also a nation of stamp-collectors, pigeon-fanciers, amateur carpenters, coupon-snipers, darts-players, crossword-puzzle fans. All the culture that is most truly native centers round things which even when they are communal are not official—the pub, the football match, the back garden, the fireside and the ’nice cup of tea’. The liberty the individual is still believed in, almost as in the nineteenth century. But this has nothing to do with economic liberty, the right to exploit others for profit. It is the liberty to have a home of your own, to do what you like in your spare time, to choose your own amusements instead of having them chosen for you from above.

选项 A、Chinese are indulged in gambling.
B、you are likely to encounter cruel animals in Spain.
C、whenever an Italian does anything, he will keep a stiff upper lip.
D、to summarize one people’s characteristics, one must understand their culture.

答案A

解析 事实细节题。文章首段第二句指出"西班牙人对动物很残暴;意大利人无论做什么都要大叫大嚷;中国人爱赌博"。因此,"中国人沉迷赌博"正确。
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