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Essay #9. 148(22549-!-item-!-188;#058&00148-00)
In a new book about the antiparty feeling of the early political leaders of the United States, Ralph Ketcham argues that the first six Presidents differed decisively from later Presidents because the first six held values inherited from the classical humanist tradition of eighteenth-century England. In this view, government was designed not to satisfy the private desires of the people but to make them better citizens; this tradition stressed the disinterested devotion of political leaders to the public good. Justice, wisdom, and courage were more important qualities in a leader than the ability to organize voters and win elections. Indeed, leaders were supposed to be called to office rather than to run for office. And if they took up the burdens of public office with a sense of duty, leaders also believed that such offices were naturally their due because of their social preeminence or their contributions to the country. Given this classical conception of leadership, it is not surprising that the first six Presidents condemned political parties.  arties were partial by definition, self-interested, and therefore serving something other than the transcendent public good.
Even during the first presidency (Washington's), however, the classical conception of virtuous leadership was being undermined by commercial forces that had been gathering since at least the beginning of the eighteenth century. Commerce--its profit-making, its self-interestedness, its individualism--became the enemy of these classical ideals. Although Ketcham does not picture the struggle in quite this way, he does rightly see Jackson's tenure (the seventh presidency) as the culmination of the acceptance of party, commerce, and individualism. For the Jacksonians, nonpartisanship lost its relevance, and under the direction of Van Buren, party gained a new legitimacy. The classical ideals of the first six Presidents became identified with a privileged aristocracy, an aristocracy that had to be overcome in order to allow competition between opposing political interests. Ketcham is so strongly committed to justifying the classical ideals, however, that he underestimates the advantages of their decline. For example, the classical conception of leadership was incompatible with our modern notion of the freedoms of speech and press, freedoms intimately associated with the legitimacy of opposing political parties.
Question #29. 148-01(22595-!-item-!-188;#058&000148-01)
The passage is primarily concerned with
(A) describing and comparing two theories about the early history of the United States
(B) describing and analyzing an argument about the early history of the United States
(C) discussing new evidence that qualifies a theory about the early history of the United States
(D) refuting a theory about political leadership in the United States
(E) resolving an ambiguity in an argument about political leadership in the United States
正确答案是B，我选D，因为第二段有一个however，而且第一段说前六位总统用classical conception，第二段是说第一位就没有用classical conception，所以不就是选D么？
还有这道题：
Essay #10. 154(22742-!-item-!-188;#058&00154-00)
Conventional wisdom has it that large deficits in the United States budget cause interest rates to rise. Two main arguments are given for this claim. According to the first, as the deficit increases, the government will borrow more to make up for the ensuing shortage of funds. Consequently, it is argued, if both the total supply of credit (money available for borrowing) and the amount of credit sought by nongovernment borrowers remain relatively stable, as is often supposed, then the price of credit (the interest rate) will increase. That this is so is suggested by the basic economic principle that if supplies of a commodity (here, credit) remain fixed and demand for that commodity increases, its price will also increase. The second argument supposes that the government will tend to finance its deficits by increasing the money supply with insufficient regard for whether there is enough room for economic growth to enable such an increase to occur without causing inflation. It is then argued that financiers will expect the deficit to cause inflation and will raise interest rates, anticipating that because of inflation the money they lend will be worth less when paid back.
Unfortunately for the first argument, it is unreasonable to assume that nongovernment borrowing and the supply of credit will remain relatively stable. Nongovernment borrowing sometimes decreases. When it does, increased government borrowing will not necessarily push up the total demand for credit. Alternatively, when credit availability increases, for example through greater foreign lending to the United States, then interest rates need not rise, even if both private and government borrowing increase.
The second argument is also problematic. Financing the deficit by increasing the money supply should cause inflation only when there is not enough room for economic growth. Currently, there is no reason to expect deficits to cause inflation. However, since many financiers believe that deficits ordinarily create inflation, then admittedly they will be inclined to raise interest rates to offset mistakenly anticipated inflation. This effect, however, is due to ignorance, not to the deficit itself, and could be lessened by educating financiers on this issue.
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Question #34. 154-03(22834-!-item-!-188;#058&000154-03)
It can be inferred from the passage that proponents of the second argument would most likely agree with which of the following statements?
(A) The United States government does not usually care whether or not inflation increases.
(B) People in the United States government generally know very little about economics.
(C) The United States government is sometimes careless in formulating its economic policies.
(D) The United States government sometimes relies too much on the easy availability of foreign credit.
(E) The United States government increases the money supply whenever there is enough room for growth to support the increase.
答案是C，但这道题我选E，因为我是从我用红字标注的地方得出的答案，E不是就是红字的改写么？
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发表于 2010-10-18 12:07:32
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