单选题
Disagreement marks historical appraisals of America'
s emergence as a great power at the turn of the twentieth century. On the one
hand, historians have praised the maturing of the Republic, which was now able
to take its place among the arbiters of the world' s destinies. On the other
hand, many writers have tried to define America' s new floe indistinctive terms.
They argue that the United States did not enter the great power game as just
another player but introduced a new style of diplomatic play and perhaps even a
new set of rules. Judgments clash about these innovations. An
older school of thought stresses the idealism that America brought to the world
arena. More recently, "New left" revisionists have charged that America' s
contribution to international life was the self-serving notion of "informal
empire," typified by a worldwide Open Door doctrine. This strategy avoided
formal territorial possession but sought economic dominance of foreign raw
materials, markets, and investments. Historians disagree
further about the motivating impulses of American diplomacy. Recent
"revisionists" have tended almost exclusively to emphasize domestic economic
factors in explaining American foreign policy, the United States sought foreign
markets, the argument goes, to solve the problems of domestic overproduction and
constant business depressions. Other scholars respond that international
politics can only be properly understood in an international con- text. They
argue that Theodore Roosevelt, for example, acted not for narrow domestic
reasons but because he realistically perceived that if the United States did not
hold its own against the other powers, it would soon risk being eclipsed on the
world stage, and even being pushed around in its own hemisphere, despite the
Monroe Doctrine.
单选题
By saying that the U.S. "was now able to take its place among the
arbiters of the world' s destinies" (the second sentence in paragraph 1), the
author means that the U.S. ______.
A. established itself as one of the big powers
B. was now directing the world on a new course
C. became mature as a nation
D. brought new rules to the world' s diplomatic play
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】这半句可直译为：“这时在世界命运的裁决者中间占有一席之地”。第一段第一句提到，美国在19世纪和20世纪之交成为一个强国(a great power)。所以，这半句就指美国成为强国这一事实。B意为：“现在正在将世界引向一个新的道路”：C意为：“成为一个成熟的国家”；D意为：“给世界的外交游戏带来了新规则”。这里，play一词当然是用作比喻。