One thing almost everyone is agreed on, including Americans, is that they place a very high valuation upon success; Success does not necessarily mean material rewards, but recognition of some sort-preferably measurable. If a boy turns out to be a preacher(传道者) instead of a businessman, that"s all right. But the bigger his church is, the more successful he is judged to be. A good many things contributed to this accent on success. There was the Puritan(清教徒的) belief in the virtue of work, both for its own sake and because the rewards it brought were regarded as signs of God"s love. There was the richness of opportunity in a land waiting to be settled. There was the lack of a settled society with fixed ranks and classes, so that a man was certain to rise through achievement. There was the determination of an immigrant to gain in the new world what had been denied to him in the old, and on the part of his children an urge to throw off the immigrant onus(负担) by still more success and still more rise in a fluid and classless society. Brothers did not compete within the family for the favor of the parents as in Europe, but worked hard for success in the outer world, along paths of their own choosing.
单选题
According to the first paragraph, ______.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】解析：应该逐条将四个选择项在原文中间确认。B项选择过于绝对，在文章中已经被否定掉(Success does not necessarily mean material rewards)。D项选择意思有误。应该为"人们同意成功很重要"这个看法，而不是"人们同意成功是什么"。C项选择中的equal一词有误，与原句的意思不一致。而A项选择的内容在第一段可以得到确认。
单选题
In this passage, the author indicates that ______.