单选题 If you like to take lots of vacation, the United States is not the place to work. Besides a handful of national holidays, the typical Armenian worker gets two or three precious weeks off out of a whole year to relax and see the world—much less than what people in many other countries receive. And even that amount of vacation often comes with strings attached.
So what"s going on here?
A big reason for the difference is that paid time off is demanded by law in many parts of the world. Germany is among more than two dozen industrialized countries—from Australia to Japan—that require employers to offer four weeks or more of paid vacation to their workers, according to a 2009 study by the human resources consulting company Mercer. Finland, Brazil and France are the champions, guaranteeing six weeks of time off. But employers in the United States are not obliged under federal law to offer any paid vacation, so about a quarter of all American workers don"t have access to it, government figures show. That makes the U.S. the only advanced nation in the world that doesn"t guarantee its workers annual leave.
Most U.S. companies, of course, do provide vacation as a way to attract and retain workers. But the fear of layoffs and the ever-faster pace of work mean many Americans are reluctant to be absent from the office—anxious that they might look like they"re not committed to their job. Or they worry they won"t be able to cope with a pile of work waiting for them after a vacation.
Then, there"s the way we work.
Working more makes Americans happier than Europeans, according to a study published recently in the Journal of Happiness Studies. That may be because Americans believe more than Europeans do that hard work is associated with success.
So despite research documenting the health and productivity benefits of taking time off, a long vacation can be undesirable, scary, unrealistic or just plain impossible for many U.S. workers.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 语义题。这个短语出现在首段的末尾。根据该段的语义走向可知，该段一直在讲美国的假期比起别的很多国家不仅时间短，而且(and)甚至是在这些短假期里，还都得“with strings attached”，即还得“充满各式各样的条件”，也就是还不能自由自在地休假。故本题选A。