单选题
The United States is not (thank goodness) a culturally homogeneous country. It consists of many distinct moral communities. On certain social issues, such as abortion and homosexuality, people don't agree and probably never will—and the signal political advantage of the federalist system is that they don't have to. Individuals and groups who find the values or laws of one state obnoxious have the right to live somewhere else. The nationalization of abortion policy in the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision created a textbook example of what can happen when this federalist principle is ignored. If the Supreme Court had not stepped in, abortion would today be legal in most states but not all; pro-lifers would have the comfort of knowing they could live in a state whose law was compatible with their views. Instead of endlessly confronting a cultural schism that affects every Supreme Court nomination, we would see occasional local flare-ups in state legislatures or courtrooms. America is a stronger country for the moral diversity that federalism uniquely allows. Moral law and family law govern the most intimate and, often, the most controversial spheres of life. For the sake of domestic tranquility, domestic law is best left to a level of government that is close to home. So well suited is the federalist system to the gay-marriage issue that it might almost have been set up to handle it. In a new land whose citizens followed different religious traditions, it would have made no sense to centralize marriage or family law. And so marriage has been the domain of local law not just since the days of the Founders but since Colonial times, before the states were states. To my knowledge, the federal government has overruled the states on marriage only twice. The first time was when it required Utah to ban polygamy as a condition for joining the Union—and note that this ruling was issued before Utah became a state. The second time was in 1967, when the Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia, struck down sixteen states' bans on interracial marriage. Here the Court said not that marriage should be defined by the federal government but only that states could not define marriage in ways that violated core constitutional rights. On the one occasion when Congress directly addressed same-sex marriage, in the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, it decreed that the federal government would not recognize same-sex marriages but took care not to impose that rule on the states.
单选题
The political advantages of a federalist system is that A. people may have different opinions about abortion. B. controversial opinions on certain social issues are allowed. C. some states are more obnoxious than others. D. people can move from state to state if they like.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据关键词the political advantage of a federalist system定位到第一段。第一段提到，对于某些社会问题，人们的意见不统一，而且可能永远不会统一，随后提到联邦体制的政治优势——人们不必持有相同的意见。B项“可以容许人们对某些社会问题持有争论性观点”与此意符合，为正确答案。A项“人们可以对堕胎持有不同的观点”和D项“如果人们愿意，他们可以从一个州迁移到另一个州”只是人们不必持有相同意见的具体表现：C项“某些州比其他州更令人讨厌”是针对该段最后一句话设置的干扰项，与文意不符。
单选题
What we know about abortion law in American is that A. it is illegal in all over America to have an abortion. B. the Supreme Court had not interfered in abortion law. C. abortion used to be a legal practice in most states. D. abortion is still legal in most states in America today.
单选题
The local government is often responsible for local domestic law affairs because A. the Supreme Court deems it a big burden. B. this way of handling domestic laws guarantees a better stability. C. local families resent the decisions made by the Supreme Court. D. the moral diversity is stronger on the local level of government.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据关键词local domestic law affairs定位到第三段。第三段提到道德法规和家庭行为准则，指出为了家庭的稳定，家庭行为准则最好交给离家庭最近的那一级政府掌管。这说明，原因是为了稳定。B项“管理家庭行为准则的这种方式确保了更好的稳定”与此意符合，为正确答案。其他三项都属于无中生有。
单选题
The author seems to think that gay marriage should be A. left to the decision of individual state government. B. the sole responsibility of the federal government. C. banned on both the federal and the local levels. D. overruled by the Supreme Court as soon as possible.
单选题
We can learn from the text that A. the federal government and the local government may have different rulings concerning the legal status of gay marriage. B. the federal government has a long history of interfering in the decisions concerning marriage issues on local levels. C. the federal government has never made a clear expression about their decision concerning gay marriage. D. if local government allows gay marriage then that marriage will also be recognized by the federal government.