单选题 How could anybody dislike the notion of fairness? Everything is better when it is fair: a share, a fight, a maiden, or a game. Even defeat sounds more attractive when it is fair and square. For the British fair play is especially important: without it, life isn't cricket. Their country becomes quite pleasant when the weather is fair, though unfortunately it rarely is. And these days fairtrade goods crowd their supermarket shelves.
Fairness is not only good, but also moderate, which is another characteristic that the British approve of. It does not claim too much for itself. Those who, on inquiry, admit that their health and fortunes are fair-to-middling navigate carefully between the twin dangers of boastfulness and ill-temperedness, while gesturing in a chin-up sort of way towards the possibility of future improvement.
Fairness appeals to the British political class, for it has a common sense down-to-earthiness which avoids the grandiosity of American and continental European political discourse while aspiring to do its best for all men-and of course for maidens too, fair and otherwise, for one of its virtues is that it does not discriminate on grounds of either gender or skin colour.
Not surprising, then, that Britain's government should grab hold of the word and cling to it in the buffeting the coalition has had since the budget on June 22nd proposed higher taxes and even sharper spending cuts. "Tough but fair" is what George Osborne, the Conservative chancellor of the exchequer, called the cuts he announced. "It is going to be tough, but it is also very fair," said Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat business secretary. At last, something they could agree on.
"Fairness" suits Britain's coalition government so well not just because its meanings are all positive, but also because they are wide-ranging. To one lot of people, fairness means establishing the same rules for everybody, playing by them, and letting the best man win and the winner take all. To another, it means making sure that everybody gets equal shares. Those two meanings are not just different: they are opposite. They represent a choice that has to be made between freedom and equality. Yet so slippery-and thus convenient to politicians-is the English language that a single word encompasses both, and in doing so loses any claim to meaning.
单选题 The statement "without it, life isn't cricket" (Line 4, Para. 1) reflects that
  • A. people in Britain want sports to be fair and square.
  • B. the British highly value the notion of fairness.
  • C. the British treat their life in a fair and serious way.
  • D. for the British, life isn't as fair as a cricket game.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】
单选题 What do we know about the British from the first two paragraphs?
  • A. They are hard to please.
  • B. They are nice and moderate.
  • C. They are prone to boastfulness.
  • D. They are modest yet optimistic.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】
单选题 George Osborne and Vince Cable regarded the spending cuts as fair because
  • A. the spending cuts really are fair and square.
  • B. they finally see eye to eye with each other.
  • C. British politicians like to use that word.
  • D. they two are of the same political regime.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】
单选题 The author holds in the last paragraph that "fairness"
  • A. is the cornerstone of the Britain's coalition government.
  • B. means different or even opposite things to different people.
  • C. displays the inclusiveness of the English language.
  • D. has become a convenient cliché for the British politicians.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】
单选题 Which of the following is true according to the text?
  • A. The British value the notion of fairness, especially in sports games.
  • B. Continental European politicians don't favor the notion of fairness.
  • C. Fairness is vital for maidens since it has no gender discrimination.
  • D. Fairness has become a guidelines of Britain's coalition government.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】