问答题

The President of the United States of America has more power than any other president in the democratic world—except the French president. It is he who formulates foreign policy and prepares laws for the home front. He is leader of the nation and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. He represents the USA and, since the USA is a superpower, the eyes of the whole world are on him. The fate of the world is in his hands, or so the world believes, and one careless, ill-prepared speech could precipitate a crisis. Actually, a great deal of the President’s power is controlled by Congress. It is the Congress that declares war, not the President. Unlike the Prime Minister of Great Britain, or of Germany, he can make a treaty with a foreign power. But this treaty must be debated and agreed by Congress before it comes into force. The same control applies to laws at home. Congress has on several occasions refused to ratify treaties or give approval to laws proposed by the President. Some Americans have the feeling that idealism has gone out of politics and that personal ambition and money have taken place. The election campaign for the Presidency is unique in the amount of money poured into it. The wooing of voters lasts for months. But before the campaign for the election of the President can begin, each political party has to choose its candidate for the Presidency. This can lead to some very close contests. Many aspiring to be elected as the party candidate employ top public relations and advertising men, who invent clever catch phrases and set about "selling" their man. There are whistle stop tours by train, by plane, by car. The candidate delivers countless speeches and shakes countless hands. Big money is necessary to support a presidential candidate’s campaign, and the candidate himself must be rich enough to pay his share. An attractive wife is an advantage, too. Money is also needed to become the governor of a state, or a successful Senator, or members of the House of Representatives. Yet from this small group many excellent men have become President, and the same is true of members of Congress. It is unlikely that the President could ever become a dictator. Congress, the press and the people between them rule out such a possibility. Perhaps the most efficient safeguard of democracy is the Supreme Court, for one of its objects is to protect the individual against the government. It has the authority to cancel a law which it considers violates the Constitution. The court sits for at least four days a week, and any individual who has a grievance against the government can apply to it for help.

【参考答案】

美国总统拥有的权力，比民主世界任何一个国家的总统都要大——法国总统除外。美国总统制定外交政策，并且起草国内政策。他是国家......

(↓↓↓ 点击下方‘点击查看答案’看完整答案 ↓↓↓)

<上一题目录下一题>

热门试题

问答题

Americans are much more likely than citizens of other nations to believe that they live in a meritocracy. But this self-image is a fantasy: as a report in The Times last week pointed out, America actually stands out as the advanced country in which it matters most who your parents were, the country in which those born on one of society’s lower rungs have the least chance of climbing to the top or even to the middle.And if you ask why America is more class-bound in practice than the rest of the western world, a large part of the reason is that our government falls down on the job of creating equal opportunity.The failure starts early: in America, the holes in the social safety net mean that both low-income mothers and their children are all too likely to suffer from poor nutrition and receive inadequate health care. It continues once children reach school age, where they encounter a system in which the affluent send their kids to good, well-financed public schools or, if they choose, to private schools, while less-advantaged children get a far worse education.Once they reach college age, those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds are far less likely to go to college—and vastly less likely to go to a top-tier school—than those luckier in their parentage. At the most selective, tier 1 schools. 74 percent of the entering class comes from the quarter of households that have the highest socioeconomic status ; only 3 percent comes from the bottom quarter.And if children from our society’s lower rungs do manage to make it into a good college, the lack of financial support makes them far more likely to drop out than the children of the affluent, even if they have as much or more native ability. One long-term study by the department of education found that students with high test scores but low-income parents were less likely to complete college than students with low scores but affluent parents—loosely speaking, that smart poor kids are less likely than dumb rich kids to get a degree.It’s no wonder, then, that Horatio Alger stories, tales of poor kids who make good, are much less common in reality than they are in legend—and much less common in America than they are in Canada or Europe. Which brings me back to those who claim to believe in equality of opportunity. Where is the evidence for that claimThink about it: someone who really wanted equal opportunity would be very concerned about the inequality of our current system. He would support more nutritional aid for low-income mothers-to-be and young children. He would try to improve the quality of public schools. He would support aid to low-income college students. And he would support what every other advanced country has, a universal health care system, so that nobody need worry about untreated illness or crushing medical bills.

问答题

Some people would say that the Englishman’s home is no longer his castle; that it has become his workshop. This is partly because the average English is keen on working with his own hands and partly because he feels, for one reason or another, that he must do for himself many household jobs for which, some years ago, he would have hired professional help. The main reason for this is a financial one: the high cost of labour has meant that the builders’ and decorators’ costs have reached a level which makes them prohibitive for house. proud English people of modest means. So, if they wish to keep their houses looking bright and smart, they have to tackle some of the repairs and decorating themselves. As a result, there has grown up in the post-war years what is sometimes referred to as the Do-it-yourself Movement .The Do-it-yourself Movement began with home decorating but has since spread into a much wider field. Nowadays there seem to be very few things that cannot be made by the do-it-yourself method. A number of magazines and handbooks exist to show hopeful handymen of all ages just how easy it is to build anything from a coffee table to a fifteen-foot(4.5 meters) sailing dinghy. All you need, it seems, is a hammer and a few nails. You follow the simple instructions step by step and, before you know where you are, the finished article stands before you, complete in every detail.Unfortunately, alas, it is not always quite as simple as it sounds! Many a budding do-it-yourself has found to his cost that one cannot learn a skilled craftsman’s job overnight. How quickly one realizes, when doing it oneself, that a job which takes the skilled man an hour or so to complete takes the amateur handyman five to six at least. And then there is the question of tools. The first thing the amateur learns is that he must have the right tools for the job. But tools cost money. There is also the wear and tear on the nerves. It is not surprising then that many people have come to the conclusion that the expense of paying professionals to do the work is, in the long run, more economical than do-it-yourself .