7.2　考研真题与典型题详解

I. Multiple Choices

1．Thomas Jefferson’s attitude, that is, a firm belief in progress, and the pursuit of happiness, is typical of the period we now call ________.

A. Age of Evolution

B. Age of Reason

C. Age of Romanticism

D. Age of Regionalism

【答案】B

【解析】托马斯·杰斐逊生活在美国理性时代， 他深信人生而平等、人具有不可剥夺的生命、自由和追求幸福的权利。

2．________ carries the voice not of an individual but of a whole people. It is more than writing of the Revolutionary period, it defined the meaning of the American Revolution.

A. Common Sense

B. The American Crisis

C. Declaration of Independence

D. Defence of the English People

【答案】C

【解析】《独立宣言》是一个伟大的政治文件。《独立宣言》虽然是北美殖民地上层讨论的结果，但却代表了广大殖民地人民的心声。它在人类历史上第一次以政治纲领的形式提出了如下原则：人人生而平等、人具有不可剥夺的生命、自由和追求幸福的权利，以及政府必须经人民的同意而组成，应为人民幸福和保障人民权利而存在，人民有权起来革命以推翻不履行职责的政府。这些原则成为以后美国的意识形态，为美国此后200多年的发展奠定了思想基础。

II. Explain the following term.

Jefferson, Thomas（天津外国语2007研）

Key：

Jefferson, Thomas: Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States.

III. Essay question

Write an analysis of Declaration of Independence.

Key：

Declaration of Independence, adopted on July 4, 1776, not only announced the birth of a new nation; it also set forth a philosophy of human freedom which served as an important force in the western world. Its ideas inspired mass fervor for the American cause, for it instilled among the common people a sense of their own importance, and inspired struggle for personal freedom, self-government, and a dignified place in society.

In addition, Jefferson’s purpose in writing is to make the experiment of free government so successful that it would be an example to the rest of the world and a moral force in the destiny of mankind. The principles of decentralization of authority, agrarian economy, public education and flexible laws were all by products of the central doctrine of Lockian perfectibility.

Against this doctrine and formal statement Alexander Hamilton and the other founders of the Federalist party argued for a liberty which comes through submission to authority, in this case a clear and firm system of civil law derived from nature by experience but virtually rigid when once formulated. Man is not consistent in design or action, and the Constitution of the United States, with its added “Bill of Rights” by reflecting two such opposite views as those of Jefferson and Hamilton, probably is as near to being a description of basic human nature as any document that lawmakers have framed. These views appear again and again, in different form, in America’s national literature.