問題詳情
II. Reading Comprehension: 30% The United States presidential election of 2016 will be the 58 quadrennial U.S.Presidential election. The two major party candidates, Donald Trump (R) and HillaryClinton
(D) are likely to be vying for the presidential election in the early October thisyear. No third-party candidate is available or has ever been elected though there havebeen many third-party movements in U.S. history. And except for the RepublicanParty, which gained prominence when the Whigs were declining in the 1850’s, nothird party has ever achieved national major-party status. The basic factors that have shaped the U.S. political system account for boththe frequency and the weakness of peripheral party movements. Chief among theseare the size and widely varying social and economic features of the country. Differentinterests and voting blocs predominate in various regions, resulting in an electoratethat is fragmented geographically. This heterogeneity is heightened by a federalstructure that requires major parties to find support at the state and local levels indifferent regions. To take one example, the Democratic Party in the mid-twentiethcentury drew support simultaneously from Blacks in the North and Whitesegregationists in the South. The U.S. electoral system intensifies the difficulties of smaller groups. Thissystem, in which the candidate with the highest vote is the “winner who takes it all”—with no provision for proportional representation, as in many countries—rewardsbroad-based political strategies that avoid alienating the mainstream voting population,and, conversely, sharply penalizes parties with more restricted support, whose votersmay be left unrepresented. The nondoctrinal character of U.S. politics has meant that new issues tend tobe ignored initially by major parties. Rather, issues such as opposition to immigration,the abolition of slavery, and the rights of workers and farmers frequently gain entry tothe political arena through the creation of a third party. Thus, while mainstream votershave usually viewed certain issues as divisive or threatening, a dedicated minority hasoften been instrumental in placing them on the national agenda. Indeed, nearly everymajor national dilemma has sparked some sort of third-party movement. Moreephemeral questions, fringe issues such as vegetarianism and prohibitionism, andhighly ideological programs such as Socialism and Populism, have also frequentlyserved as seeds for third-party movements. Ironically, certain elements that help to give birth to third-party movementsalso contribute to their failure to thrive. Parties based on narrow or short-term appealsremain isolated or fade rather rapidly. Parities that raise more salient issues and attractmore widespread support face limits of a different kind. Long before a third partymight begin to emerge as a truly major political force, major parties will attempt tocapture the significant minority of voters that are represented. The Democratic Partythus pirated much of the platform of the Populists in 1896, and, in subsequent decades,in the eras of Wilson and Roosevelt, sponsored progressive and social welfareprograms that relentlessly undercut the influence of the Socialists.
【題組】1. According to the passage, a major factor responsible for the rise of thirdparties in the U.S. is the
(A) domination of major parties by powerful economic interests
(B) ability of third parties to transcend regional interests
(C) ready acceptance by mainstream voters of issues with strong minoritysupport
(D) appeal of fringe issues to the average American voter
(E) slowness of major parties to respond to new issues
參考答案
答案：E
難度：適中0.5
統計：A(0),B(0),C(0),D(0),E(0)