2017年6月大学英语六级阅读理解精炼50篇40个人主义典范—美国人.docxVIP

2017年6月大学英语六级阅读理解精炼50篇40个人主义的典范—美国人(含答案)　　英语六级阅读理解精炼第40篇，练习个人主义的典范———美国人，含有六级阅读练习题，参考译文，答案等内容。供正在准备英语六级考试的学习者参考学习。040. the amer ican character?1what do americans believe in2? what is the american character? these questions are hard to answer, because there are so many americans and they believe in so many different things. however, the history of the united states does provide some understanding of certain basic characteristics that many americans share .one of the main reasons why the early settlers came to america was to escape the controls they had experienced in europe. 3 there , small groups of wealthy people prevented them from moving into a higher social position or becoming wealthy, and governmentsupported churches controlled their religious practices and beliefs. because these early settlers wanted to be free from such controls, they brought to america the view that the individual was supremely important. the settlers were against the efforts of the church, the society, and particularly the government, to control their actions. these controls came to be viewed as“ un-american”4 .this strong american belief in individualism has both positive and negative sides5 . on the positive side, it has strengthened americans’inventiveness and their belief in hard work. on the negative side, the belief in individualism has sometimes prevented americans from using their government to solve their common problems. americans prefer not to have government solutions to social problems.the belief in individualism is a basic part of the american character. this belief has at least two separate parts — idealism and materialism6. although these two beliefs are quite different, most americans try to live with them both at the same time, and idealism and materialism are both very much a part of the american character.american idealism comes largely from the nation’s protestant7 religious heritage . early americans did not have to belong to any particular church to have this belief.