President Coolidge's statement, "The business of America is business," still points to an important truth today-that business institutions have more prestige (威望) in American society than any other kind of organization, including the government. Why do business institutions possess this great prestige?

One reason is that Americans view business as being more firmly based on the ideal of competition than other institutions in society. Since competition is seen as the major source of progress and prosperity by most Americans, competitive business institutions are respected. Competition is not only good in itself,

it is the means by which other basic American values such as individual freedom, equality of opportunity, and hard work are protected.

Competition protects the freedom of the individual by ensuring that there is no monopoly(壟斷) of power. In contrast to one, all-powerful government, many businesses compete against each other for profits. Theoretically, if one business tries to take unfair advantage of its customers, it will lose to competing business which treats its customers more fairly. Where many businesses compete for the customers' dollar, they cannot afford to treat them like inferiors or slaves.

A contrast is often made between business, which is competitive, and government, which is a monopoly. Because business is competitive, many Americans believe that it is more supportive of freedom than government,even though government leaders are elected by the people and business leaders are not. Many Americans believe, then, that competition is as important,or even more important,than democracy in preserving freedom.

Competition in business is also believed to strengthen the ideal of equality of opportunity. Competition is seen as an open and fair race where success goes to the swiftest person regardless of his or her social class background. Competitive success is commonly seen as the American alternative to social rank based onfamily background. Business is therefore viewed as and expression of the idea of equality of

opportunity rather than the aristocratic(貴族的) idea of inherited privilege.

四級閱讀練習題：

Choose correct answers to the question:

1. The statement "The business of America is business" probably means"________".

A. The business institutions in America are concerned with commerce

B. Business problems are of great importance to the American government

C. Business is of primary concern to Americans

D. America is a great power in world business

2. Americans believe that they can realize their personal values only_____ .

A. when given equality of opportunity

B. through doing business

C. by protecting their individual freedom

D. by way of competition

3. Who can benefit from business competition?

A. Honest businessmen.

B. Both businessmen and their customers.

C. People with ideals of equality and freedom

D. Both business institutions and government.

4. Government is believed to differ strikingly from business in that government is characterized by ____.

A. its absolute control of power

B. its function in preserving personal freedom

C. its role in protecting basic American values

D. its democratic way of exercising leadership

5. It can be inferred from the passage that the author believes _____ .

A. Americans are more ambitious than people in other countries

B. in many countries success often depends on one's social status

C. American businesses are more democratic than those in other countries

D. businesses in other countries are not as competitive as those in America

四級閱讀參考答案：

1.[C] 詞義理解題。回答本題的關鍵是理解business的兩個不同的含義：①商業，生意;②職責，事物，事。句中前一個business的意思應當是“事物,職責”，而后一個business的意思應當是“商業”，因此C為正確答案。

2.[D] 事實細節題。解題關鍵在于對第2段最后一句定語從句的理解。該句指出競爭是對基本美國價值的保護傘，故可知，D為正確答案。

3.[B] 推理判斷題。第3段提到，商業之間為利潤而互相競爭，因此商人在競爭中能獲利;而對待其顧客不好的商家會被友好地對待其顧客的商家在競爭中打敗，因此顧客也能從競爭中獲利，所以B為正確案。

4.[A] 事實細節題。第4段第1句提到，商業與政府的不同之處在_商業是競爭性的，而政府是壟斷性的，也即有著絕對的控制權，因此A為正確答案。

5.[B] 推理判斷題。第5段第3句提到，靠競爭而來的成功通常被看作是用來替代基于家庭背景的社會地位的成功的美國式的成功。”其言下之意是在別的成功不是靠競爭，而是靠社會地位，因此B為正確答案。