This passage is adapted from Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. Originally published in 1835. Tocqueville was a French socio political analyst.
I have already observed that, from their origin, the sovereignty of the people was the fundamental principle of the greater number of British colonies in America...
At the present day the principle of the sovereignty of the people has acquired, in the United States, all the practical development which the imagination can conceive. It is unencumbered by those fictions which have been thrown over it in other countries, and it appears in every possible form according to the exigency of the occasion. Sometimes the laws are made by the people in a body, as at Athens; and sometimes its representatives, chosen by universal suffrage, transact business in its name, and almost under its immediate control.
In some countries a power exists which, though it is in a degree foreign to the social body, directs it, and forces it to pursue a certain track. In others the ruling force is divided, being partly within and partly without the ranks of the people. But nothing of the kind is to be seen in the United States; there society governs itself for itself. All power centers in its bosom; and scarcely an individual is to be meet with who would venture to conceive, or, still less, to express, the idea of seeking it elsewhere. The nation participates in the making of its law by the choice of its legistlators, and in the execution of them by the choice of the agents of the executive government; it may almost be said to govern itself, so feeble and so restricted is the share left to the administration, so little do the authorities forget their popular origin and the power from which they emanate.
Tocqueville suggests that the culture of self-government he witnesses in the United States derives in part from the country's ________
A.robust economy.
B.colonial history.
C.geographical isolation.
D.division of powers.
重点单词:
principle ['prinsəpl] n. 原则，原理，主义，信念
feeble [fi:bl] adj. 虚弱的，无力的
popular ['pɔpjulə] adj. 流行的，大众的，通俗的，受欢迎的
emanate ['eməneit] v. 散发，发出
restricted [ris'triktid] vt. 限制，约束 adj. 受限制的，有限的，保密的
certain ['sə:tn] adj. 确定的，必然的，特定的
control [kən'trəul] n. 克制，控制，管制，操作装置
venture ['ventʃə] n. 冒险，风险，投机
suffrage ['sʌfridʒ] n. 投票，选举权，参政权
critical ['kritikəl] adj. 批评的，决定性的，危险的，挑剔的
答案：B
解析：
Choice B is the best answer. In the first paragraph, Tocqueville comments that
sovereignty has been a fundamental principle in the United States since the country's origin as British colonies. In other words, the culture of self-government has ties to the country's colonial history