The attacks on ambition are many and come from various angles; its public defenders are few and unimpressive, where they are not extremely unattractive. As a result, the support for ambition as a healthy impulse, a quality to be admired and fixed in the mind of the young, is probably lower than it has ever been in the United States. This does not mean that ambition is at an end, that people no longer feel its stirrings and promptings, but only that, no longer openly honored, it is less openly underground, or made sly. Such, then, is the way things stand: on the left angry critics, on the right stupid supporters, and in the middle, as usual, the majority of earnest people trying to get on in life.

　　68. The last sentence of the first paragraph most probably implies that it is____.

　　[A] customary of the educated to discard ambition in words

　　[B] too late to check ambition once it has been let out

　　[C] dishonest to deny ambition after the fulfillment of the goal

　　[D] impractical for the educated to enjoy benefits from ambition

　　[答案] C

　　[解题思路]

　　第一段的最后一句为“There is heavy note of hypocrisy in this, a case of closing the barn door after the horses have escaped with the educated themselves riding on them”(这其中有着浓厚的虚伪色彩，恰如马跑后再关上马厩的门那样，而受过良好教育的人自己正骑在那些马背上)。仔细分析这句话可以发现，文中的horse代表了文章讨论的ambition，而是否骑在马上还是关在马厩分别代表了是否拥有雄心壮志。但享受了ambition带来的好处却说自己没有ambition的人是虚伪的即hypocrisy，这也正是选项C的意思。Dishonest是对hypocrisy的解释。