The most thoroughly studied intellectuals in the history of the New World are the ministers and political leaders of seventeenth-century New England. According to the standard history of American philosophy, nowhere else in colonial America was “so much importance attached to intellectual pursuits.” According to many books and articles, New England’s leaders established the basic themes and preoccupations of an unfolding, dominant Puritan tradition in American intellectual life.
To take this approach to the New Englanders normally means to start with the Puritans’ theological innovations and their distinctive ideas about the church—important subjects that we may not neglect. But in keeping with our examination of southern intellectual life, we may consider the original Puritans as carriers of European culture, adjusting to New World circumstances. The New England colonies were the scenes of important episodes in the pursuit of widely understood ideals of civility and virtuosity.
The early settlers of Massachusetts Bay included men of impressive education and influence in England. Besides the ninety or so learned ministers who came to Massachusetts churches in the decade after 1629, there were political leaders like John Winthrop, an educated gentleman, lawyer, and official of the Crown before he journeyed to Boston. These men wrote and published extensively, reaching both New World and Old World audiences, and giving New England an atmosphere of intellectual earnestness.
We should not forget, however, that most New Englanders were less well educated. While few crafts men or farmers, let alone dependents and servants, left literary compositions to be analyzed, it is obvious that their views were less fully intellectualized. Their thinking often had a traditional superstitious quality. A tailor named John Dane, who emigrated in the late 1630s, left an account of his reasons for leaving England that is filled with signs. Sexual confusion, economic frustrations, and religious hope—all came together in a decisive moment when he opened the Bible, told bas father that the first line he saw would settle his fate, and read the magical words: "Come out from among them, touch no unclean thing, and I will be your God and you shall be my people." One wonders what Dane thought of the careful sermons explaining the Bible that he heard in Puritan churches.
Meanwhile, many settlers had slighter religious commitments than Dane’s, as one clergyman learned in confronting folk along the coast who mocked that they had not come to the New World fur religion. "Our main end was to catch fish.
It is suggested in paragraph 2 that New Englanders （）
A. experienced a comparatively peaceful early history
B. brought with them the culture of the Old World
C. paid little attention to southern intellectual life
D. were obsessed with religious innovations
参考答案：B
解析：
本题问的是：根据第二段，新英格兰人怎么了各选项的意思分别为：A．经历了相对和平的早期历史B．带来了旧大陆的文化 C．不太注意南部的知识生活 D．全身心投入到宗教革新中。依据第二段第二句后半句，“we may consider the original Puritans as carriers of European culture adjusting to New world circumstances”，选项中的“new Englanders”对应文中的“Puritans”，选项中的“brought with them the culture of the old world”对应文中的“carriers of European culture”，故B选项为此句的同义替换，是正确答案。A选项没有提到。C选项是错误的，因为依据第二段第二句前半旬，我们对南部知识生活是“keeping with our examination”的，是一直关注的，所以该选项错误。D选项有一定的迷惑性，文章中第二段第一句提到过，“对新英格兰人采取这种态度通常意味着我们要从清教徒的神学理论创新和教会的特殊思想人手”但这里并没有谈到创新进行到了什么程度，所以D选项所提到的一直进行不停止的创新属于过度推断，不正确。