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Passage
One
I
think about two specific people when I think of feeling
inferior. Both are journalists of considerable stature.
Whenever I come across them I seem locked into a way of
behaving I don't like, a way that sheepishly acknowledges
my inferiority and their superiority.
I feel smaller and
younger, hesitant, careful about risking or offering strong
opinions on anything. I watch carefully to see how they will
react to what I say and I am conscious of trying to say
things they will approve of. Then when I leave one of them,
in the car on the way home, I cuss at myself for being that
way; "Dammit, why can't you be at ease around him? Why do
you have to slip into that routine of ‘I know you don't like
me very well, so I won't take up too much of your time?'"
I think they are superior to me and I don't
like them for it. I think they know I'm inferior to them
and I want them to say something to ease that. But that's
the irrational part that is not my responsibility.
When I get right down to it, I really think
they are better at what they do...and here I pause. Are
they any better at what they do than I am at what they do?
Or are they better at what they do than I am at what I do?
Perhaps that's the point at which I begin to feel inferior,
when I try and measure up to what they are or to a picture
our society has of what a good journalist should be. They
fit that picture; I can't always see myself fitting that
picture, therefore, I'm inferior.
I am. I am. I am. Not inferior. Not superior.
I just am. Falling into either one of those traps is a comparative,
competitive thing that keeps me hidden from myself and keeps
my own best resources from being available to the other
person involved as well. It is self-defeating.
I think I can beat that by kicking back
and listening to myself, gaining a sense of my own center.
It means coming to someone with my strengths and my weakness.
(367 words)
1. The journalists who made
me feel inferior are __________.
( C
)
(a) much aged
(b) exceptionally tall
(c) very influential and highly admired
(d) very satirical
2. When I
meet them, I __________.
(
B
)
(a) am not aware of what I am saying
(b) am nervous about their response
(c) never express my opinion directly
(d) believe they are in good terms and speak freely with them
3. It is not suggested in
the article that I__________. (
B
)
(a) had expected them to take initiative to ease the tension
(b) can do better once I take up their work
(c) have used the wrong measurement so that I feel inferior
(d) have been liable to show my weak points when I feel inferior
4. According to the author,
it is self-defeating to _________.
(
D
)
(a) flatter others
(b) isolate oneself from others
(c) express one's idea directly and compete with others
(d) keep one's merits not being observed by others
5. In the author's view, to overcome
inferiority, a person should________. (
C
)
(a) overestimate himself
(b) underestimate himself
(c) look at himself as he is
(d) expose his strengths only
TOP
Passage
Two I get jumpy inside when I get jealous and I find it hard to
control that. At first I try to avoid it, try to pretend
it's not there. Mostly that works for me; my jealous feelings
are fleeting things anyway. They never last very long.
I know that jealousy is real and I don't
want to deny it in me, but I don't like the physical feeling
it gives me. I sometimes like the feelings behind the jealousy
and being made to feel jealous. It says to me that I care
enough, like someone enough to be moved in that way. It
means that I am still in touch with someone in a relationship
and that the relationship is important to me, whether it's
a male friend or a woman.
When I am jealous it's as if someone was
intruding on some private territory. But once I understand
what's happening I can talk about it with the people involved
and understand it's not threatening to my relationship,
it seems okay. It seems like me giving permission to come
into something that is personal and private. It can start
out to be very private, but that can be negotiated.
Sometimes I wish I could talk about it more
with the person that causes me to be jealous, but sometimes
I don't think that's a way I should be and I don't talk
about it. Anyhow, jealousy is real and I don't want to hide
it. Sometimes I don't want to talk about it because the
person I'm dealing with is not important enough for me to
spend the time and energy it would take to straighten things
out. If it's someone I care about and am going to be spending
more time with, I think I can and would talk about what's
bothering me.
When I get down to it, I think my jealousy
has to do with low self-esteem, low self-concept or feeling
inadequate. Mostly it's built around insecurity. But I don't
know if I'll ever become that secure as to not experience
some jealousy. I don't want anyone to be that meaningless
to me. It seems kind of dangerous to me to be that sure.
(367 words)
6.
As for the author, jealousy ________. (
D
)
(a) is totally beyond his control
(b) is under his control
(c) doesn't do him any good
(d) keeps him in touch with others
7.
Which of the following statements is true concerning the author's
idea about jealousy? (
C
)
(a) Jealousy always makes him feel so terrible that he wants to get rid of
it right away.
(b) Jealousy is a completely private matter.
(c) Sometimes jealousy doesn't affect his relationship with others.
(d) Jealousy is not communicable.
8.
When he gets jealous, sometimes he will _________. (
C
)
(a) refuse to talk about it
(b) try to hide it from others
(c) talk about it with someone who can help him sort things out
(d) discuss about it with his friends
9.
In the author's view, __________. (
B
)
(a) it's effective to talk with the person who makes him jealous
(b) it's not sensible to hide jealousy
(c) jealousy is real and preventable
(d) it's meaningless to feel jealous
10.
What can be inferred from the author's narration? (
A
)
(a) He often has a low opinion of himself.
(b) He gets jealous whenever he feels secure.
(c) He will try to correct his jealousy whenever possible.
(d) He has a clear and correct understanding of others'
opinion about him.
TOP
Passage
Three
Depression robs people of happiness, and sometimes of their
lives. But according to psychiatrist Randolph Nesse, depression-like
symptoms in apes and monkeys, the closet living models of
our early forebears, suggest that depression is not a uniquely
human ─ or even a modern ─ illness. More important, some
features of the illness, such as lack of motivation, may
have actually helped our simian ancestors survive some tough
situations. For this reason, these once adaptive features
have been passed on to us.
Why, Nesse asks, hasn't natural selection
screened out genes that make us so susceptible, especially
to a disease that strikes during the prime childbearing
years?
His answer: because those same genes, once
upon a time, did help us to survive. "Low energy, for instance,
stops you from banging your head against a brick wall,"
says behavioral biologist Carol Shively. Monkeys live in
social groups that range from about five animals to about
20, and there's a pecking order. "As a subordinate male,
trying to get access to food and mate with females, you
find yourself fighting the dominant monkey a lot. And you
risk getting hurt or killed," Shively says. "Also, there's
constant low-level harassment from the rest of the group.
Every other monkey redirects aggression at you."
This is, to say the least, a stressful way
to go through life. And monkeys in the middle of it have
high levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Over time, elevated
cortisol actually kills off brain cells. "So your brain
doesn't learn, and your emotions don't work properly,"
Shively says. "You get a real breakdown in brain function."
Monkeys in these groups seem to have hit
upon a behavioral remedy for such chronic stress: strategic
withdrawal. "The monkeys spend more time alone, out of physical
contact with other monkeys," Shively says. "These animals
look very much like depressed people. But by withdrawing,
they have fewer chances to get beat up. It's actually an
evolutionarily sound strategy. They get to stay in the group
and function. Not optimally, but you survive. You still
have a chance to reproduce." And monkey groups are very
fluid: With a change in members, which can happen monthly
or even weekly, a marginal monkey could very well end up
on top again.
But people live longer than monkeys, Nesse
says, and don't change jobs or family groups from month
to month. That may be how these gray moods crossed the line
from adaptation to disease. The genes are still there, but
repeated traumatic events could produce a more exaggerated
response from them, trigging a deeper, longer withdrawal
from life into a black hole, from which it's hard to climb
out.
(442 words)
11.
According to psychiatrist Randolph Nesse, depression __________.
(
C
)
(a) has been passed from monkeys onto us
(b) is a typical human illness
(c) may have helped simian ancestors survive some tough
situations
(d) is the illness that can rob people's lives
12.
As far as the life pattern of monkeys is concerned, which
of the following statements is Not right?
(
A
)
(a) Monkeys live in harmony with each other.
(b) A male monkey has to fight with the dominant monkey
to get food and a mating partner.
(c) Monkeys live in a group but the membership often changes.
(d) For monkeys living in a stressful way, their levels
of stress hormone cortisol are high.
13.
If levels of stress hormone cortisol are elevated, _____________.
(
B
)
(a) emotions can still work well
(b) brain cells can be killed off
(c) monkeys become less emotional
(d) brain cells will be more quick to learn
14.
One
of the proper understandings of "strategic withdrawal"
is that _________.
( C
)
(a) it makes monkeys more aggressive and is a good strategy
(b) it means more contact and fewer fights with other members
of the group
(c) it is a way for monkeys to stay and make a living in
the group
(d) it deprives the chance of reproduction for monkeys with
the genes unchanged
15.
According
to the article, which of the following statements is Not suggested?(
D
)
(a) Genes that make us depressed did not disappear because
they once helped us to survive.
(b) Depression for monkeys is a way of adaptation to life.
(c) Human's depression develops into a disease perhaps
partly because they move less from their jobs or family
groups.
(d) Longer withdrawal from life maybe makes genes of depression
unchanged.
TOP
测验结果：15 题中 共答对题，
答错题， 还有题未答。
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