题目内容
After hours of searching, their patience was _________ and they found what they were looking for.
A. calculated B. confirmed C. rewarded D. evaluated
C
【解析】
Passage 1 is from the introduction to a Zen Buddhist (禅宗的佛教僧侣) manual on the art of “mindfulness”, the practice of paying close attention to the present moment. Passage 2 is from an essay by a United States author.
Passage 1
Every morning, when we wake up, we have 24 brand-new hours to live. What a precious gift! We have the capacity to live in a way that these 24 hours will bring peace, joy, and happiness to ourselves and to others.
Peace is right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We don’t have to travel far away to enjoy the blue sky. We don’t have to leave our city or even our neighborhood to enjoy the eyes of a beautiful child. Even the air we breathe can be a source of joy.
We can smile, breathe, walk, and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available. We are very good at preparing how to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive. Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with joy, peace, and serenity. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.
Passage 2
The argument of both the hedonist (享乐主义者) and the guru (印度教的宗师)is that we were but to open ourselves to the richness of the moment, to concentrate on the feast before us, we would be filled with bliss. I have lived in the present from time to time and can tell you that it is much overrated. Occasionally, as a holiday from stroking one’s memories or brooding (担忧) about future worries, I grant you, it can be a nice change of pace. But to “be here now,” hour after hour, would never work. I don’t even approve of stories written in the present tense. Ads for poets who never use a past participate, they deserve the eternity they are striving for.
Besides, the present has a way of intruding whether you like it or not. Why should I go out of my way to meet it? Let it splash on me from time to time, like a car going through a puddle, and I, on the sidewalk of my solitude (孤独), will salute it grimly like any other modern inconvenience.
If I attend a concert, obviously not to listen to the music but to find a brief breathing space in which to meditate on the past and future. I realize that there may be moments when the music invades my ears and I am forced to pay attention to it, note for note. I believe I take such intrusions gracefully. The present is not always anunwelcome guest, so long as it doesn’t stay too long and cut into my remembering or brooding time.
【小题1】The author of Passage 1 would most likely view the author of Passage 2 as _______.
A.failing to respect the feelings of other people |
B.squandering (浪费) a precious opportunity on a daily basis |
C.advocating an action without considering the consequences |
D.attaching too much importance to the views of others |
A.absolute neutrality | B.partial acceptance |
C.complete agreement | D.surprised disbelief |
A.assume they will eventually obtain |
B.eventually realize are overrated |
C.are unwilling to make sacrifices for |
D.see as worth much effort to acquire |
A.an unavoidable imposition (强加) |
B.an unsolvable puzzle |
C.a dangerous threat |
D.a burdensome obligation |
A.“the hedonist and the guru” (line 1) |
B.“a brief breathing space” (line 11) |
C.“the feast before us” (line 2) |
D.“an unwelcome guest” (line 14) |
It doesn’t matter when or how much a person sleeps, but everyone needs some rest to stay alive. That’s what all doctors thought, until they heard about Al Herpin. Al Herpin, it was said, never slept. Could this be true? The doctors decided to see this strange man themselves.
Al Herpin was 90 years old when the doctors came to his home in New Jersey. They thought for sure that he got some sleep of some kind. So they stayed with him and watched every movement he made. But they were surprised. Though they watched him hour after hour and day after day, they never saw Herpin sleeping. In fact, he did not even own a bed. He never needed one.
The only rest that Herpin sometimes got was sitting in a comfortable chair and reading newspapers. The doctors were puzzled by this strange continuous sleeplessness. They asked him many questions, hoping to find an answer. They found only one answer that might explain his condition. Herpin remembered some talk about his mother having been injured several days before he was born. But that was all. Was this the real reason? No one could be sure.
Herpin died at the age of 94.
【小题1】The doctors came to Herpin’s home in order to ______.
A.treat him for his illness |
B.find the reason why some old people didn’t need any sleep |
C.get some proof to show his sleeplessness was not really true |
D.help him to have a rest in some day |
A.needed some kind of sleep | B.needed no sleep at all |
C.was too old to need any sleep | D.often slept in a chair |
A.make you think a lot because you do not understand it |
B.make you worry a lot because you cannot sleep well |
C.make you sad because something unusual has happened |
D.make you fear because something terrible has happened |
A.large numbers of people do not need sleep |
B.everyone needs some sleep to stay alive |
C.people can live longer by trying not to sleep at all |
D.a person was found who actually didn’t need any sleep |