I had an experience some years ago, which taught me something about the ways in which people make a bad situation worse by blaming themselves. One January, I had to hold two funerals on successive days for two elderly women in my community. Both had died “ full of years”, as the Bible would say. Their homes happened to be near each other, so I paid condolence(吊唁) calls on the two families on the same afternoon.

At the first home, the son of the deceased(已故的)woman said to me, “ If only I had sent my mother to Florida and gotten her out of this cold and snow, she would be alive today. It’s my fault that she died.” At the second home, the son of the other deceased woman said, “ If only I hadn’t insisted on my mother’s going to Florida, she would be alive today.. that long airplane ride, the sudden change of climate, was more than she could take. It’s my fault that she’s dead.”

You see that any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty. Because the course of action they took turned out bad, they believe that the opposite course—keeping Mother at home, putting off the operation—would have turned out better. After all, how could it have turned out any worse?

There are seem to be two elements involved in our willingness to feel guilty. The first is our pressing need to believe that the world makes sense, that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens that leads us to find patterns and connections both where they really exist and where they exist only in our minds.

The second element is the view that we are the cause of what happens , especially the bad things that happen. It seems to be a short step from believing that every event has a cause to believe that every disaster is our fault. The roots of this feeling may lie in our childhood.

A baby comes to think that the world exists to meet his needs, and that he makes everything happen in it. He wakes up in the morning and summons the rest of the world to its tasks. He cries, and someone comes to attend to him. When he is hungry, people feed him , and when he is wet, people change him. Very often, we do not completely outgrow that childish view that our wishes cause things to happen.

1.What is said about the two diseased elderly women?

A．They lived out a natural life

B．They died of exhaustion after the long plane ride

C．They weren’t used to the change in weather.

D．They died due to lack of care by family members.

2.The author had to conduct the two women’s funerals probably because ______.

A．he wanted to comfort the two families

B．he was an official from the community

C．he had great pity for the deceased

D．he was minister of the local church

3.People feel guilty for the deaths of their loved ones because _____.

A．they couldn’t find a better way to express their sorrow

B．they believe that they were responsible

C．they had neglected the natural course of events

D．they didn’t know things often turn in the opposite direction

4.According to the passage, the underlined part in paragraph 4 probably means that_____.

A．everything in the world is predetermined

B．the world can be interpreted in different ways

C．there is an explanation for everything in the world

D．we have to be sensible in order to understand the world

5.What’s the idea of the passage?

A．Life and death is an unsolved mystery.

B．Every story should have a happy ending.

C．Never feel guilty all the time because not every disaster is our fault.

D．In general, the survivors will feel guilty about the people who passed away.

完形填空

The famous British inventor George Stephanson was born in 1781 and died in 1848. One of this 1 important inventions was the train. He 2 his first train when he was forty-four years old. When he was experimenting with the 3 engine on the train, he met with 4 from the government, the newspapers and the gentlemen in the country. They said that the noise and the smoke would 5 cows, horses and sheep, that the 6 would burst and that the hot coals from it would 7 their houses. At that time, 8 people believed what they said.

George Stephanson 9 the people that the train could go on small 10 , could pull carriages 11 goods and passengers and there was 12 to them. It was a very 13 matter for him to 14 them believe. However, after 15 , he was able to do it; and the first train that 16 by Stephanson himself 17 what he had said.

The first day 18 the people along the way 19 the noises of the train 20 and saw it running quickly to them, they ran back home as quickly as they could and closed their doors tightly, for they thought it a genius (妖怪). They did not dare to come out until it had passed.

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Even a child knows that nodding the head means “Yes”. But some people will probably be puzzled when they first come to India. When they talk to an Indian, he often shakes his head. They might think that the Indian does not like what he said, but on the contrary he is expressing agreement.

The Indians have a habit of shaking their heads slightly when they talk to somebody. It doesn’t mean “No”, but “Yes”.

If a person doesn’t know this, it might cause misunderstanding.

At one time a foreigner in Indian told his driver who was an Indian to take him to his office. The driver shook his head. The foreigner repeated his request and the driver shook his head again. At last, the foreigner shouted angrily, “Drive me to my office at once!” The driver said in a low voice, “Yes, sir,” smiling and shaking his head again at the same time.

1.Generally speaking, nodding the head means _______, and shaking the head means _______.

2.Why did the Indian driver shake his head when the foreigner asked him to drive him to his office? Because _________.

3.Why did the foreigner become angry? Because _______.

4.The underlined phrase “on the contrary” means ________.