1硕士学位班英语考试卷 (5)(Test of English for Non-English Major Postgraduate)Part I Reading Comprehension (30%)Directions: There are four passages in this part. Each passage is followed by five questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one best answer.Passage OneThis calming down is perhaps the main reason why I keep a diary. It is incredible how the written sentence can calm and tame a man. The sentence is always something different from the man writing it. It stands before him as something alien, a sudden solid wall which cannot be leaped over. One might walk around it, but before one even arrives on the other side, there is a new wall at a sharp angle to the first, a new sentence, no less alien, no less solid or high, and likewise beckoning one to walk around it. Gradually , a labyrinth (曲径，迷宫) arises, in which the builder just barely knows his way. He is calmed by its tangled paths.The people closest to a writer could not stand hearing everything that has excited him. Excitement is catching, and others hopefully have their own lives, which cannot consist only of someone elses excitement, otherwise they would suffocate. Then there are the things one cannot tell anybody, even the closest people, because one is too ashamed. It is not good if they are not articulated at all; it is not good if they pass into oblivion (忘却). The mechanisms one uses to make life easy are far too well developed . First a man says, somewhat timidly, “I really couldnt help it.” And then, in the twinkling of an eye, the matter is forgotten. To escape this unworthiness, one ought to write the thing down, and then much later, perhaps years later, when self-complacence is dripping out of all ones pores, when one least expects it, one is suddenly, and to ones horror, confronted with it. “I was capable of that, I did that.” Religion, absolving a man once and for all from such terrors, may be good for those people whose job is not to reach a full and waking consciousness of inner processes.The man who truly wants to know everything will learn best from his own example. But he must not spare himself, he must treat himself as though he were someone else, not less but more harshly.The bleakness of many diaries is due to the total lack of anything to be calmed down. One can hardly believe it, but some people are satisfied with everything around them, even with a world about to collapse. Others, despite all vicissitudes are satisfied with themselves.Thus, as we can see, calm as a function of a diary is no great shakes. It is a calming of the moment, of momentary weakness, which clears the day for work, and nothing more. In the long run, a diary has the reverse effect, it does not permit one to go to sleep, it interferes with the natural process of transfiguring a past which is left to itself, it keeps one awake and mordant (尖锐的，辛辣的，刻薄的).1. In his analogy, the author compares sentences to _.A. the man who wrote the sentences B. words and straight pathsC. a builders labyrinth D. mechanisms used to make life easy2. We can infer that one virtue of a diary is its ability to _.A. reduce daily stress B. provide a fascinating maze of wordsC. record all that happens to the writer D. inject humility at times of great self-confidence23. According to the passage, the man who wants to learn will _.A. learn from his own example B. do so from his diaryC. use his diary as a source of calm D. treat himself subjectively4. We can conclude that the author believes ones sins _.A. must be punished B. need to be revealed somewhereC. need open judgment D. suffer in oblivion5. For the author, a primary effect of any diary is that it _.A. allows man to become calm and relaxedB. serves as atonement for the pastC. acts as guide for future entriesD. ensures alertness and sensitivity to the pastPassage TwoA strange thing about humans is their capacity for blind rage. Rage is presumably an emotion induced by survival instinct, but the surprising thing about it is that we do not deploy it against other animals. If we encounter a dangerous wild animal - a poisonous snake or a wild cat - we do not fly into a temper. If we are unarmed, we show fear and attempt to back away; if we are suitably armed, we attack, but in a rational manner not in a rage. We reserve rage for our own species. It is hard to see any survival value in attacking ones own, but if we take account of the long competition which must have existed between our subspecies and others like Neanderthal man - indeed others still more remote from us than Neanderthal man - human rage becomes more comprehensible.In our everyday language and behavior there are many remainders of those early struggles. We are perpetually using the words “us and them”. “Our” side is perpetually trying to do down the “other” side. In games we artificially cre