二、阅读理解

　　Suicide has been a cause of concern in most societies for a long time. The classical Greeks, for example, required people who wanted to kill themselves to get permission from the senate. While this law is not without humor by today's standards, it clearly shows an awareness of the problem in times gone by.

　　In today's society, suicide is much more prevalent than we want to admit. Why do people try to take their own lives?

　　The motives for suicide can be categorized into areas such as a failure, wrath(暴怒), the needfor attention, stress, and so on. However, the qualities of a person who wants to take his own life change from person to person, making it difficult to depict(描写)the typical victim. To make the problem even more confusing, people will often camouflage(掩盖)their true feelings, thus causing their friends to disregard problems that should be viewed as serious.

　　In theUnited States, a network of centers has been created to attempt to prevent suicides.People who are bitter, worded, or depressed are encouraged to contact workers at these centers. These workers, often trained volunteers, offer benevolent advice to the callers, trying to help the callers to see that suicide as a solutions to problems is an illusion. The accomplishments of these centers, insofar(到这个程度)as their effectiveness to reduce suicide is concerned, are minimal However, they have helped a lot of people with a wide variety of problems. So, in the somewhat amorphous(难以名状的)area of man helping his fellow man, they are certainly a success.

　　11.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the article?

　　A.The classical Greeks did not know the existence of suicide

　　B.Suicide has always been prevalent in all parts of the world

　　C.In today's society, there are quite a number of people who commit suicide

　　D.Nowadays suicide is not as common as it was in the past

　　答案：C

　　12.Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a motive for suicide?

　　A.Insanity B.Pressure C.The need for attention D.Great anger

　　答案：A

　　13.Which of the following statements is NOT true?

　　A.People who want to take their own lives often disguise their feelings

　　B.It is difficult to describe what kind of people tend to commit suicide

　　C.Suicide has been a problem in most societies since ancient times

　　D.People who commit suicide all share certain characteristics

　　答案：D

　　14.The word "benevolent" means ( ).

　　A.relevant B. kind C. serious D. effective

　　答案：B

　　15.The third paragraph mainly tells us that ( ).

　　A.a network of centers has been quite effective in reducing suicide

　　B.a network of centers has been quite successful in reducing suicide

　　C.people are making efforts to help those who tend to commit suicide and in a way, they are successful

　　D.in theUnited States, people who want to commit suicide call a network of centers to get help

　　答案：C

　　What do we mean by a satisfactory standard of living? Obviously, it must include the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter. To get these necessities on regular basis, a person must have a reliable income. But we have other needs which would probably also be included as basic, such as health and education facilities.

　　We may think of all of these as our needs. Yet most of us would be far from satisfiedif we had nothing more than these which are supplied for us. We all enjoy extra income to spend on things like books,sports or hobbies. Sometimes we save some of this extra income to pay for future expense of this type on holidays. So we must add our wants to our basic needs.Our standard of living is the degree, to which these needs and wants are satisfied.

　　But as time goes on, what we think of as our basic needs changes. Twenty years ago a television would have been a luxury, and still is in manycountries now, Even now we cannot say it is a need in the same sense as food, clothing and shelter. Yet if most of the people of a country have one, it comes to be accepted as a need. It is possible therefore to have food, clothing and shelter and still be poor by the standards of our own society.

　　16.What we need in life is divided into ( ) according to this article.

　　A.the basic necessities and luxury

　　B.many kinds of need such as food, clothing and houses

　　C.four groups the basic necessities, luxury, reliable income and future expense

　　D.the basic necessities and reliable income

　　答案：A

　　17.A person who gets the basic necessities must ( ) according to the writer.

　　A.have a reliable income

　　B.learn how to please his manager

　　C.finish his work ahead the time

　　D.get a good education

　　答案：A

　　18.We all enjoy ( ).

　　A.having only reliable income

　　B.having reliable income and extra income

　　C.having nothing more than food and clothing

　　D.having nothing more than reliable income

　　答案：B

　　19.With time going on, ( ).

　　A.a luxury may change into a need which most people want to get

　　B.the basic needs are getting smaller and smaller

　　C.a luxury and the basic needs can be exchanged

　　D.the basic needs can be changed into a luxury

　　答案：A

　　20.If most of the people of a country have a television, we ( ).

　　A.can say the television is a need in the same sense as food and clothing and shelter

　　B.can say the television must be in the basic necessities

　　C.cannot say the television is in the basic necessities

　　D.can say every family must have one

　　答案：A