I think the fear of failure is really something else－fear of disappointment, fear of wasting time or toil or money, fear of ridicule. These anxieties are invented enemies, and they can’t defeat us unless we use them as weapons against ourselves. We don’t have to do that.
Defiance of failure is a victory already.
1. In the passage the author argues that
[A] to fail is to succeed in getting an unintentional achievement.
[B] an unexpected achievement often invites an utter failure.
[C] one’s success is always an honorable achievement.
[D] failures are something for those who aim low.
2. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the author
[A] Traveling to a dead end is an intentional achievement in life.
[B] Seeing a stop sign in his life journey is meeting with an utter failure.
[C] Finding oneself fighting against heavy odds is to be called a failure.
[D] Changing one’s original intention when he finds himself wrong is a victory.
3. Why does the author say that even apparent failure may be a victory when viewed long afterward
[A] Because one may forget what happened in the past.
[B] Because one finds it easy to adopt an indifferent attitude.
[C] Because it helps the person to turn over a new leaf.
[D] Because it neither qualifies nor disqualifies one’s behavior.
4. Why does the author say he doubts whether any human being can understand what failure or success is
[A] Because Rembrandt was painting masterpieces when he was thought to be a failure.
[B] Because Van Gogh thought he had failed even after he had succeeded magnificently.
[C] Because human beings honor success and despise failure.
[D] Because human beings do not understand where their life is going.
5. Which of the following is NOT true
[A] Defiance of failure is certainly a victory.
[B] The fear of failure can never defeat people.
[C] An insight into failure is a victory already.
[D] Great personages use failures to power success.
Text 4
Directions
Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (10 points)
The study of law has been recognized for centuries as a basic intellectual discipline in European universities. However, only in recent years has it become a feature of undergraduate programs in Canadian universities. (1) Traditionally, legal learning has been viewed in such institutions as the special preserve of lawyers, rather than a necessary part of the intellectual equipment of an educated person. Happily, the older and more continental view of legal education is establishing itself in a number of Canadian universities and some have even begun to offer undergraduate degrees in law.
If the study of law is beginning to establish itself as part and parcel of a general education, its aims and methods should appeal directly to journalism educators. Law is a discipline which encourages responsible judgment. On the one hand, it provides opportunities to analyze such ideas as justice, democracy and freedom. (2) On the other, it links these concepts to everyday realities in a manner which is parallel to the links journalists forge on a daily basis as they cover and comment on the news. For example, notions of evidence and fact, of basic rights and public interest are at work in the process of journalistic judgment and production just as in courts of law. Sharpening judgment by absorbing and reflecting on law is a desirable component of a journalist’s intellectual preparation for his or her career.
(3) But the idea that the journalist must understand the law more profoundly than an ordinary citizen rests on an understanding of the established conventions and special responsibilities of the news media. Politics or, more broadly, the functioning of the state, is a major subject for journalists. The better informed they are about the way the state works, the better their reporting will be. (4) In fact, it is difficult to see how journalists who do not have a clear grasp of the basic features of the Canadian Constitution can do a competent job on political stories.
Furthermore, the legal system and the events which occur within it are primary subjects for journalists. While the quality of legal journalism varies greatly, there is an undue reliance amongst many journalists on interpretations supplied to them by lawyers. (5) While comment and reaction from lawyers may enhance stories, it is preferable for journalists to rely on their own notions of significance and make their own judgments. These can only come from a well-grounded understanding of the legal system.
Unit 14
Directions
In the following article, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41--45, choose the most suitable one from the list A--G to fit into each of the numbered blank. There are two extra choices that do not fit in any of the gaps Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
The making of weathervanes (devices fixed on the top of buildings to show directions of the wind) is an ancient skill, going back to early Egyptian times. Today the craft is still very much alive in the workshop that Graham Smith has set up. He is one of the few people in the country who make hand-cut weathervanes. Graham's designs are individually created and tailored to the specific requirements of his customers. That way I can produce a unique
personalized item, he explains, A lot of my customers are women buying presents for their husbands. They want a distinctive gift that represents the man's business or leisure interests.
It's all a far cry from the traditional cock, the most common design for weathervanes.
It was not a cock but a witch on a broomstick that featured on the first weathervane Graham ever made. Friends admired his surprise present for his wife and began asking him to make vanes for them. I realized that when it came to subjects that could be made into them, the possibilities were limitless, he says.
(41) .
That was five years ago and he has no regrets about his new direction. My previous work didn't have an artistic element to it, whereas this is exciting and creative, he says. I really enjoy the design side.
(42) .
Graham also keeps plenty of traditional designs in stock, since they prove as popular as the one-offs. It seems that people are attracted to handcrafting, Graham says. They welcome the opportunity to acquire something a little bit different.
(43) .
I have found my place in the market. People love the individuality and I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing a nondescript shape turn into something almost lifelike, he says.
(44) .
And nowadays, with more and more people moving to the country, individuals want to put an exclusive finishing touch to their properties. It has been a boost to crafts like mines,
(45) .
American and Danish buyers in particular are showing interest. Pricing, he explains, depends on the intricacy of the design.”His most recent request was for a curly-coaled dog. Whatever the occasion, Graham can create a gift with a difference.
[A] Graham has become increasingly busy, supplying flat-packed weathervanes to clients worldwide.
[B] Graham decided to concentrate his efforts on a weathervane business. He, had served an apprenticeship as a precision engineer and had worked in, that trade for 15 years when he and his wife, Liz, agreed to swap roles-she went out to work as an architectural assistant and he stayed at home to look after the children and build up the business.
[C] Last month, a local school was opened with his galleon ship weathervane hoisted above it.
[D] For centuries, weathervanes have kept communities in touch with the elements, signaling those shifts in wind direction that bring about changes in the weather, he explains.
[E] Graham has no plans for expansion, as he wants to keep the business as a rural craft.
[F] Graham has now perfected over 100 original designs. He works to very fine detail, always seeking approval for the design of the silhouette from, the customer before proceeding with the hand-cutting.
Unit 15
Directions
In the following article, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41--45, choose the most suitable one from the list A--G to fit into each of the numbered blank. There are two extra choices that do not fit in any of the gaps Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
Theories of the value of art are of two kinds, which we may call extrinsic and intrinsic. The first regards art and the appreciation of art as means to some recognized moral good, while the second regards them as valuable not instrumentally but as objects unto themselves. It is characteristic of extrinsic theories to locate the value of art in its effects on the person who appreciates it. (41) .
The extrinsic approach, adopted in modem times by Leo Tolstoy in What Is Art in 1896, has seldom seemed wholly satisfactory. Philosophers have constantly sought for a value in aesthetic experience that is unique to it and that, therefore, could not be obtained from any other source. The extreme version of this intrinsic approach is that associated with Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde, and the French Symbolists, and summarized in the slogan 'tart for art's sake. (42) .
Between those two extreme views there lies, once again, a host of intermediate positions. We believe, for example, that works of art must be appreciated for their own sake, but that, in the
act of appreciation, we gain from them something that is of independent value. (43)
The analogy with laughter--which, in some views, is itself a species of aesthetic interest--introduces a concept without which there can be no serious discussion of the value of art the concept of taste. (44)
Similarly, we regard some works of art as worthy of our attention and others as not. In articulating this judgment, we use all of the diverse and confusing vocabulary of moral appraisal; works of art, like people, are condemned for their sentimentality, coarseness, vulgarity, cruelty, or self-indulgence, and equally praised for their warmth, compassion, nobility, sensitivity, and truthfulness. Clearly, if aesthetic interest has a positive value, its only when motivated by good taste; it is only interest in appropriate objects that can be said to be good for us. (45) .
[A] Thus a joke is laughed at for its own sake, even though there is an independent value in laughter, which lightens our lives by taking us momentarily outside ourselves. Why should not something similar be said of works of art, many of which aspire to be amusing in just the way that good jokes are
[B] All discussion of the value of art tends, therefore, to turn from the outset in the direction of criticism. Can there be genuine critical evaluation of art, a genuine distinction between that which deserves our attention and that which does not
[C] Art is held to be a form of education, perhaps an education of the emotions. In this case, it becomes an open question whether there might not be some more effective means of the same result. Alternatively, one may attribute a negative value to art, as Plato did in his Republic, arguing that art has a corrupting or diseducative effect on those exposed to it.
[D]Artistic appreciation, a purely personal matter, calls for appropriate means of expression. Yet, it is before anything a process of cultivation, during which a certain part of one's inner self is dug out and some knowledge of the outside world becomes its match.
[E] If l am amused it is for a reason, and this reason lies in the object of my amusement. We thus begin to think in terms of a distinction between good and bad reasons for laughter. Amusement at the wrong things may seem to us to show corruption of mind, cruelty, or had taste; and when it does so, we speak of the object as not truly amusing, and feel that we have reason on our side.
[F] Such thinkers and writers believe that art is not only an end in itself but also a sufficient justification of itself. They also hold that in order to understand art as it should be understood, it is necessary to put aside all interests other than an interest in the work itself.
Unit 16
Directions
In the following article, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41--45, choose the most suitable one from the list A--G to fit into each of the numbered blank. There are two extra choices that do not fit in any of the gaps Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
As more and more material from other cultures became available, European scholars came to recognize even greater complexity in mythological traditions- Especially valuable was the
evidence provided by ancient Indian and Iranian texts such as the Bhagavad-Gita and the Zend-A-vesta. From these sources it became apparent that the character of myths varied widely, not only by geographical region but also by historical period. (41)
He argued that the relatively simple Greek myth of Persephone reflects the concerns of a basic agricultural community, whereas the more involved and complex myths found later in Homer are
the product of a more developed society.
Scholars also attempted to tie various myths of the world together in some way. From the late 18th century through the early 19th century, the comparative study of languages had led to the reconstruction of a hypothetical parent language to account for striking similarities among the various languages of Europe and the Near East. These languages, scholars concluded, belonged to an Indo-European language family. Experts on mythology likewise searched for a parent mythology that presumably stood behind the mythologies of all the European peoples. (42) . For example, an expression like maiden dawn for sunrise resulted first in personification of the dawn, and then in myths about her.
Later in the 19th century the theory of evolution put forward by English naturalist Charles Darwin heavily influenced the study of mythology. Scholars researched on the history of mythology, much as they would dig fossil-bearing geological formations, for remains from the distant past. (43) .
Similarly, British anthropologist Sir James George Frazer proposed a three-stage evolutionary scheme in The Golden Bough. According to Frazer's scheme, human beings first attributed natural phenomena to arbitrary supernatural forces (magic), later explaining them as the will of the gods (religion), and finally subjecting them to rational investigation (science).
