英語四級(jí)閱讀練習(xí)附答案-170 珍視當(dāng)前的生活

　　The Present Is the Most Important

 

　　Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. If we respected only what is inevitable and has a right to be , music and poetry would resound along the streets. When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, --that petty fears and petty pleasure are but the shadow of reality. This is always exhilarating and sublime. By closing the eyes and slumbering, by consenting to be deceived by shows, men establish and confirm their daily life of routine and habit everywhere, which still is built on purely illusory foundation. Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure. I have read in a Hindoo book, that “there was a king’s son, who, being expelled in infancy from his native city, was brought up by a forester, and, growing up to maturity in that state, imagined himself to belong to the barbarous race with which be lived. One of his father’s ministers having discovered him, revealed to him what he was, and the misconception of his character was removed, and he knew himself to be a prince. So soul, from the circumstances in which it is placed, mistakes its own character, until the truth is revealed to it by some holy teacher, and then it knows itself to be Brahme.” We think that that is which appears to be. If a man should give us an account of the realities he beheld, we should not recognize the place in his description. Look at a meeting-house, or a court-house, or a jail, or a shop. Or a dwelling-house, and say what that thing really is before a true gaze, and they would all go to pieces in your account of them. Men esteem truth remote, in the outskirts of the system, behind the farthest star, before Adam and after the last man. In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all ages. And we are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality that surrounds us. The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us. Let us spend our lives in conceiving then. The poet or the artist never yet had as fair and noble a design but some of his posterity at least could accomplish it.

　　1. The writer’s attitude toward the arts is one of

　　[A]. admiration. [B]. indifference. [C]. suspicion. [D]. repulsion

　　2. The author believes that a child.

　　[A]. should practice what the Hindoos preach.

　　[B]. frequently faces vital problems better than grownups do.

　　[C]. hardly ever knows his true origin.

　　[D]. is incapable of appreciating the arts.

　　3. The author is primarily concerned with urging the reader to

　　[A]. look to the future for enlightenment. [B]. appraise the present for its true value.

　　[C]. honor the wisdom of the past ages. [D]. spend more time in leisure activities.

　　4. The passage is primarily concerned with problem of

　　[A]. history and economics. [B]. society and population.

　　[C]. biology and physics. [D]. theology and philosophy.

　　答案：

　　1. A. 欽佩。本文第三句“如果我們只尊重必然的東西，尊重有權(quán)威為必然的東西，那么音樂和詩(shī)歌會(huì)重新在街上唱誦。”本文最后一句“雖然詩(shī)人或藝術(shù)從來沒有如此美好和崇高的設(shè)想，但他們有些后代至少會(huì)達(dá)到這一步的。”還有難句譯注1。這些都說明作者對(duì)藝術(shù)視為崇高和美好，不是被蒙蔽的東西。

　　B. 漠不關(guān)心。 C. 懷疑的。 D. 排斥。多不對(duì)。

　　2. B. 孩子們常常比成人更好地面對(duì) 各種問題。本文第七句“孩子們游戲生活(整天只知道玩兒)，卻比難以很好的生活的成人們更清楚的分辨出顯示生活的真正規(guī)律和種種關(guān)系。”

　　A. 孩子應(yīng)當(dāng)實(shí)踐印度布道宣傳的東西。 C. 幾乎對(duì)其真實(shí)出身一無所知。這是講王子的事情，不是一般孩子。 D. 難以欣賞藝術(shù)。并未提及。

　　3. B. 珍視目前的真正價(jià)值。這在文章倒數(shù)第五句“永恒中，確實(shí)有真實(shí)和崇高的東西存在。但是所有這一切時(shí)間，地點(diǎn)，機(jī)遇都是在此時(shí)此地。上帝本身在現(xiàn)時(shí)達(dá)到了頂峰。在今后流逝的歲月中，它絕不會(huì)更加神圣崇高。我們只有長(zhǎng)期不斷地灌輸和浸潤(rùn)在周圍現(xiàn)實(shí)之中，才能理解什么是崇高和神圣的東西。不論我們的步伐快還是慢，路線已為我鋪定。那就讓我們的生命在體會(huì)感受中度過。”作者強(qiáng)調(diào)現(xiàn)實(shí)才是人們應(yīng)該抓住的。

　　A. 指望未來給予啟迪。 C. 尊重過去的智慧。 D. 在悠閑的活動(dòng)中花更多的時(shí)間。

　　4. D. 神學(xué)和哲學(xué)。整篇文章都傳遞了這兩個(gè)內(nèi)容，特別是哲學(xué)推理論說。

　　A. 歷史和經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)。 B. 社會(huì)和人口。 C. 生物和物理。