Question

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 would have turned out better. After all, how could it have turned out any worse?

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

A. he was an official from the community    B. he had great pity for the deceased

C. he was minister of the local church    D. he wanted to comfort the two families

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

A. they believe that they were responsible

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

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

D. they had neglected the natural course of events

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

A. there is an explanation for everything in the world

B. everything in the world is predetermined

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

D. the world can be explained in different ways

4.What’s the idea of the passage?

A. Every story should have a happy ending.

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

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

D. Life and death is an unsolved mystery.

Answer

1.C

2.A

3.A

4.B

【解析】本文通过两个老人去世，儿子都把责任归咎于自己。告诉我们世界上发生的所有事情都是有自己的因果关系，没有必要为此感觉内疚。

1.C 细节理解题。根据第一段2,3行One January, I had to hold two funerals on successive days for two elderly women in my community.说明，这两个葬礼我要我主持，是因为我是教堂里的牧师，故C项正确。

2.A 推理判断题。根据第三段第一行You see that any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty.可知，他们都认为自己对于亲人的去世是内疚的，也就是他们认为自己负有责任。故A正确。

3.A 推理判断题。根据第四段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.可知，世界上的每一个事物都有自己的原因和结果。每个事情的发生都有自己的理由，故make sense的意思是“有道理”，故A正确。

4.B 推理判断题。根据文章第三、四段说明，很多人都把亲人的去世归咎于自己，实际上这是不正确的。并不是所有不幸的事情都是我们自己的原因。故B正确。