When Oscar Pistorius was convicted (证明有罪的)murder last month, the judge described the case as a “human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions”. The Paralympic athlete’s fall from grace made this comparison appropriate: overcoming severe disability to reach “Olympian heights”, falling in love with a beautiful model, and, in a coincidence that wouldn’t be out of place in one of the plays, taking her life on Valentine’s Day. Mr. Pistorius’s tragic flaw was that he was an excessive paranoia（偏执狂）, which showed itself in an enthusiasm for guns.
Mr. Pistorius’s case is, indeed, peculiarly Shakespearean. But Justice Eric Leach, who delivered the judgment, is but one of those who have turned to the playwright in times of legal need. In 2012, Britain’s High Court quoted “King Lear” in a trial regarding a “threatening” joke on Twitter — they eventually overturned a conviction on the grounds that social-media users “are free to speak not what they ought to say, but what they feel”. A choice snippet of “Hamlet” (“a little patch of ground that hath no profit in it but the name”) was quoted in a 2008 boundary dispute. “Henry VIII” was called forth by Senator Sam Ervin Jr during the Watergate hearings. The condemnation of Dzokhar Tsarnaev, involved in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, was sealed with lines from “Julius Caesar”: “the evil that men do lives after them; the good is often buried with their bones.”
Lawyers’ love of Shakespeare is appropriate given that more of his lines are devoted to discussing law than any other profession. Some think his knowledge of the law was so detailed that the “real” Shakespeare must have been a lawyer. A study by Scott Dodson and Ami Dodson published last year set out to discover “the most literary justice” of those currently sitting(开庭), and which authors were regularly turned to for quotable wisdom. The “most abundant citer and the widest read” was found to be Antonin Scalia, and — no surprise — William Shakespeare topped the list of the often-quoted, along with Lewis Carroll. Both Shakespeare and Carroll accumulated sixteen references from five justices. Other popular authors among the bench were George Orwell, Charles Dickens, Aldous Huxley and Aesop.
The words of Shakespeare are likely to be sounded around courtrooms for decades to come as many universities — particularly in America and Britain — have included him in their law courses. Harvard Law School offers a seminar which focuses entirely on “justice and morality in the plays of Shakespeare”. King’s College London’s “Shakespeare and the Law” model is co-taught by the Literature and Law faculties, and explores “the role of the law in mediating the place of the individual within society”. There are sensible reasons behind this; the University of Southampton, in line with recent studies, states that it offers the opportunity to study law through a literary prism of Shakespeare, Dickens, Kafka and others in order to “help law students to become more ethically sharp”. A study argues that reading literary fiction makes people show empathy, challenge prejudice, and be more flexible in their decision-making. A literary sensibility enables lawyers to present clear, structured opinions and briefs.
But what is it about the work of Shakespeare, in particular, that lends itself to legal quotation and reflection? After all, as Robert Peterson pointed out in “The Bard and the Bench”, all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays have been quoted by American courts, in over 800 judicial opinions. One answer lies in the fact that Shakespeare’s status embodies high culture; quoting him seeks to invest the judgment with credibility and induce a sense of history. Mr. Peterson notes that this can “drive decisions in authentic ways”. Another option is Shakespeare’s universality — everyone has either read, or claims to have read, plays like “Hamlet”. His works have become globally shared; the term “Shakespearean tragedy” induces a rise-and-fall story even if the listener is not familiar with the works themselves. The horrifying details of Mr. Pistorius’s actions on that night, placed in a familiar Shakespearean frame, helps members of the court, and the public, to make sense of the unnecessary bloodshed.
1.Why is Oscar Pistorius mentioned in the first paragraph?
A. To introduce the topic of the passage.
B. To explain why he was announced guilty of murder.
C. To show the appropriateness of Shakespeare’s comparison.
D. To highlight how Shakespeare influenced his conviction.
2.What can be inferred from the passage?
A. Studying law makes people more flexible in making right decisions.
B. The quotation from Shakespeare in court will keep up in the following decades.
C. The accusation against Twitter was overturned by Britain’s High Court in 2012.
D. It is a must for law students in America and Britain to take courses in Shakespeare’s play.
3.Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word “embodies” in the last paragraph?
A. Creates. B. Shapes.
C. Promotes. D. Represents.
4.The reason why Shakespeare is often quoted in court is that__________.
A. he is universally recognized as a productive playwright
B. the quotation from him adds credibility to the judgment
C. there are many professional legal terms in his works
D. Shakespearean tragedy is globally read by people
5.How is the passage mainly developed?
A. By listing data. B. By presenting examples.
C. By analyzing phenomena. D. By making comparisons.
6.Which of the following is the most suitable title for the passage?
A. Why Lawyers Love Shakespeare
B. Famous Quotations from Shakespeare
C. How Shakespeare Created Popular Works
D. The Most Influential Playwright in History
Early in the Iliad, Homer's epic poem（史诗）about the legendary, Trojan War, there occurs a famous anecdote known as the catalogue of ships, which names all the Greek leaders and contingents(小分队) who came to fight at Troy. Before unfolding this impressive muster roll (花名册)，Homer makes a special, public appeal to the Muses to ensure he gets the facts right:
Tell me now, Muses, who have your homes on Olympus-- for you are goddesses, and ever-present, and know all things, and we hear only rumour: nor do we know anything
These lines reflect a central claim of epic poetry—that through the inspiration of the Muses, daughters of Memory, it can preserve the knowledge of people and the events of the past —a formidable power in the non-literate, oral cultures in which the Iliad evolved. The Iliad was composed around 750-700 BC, but its origins lie at least some five centuries earlier, deep in the Mycenaean Bronze Age---the world the Iliad poetically evokes.
The Iliad is keenly aware of its role as the keeper of memory, and credibility is central to its storytelling. The epic is a work of fiction, and relates the events of a few weeks in the tenth and final year of the Trojan War fought between Greeks and Trojans over beautiful Helen, the Greek queen who deserted her husband to elope with a Trojan prince. Its cast of characters includes not only warriors and their captives and families, but the immortal Olympian gods, who perform many supernatural acts in the course of their eager participation in the action around Troy.
The Iliad has the reputation for being an exclusively(专门地) male epic, weak on female characters, but to choose only one example—Homer's delicate characterization of Helen as a woman driven by reluctant remorseful(悔恨的) passion is as hauntingly（萦绕心头地）credible as any Anna Karenina.
Longinus, a scholar in the 1st Century AD wrote that in recording as he does the wounding of the gods, their quarrels, vengeance, tears, imprisonment and all their passions Homer has done his best to make the men in the Iliad gods and gods men. The scene between Achilles and Priam displays this inversion and crystallises what the Iliad poets had learned in the course of the epic’s Journey. That the gods we worship might not answer, and on occasion humanity must rise to fill their place. That glory is closely associated with painful loss. That the victor shares the humanity of the most vulnerable of the vanquished（战败者）; that there is no such thing as pure victory in war.
1.The Iliad about the legendary Trojan War, might date back to _______.
A. the third century BC B. the seventh century BC
C. the eighth century BC D. the thirteenth century BC
2.According to the passage,______________________________.
A. being reliable is essential to the storytelling of the Iliad
B. Trojan War between Greeks and Trojans lasted over a decade
C. Trojan War ended owning to the Olympian gods’ absence
D. beautiful Helen is a woman worth respecting in the Iliad
3.Why does the Iliad have the reputation for being an exclusively male epic?
A. Because it focuses only on men and war.
B. Because too few females were well depicted.
C. Because its cast of characters includes only males.
D. Because Helen was described as a passionate woman.
4.Which of the following statements doesn’t agree with the author’s idea?
A. Pure victory in war does not exist at all.
B. Glory is naturally accompanied with saddening loss.
C. The victor gains everything without any emotional loss.
D. Both the victor and the vanquished share the same humanity.
High-sugar diets raise risks for heart disease, obesity and diabetes, but we do love our sweets, so health experts have tried to suggest alternatives, and honey has been foremost among them.
Honey is actually sweeter than sugar is , which means, in theory at least, that you could enhance flavor equally with a smaller quantity of honey. But honey actually has a higher calorie count. It may have more minerals, which looks better on a label but, in reality, these are such trace amounts that they don’t offer any real advantages.
Honey’s reputation as a medicine is not wholly unfounded. Some honey does indeed have antibacterial properties. One byproduct of enzymes in honey is hydrogen peroxide, a powerful germ killer. Plus, honey’s texture and consistency are good for keeping wounds clean, and bad for bugs that might want to infect them. Honey is moist and its gooey consistency mean it can easily spread over and stay over wounds while keeping the tissue from becoming dry and fragile. The sticky substance means bacteria can not accumulate and multiply easily. It is particularly well-known for fighting bacteria like staph, salmonella, E. Coliand certain bacteria that can infect the gut and cause ulcers.
However, scientists can only say this for sure about Makuna and Malaysian Tualang honey. We don’t know yet whether local home grown honey has the same potency-or safety. A hot cup of tea with some honey stirred in certainly sounds like it would make you feel better. But it’s difficult to say for sure that it will.
When you have a cold, contact with warm water (from tea) may help to bust up phlegm(痰）that blocks your airways. But some suspect the real secret to the qualities of a cuppa is in the honey. There are studies that suggest that honey does work as well or better than cough suppressant（抑制性的）drugs like Robitussin.
Most of these, however, were considered by the academic world to be widely misinterpreted by the media. One of the findings that seemed to have given the honey trend some additional legs came from a study that said there was “no difference”, statistically speaking, between honey and one particular cough suppressant.
1.What can we learn from the passage?
A. Honey has more minerals than sugar.
B. Honey can be used to treat wounds.
C. The sweetness in honey can fight bacteria.
D. All kinds of honey can act as medicines.
2.What is the author's attitude when it comes to the functions of honey?
A. Objective B. Critical
C. Supportive D. Skeptical
3.What might be talked about next?
A. Honey will be widely used in other fields.
B. Honey will not be recommended in medical treatment any more.
C. Other studies showed honey worked better than some cough medicines.
D. Other studies showed neither honey nor some cough medicines functioned well.
Danielle was living in a new city with no local bank of her own. She desperately needed to ______ a bank to cash her paycheck. For more than two weeks, she made ______ one after another but in vain. How could she continue to ______ herself and her two children as a single mother?
Taking a break from her ______, Danielle decided to attend a meeting at the local women's resource center. The women there had been a strong source of encouragement since she fled her home ______ for her safety. Sitting next to Danielle, Amy began to share the details of her ______situation. She was just days away from ______ her home and her car. Her phone and electric services were both scheduled to be ______. Her husband had gambled away their money. She had nothing left. Nothing!
As Amy described the degree of the situation, Danielle ______ God’s soft whisper in her heart: “After the meeting, give Amy twenty dollars.” Danielle immediately thought, “But I can’t. I only have forty dollars.” She heard the ______ again. Danielle knew she needed to follow. When the meeting ______, she reached into her purse and ______ handed twenty dollars to Amy. Knowing Danielle's situation, Amy was ______ to accept it at first. But as a crowd of women ______ to give Amy hugs of support, Danielle told her that God wanted her to have it. Then Danielle left.
Now with just twenty dollars left in her wallet, Danielle decided to ______ cashing her paycheck at just one more bank before heading home. ______ she expected the rejection she had received at so many other banks, she was ______ filled with renewed confidence and optimism. Hopefully, she walked into the bank next to the women's center. Moments later, the bank ______ her paycheck with no questions asked. Wearing a big smile, Danielle returned home.
As for Danielle, it has been three years since that day. Realizing true hope has no ______, she continues to be ______ for the lifetime supply that she received for just twenty dollars.
1.A. select B. find C. consult D. search
2.A. decisions B. choices C. appointments D. attempts
3.A. encourage B. believe C. support D. comfort
4.A. ambitions B. struggles C. failures D. experiences
5.A. in fear B. in debt C. in public D. in doubt
6.A. similar B. unique C. desperate D. social
7.A. ruining B. leaving C. missing D. losing
8.A. cancelled B. reduced C. abolished D. charged
9.A. received B. found C. heard D. felt
10.A. story B. advice C. order D. voice
11.A. followed B. lasted C. concluded D. agreed
12.A. quietly B. politely C. happily D. sadly
13.A. unlikely B. unwilling C. eager D. embarrassed
14.A. intended B. approached C. managed D. continued
15.A. avoid B. try C. consider D. risk
16.A. If B. But C. Since D. While
17.A. anyhow B. somehow C. therefore D. otherwise
18.A. counted B. checked C. cashed D. tested
19.A. price B. cost C. cause D. purpose
20.A. ready B. welcome C. fortunate D. thankful
Why ________ you choose to work in a remote village school when you can own a respectable job in a city?
A. need B. should
C. must D. will
