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Passage One

    Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.

    I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy─ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness─that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and thought it might seem too good for human life, this is what─at last─I have found.

    With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine...A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

    Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

1.The passage, taken from Bertrand Russell’s (1872-1970) autobiography, is mainly about Russell’s ______. ( D )

(a) longing for love

(b) search for knowledge

(c) unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind

(d) three passions that governed his life

2. In the first paragraph, Russell says that ________.( B )

(a) he longs for love and never despairs

(b) he has pity for the suffering of mankind and often feels    anguish

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Passage Two

    It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never inflicts pain. This description is both refined, and as far as it goes, accurate. He is mainly occupied in merely removing the obstacles which hinder the free and unembarrassed action of those about him, and he concurs with their movements rather than takes the initiative himself. The true gentleman carefully avoids whatever may cause a jar or a jolt in the minds of those with whom he is cast─all clashing of opinion, or collision of feeling, all restraint, or suspicion, or gloom, or resentment; his great concern being to make everyone at their ease and at home. He has his eyes on all his company, he is seldom prominent in conversation, and never wearisome. He makes light of favors while he does them, and seems to be receiving when he is conferring. He never speaks of himself except when compelled, never defends himself by a mere retort, he has no ears for slander or gossip, is scrupulous in imputing motives to those who interfere with him, and interprets everything for the best. He is never mean or little in his disputes, never takes unfair advantage, never mistakes personalities or sharp sayings for arguments, or insinuates evil which he dare not say out.

    He has too much good sense to be affronted at insults, he is too well employed to remember injuries, and too indolent to bear malice. He is patient, forbearing, and resigned, on philosophical principles; he submits to pain because it is inevitable, to bereavement because it is his destiny. He may be right or wrong in his opinion, but he is too clear-headed to be unjust; he is as simple as he is forcible, and as brief as he is decisive. Nowhere shall we find greater candor, consideration, indulgence; he throws himself into the minds of his opponents, he accounts for their mistakes. He knows the weakness of human reason as well as its strength, its province and its limits.

(336 words)

6. According to the writer of the passage, a gentleman _______. ( B )

(a) feels it his responsibility to show what people should do

(b) avoids clashes of opinions or feelings

(c) studies carefully the obstacles in the way of free and unembarrassed people

(d) always thinks of those about him

7. The author thinks that when a gentleman talks with others, ______. ( D )

(a) he shows his skill at conversation

(b) he likes to help others with his favors

(c) he prefers receiving favors rather than offering them

(d) he seldom speaks of himself

8. A gentleman, as defined in the passage, ______. ( B )

(a) never takes advantage while disputing with others

(b) never makes personal attacks

(c) is interested in slander and gossip

(d) interprets people’s action as they really are

9. Faced with insults, injuries and malice, a gentleman will _______. ( D )

(a) feel angry

(b) learn them by heart

(c) keep him busy to forget them

(d) pay little attention to them

10. A good title for the passage is : ______ ( B )

(a) Is There Such a Gentleman?

(b) The Definition of a Gentleman

(c) What a Gentleman Will Do.

(d) An Idealized Gentleman.   

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Passage Three

    My favorite English teacher could draw humor out of the driest material. It wasn't imposed either. He took Samuel Johnson's dictionary, Addison's essays, and many other literary wonders from the eighteenth century and made them hilarious, even at eight o'clock in the morning. The thing that amazed me most was that the first time I read these works on my own some of them seemed dead, but the second time, after his explanation, I couldn't believe that I hadn't seen the humor. The stories and poems and plays were suddenly filled with irony and allusions and hilarious moments. I learned more from him than from any other teacher.

    My least favorite English teacher also made people laugh. Some students found him to be wonderfully funny. Many others did not. He assigned journals over a six week period, to be written in every day. At the end of the six weeks I had a notebook full of jotted ideas, short story fragments, reactions to what we had read, and so on. Our teacher announced that we would be grading each other's journals. Mine was passed to Joe, the class clown, who saw it fit to quip at the end of it, "This writing isn't fit to line the bottom of a birdcage." Our teacher laughed at that. Funny stuff. It hurt me so much that the anger from it has driven my writing and teaching ever since.

    So what makes the difference? Humor is one of the most powerful tools teachers (or writers) have at their disposal. It can build up students and classes and make them excited about literature and writing, or it can rip them apart.

(276 words)

11. The above passage discusses _______. ( C )

(a) teaching

(b) literature

(c) humor

(d) knowledge

12. The word "hilarious" means ______.   ( D )

(a) brilliant

(b) weary

(c) exciting

(d) funny

13. With his favorite English teacher, the writer found it most amazing that __________. ( D )

(a) his teacher was very learned

(b) his teacher was very humourous

(c) the works by Johnson and Addison were very humourous

(d) he had not been able to find humor in works by Johnson and others

14. The English teacher the writer disliked most ______. ( B )

(a) was not able to make people laugh

(b) hurt his students’ feelings by laughing

(c) didn’t let his students do the grading

(d) had no sense of humor

15. According to the writer, humor ________. ( D )

(a) helps teachers in their work

(b) helps students in their studies

(c) is something hard to define

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