2017年全國英語等級考試三級閱讀理解沖刺練習（15）

　　Suicide has been a cause of concern in most societies for a long time. The classical Greeks, for example, required people who wanted to kill themselves to get permission from the senate. While this law is not without humor by today's standards, it clearly shows an awareness of the problem in times gone by.

　　In today's society, suicide is much more prevalent than we want to admit. Why do people try to take their own lives?

　　The motives for suicide can be categorized into areas such as a failure, wrath(暴怒), the needfor attention, stress, and so on. However, the qualities of a person who wants to take his own life change from person to person, making it difficult to depict(描寫)the typical victim. To make the problem even more confusing, people will often camouflage(掩蓋)their true feelings, thus causing their friends to disregard problems that should be viewed as serious.

　　In theUnited States, a network of centers has been created to attempt to prevent suicides.People who are bitter, worded, or depressed are encouraged to contact workers at these centers. These workers, often trained volunteers, offer benevolent advice to the callers, trying to help the callers to see that suicide as a solutions to problems is an illusion. The accomplishments of these centers, insofar(到這個程度)as their effectiveness to reduce suicide is concerned, are minimal However, they have helped a lot of people with a wide variety of problems. So, in the somewhat amorphous(難以名狀的)area of man helping his fellow man, they are certainly a success.

　　11.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the article?

　　A.The classical Greeks did not know the existence of suicide

　　B.Suicide has always been prevalent in all parts of the world

　　C.In today's society, there are quite a number of people who commit suicide

　　D.Nowadays suicide is not as common as it was in the past

　　參考答案：C

　　主題思想題。文章的大意是說在目前出現(xiàn)的自殺想象，引起自殺的原因以及提出解決的方法。很明顯在把握文章大意的同時就知道C是正確的。

　　12.Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a motive for suicide?

　　A.Insanity

　　B.Pressure

　　C.The need for attention

　　D.Great anger

　　參考答案：A

　　A的意思是荒唐的。第2段的第一句話說明了自殺的相關原因和動機，A文章里面沒有涉及。

　　13.Which of the following statements is NOT true?

　　A.People who want to take their own lives often disguise their feelings

　　B.It is difficult to describe what kind of people tend to commit suicide

　　C.Suicide has been a problem in most societies since ancient times

　　D.People who commit suicide all share certain characteristics

　　參考答案：D

　　A在第一段的中間提到了，B自殺的動機是很明顯的，并且作者列舉了幾個。C中的ancient times是說在古時候就有了，也不是正確地反映作者的表達。

　　14.The word "benevolent" means ( ).

　　A.relevant

　　B. kind

　　C. serious

　　D. effective

　　參考答案：B

　　A是相關的意思，C是嚴重的意思，D是有效果的，有影響的。B的意思是好的慈善的意思。

　　15.The third paragraph mainly tells us that ( ).

　　A.a network of centers has been quite effective in reducing suicide

　　B.a network of centers has been quite successful in reducing suicide

　　C.people are making efforts to help those who tend to commit suicide and in a way, they are successful

　　D.in theUnited States, people who want to commit suicide call a network of centers to get help

　　參考答案：C

　　細節(jié)題。C的含義是說人們在努力地幫助那些想自殺的人，在某種程度上他們已經(jīng)取得了一定的勝利。文章的最后一句就是這個意思?