单选题
" Essay end up in books, " —like this one—" but they start their lives in magazines, " wrote Susan Sontag in her introduction to The Best American Essays 1992. That"s what I see first, year and year; the magazines. Hundreds of them. Some so slick they slip from my hands and slide off each other when I try to construct neat piles. Some of the satiny and scented fashion magazines display so much commercialized fetishism—high-gloss models brought to erotic ecstasy by luxurious handbags—that I feel, as I dutifully flip through the clingy pages searching for content, I must be a creature from a different planet, a terribly deprived and disadvantaged one. Still, that doesn"t prevent me from sniffing the perfume ads along the way, and for an intoxicating moment sample a world where reading and writing essays seems not just a marginal occupation, but decidedly declasse. The Best American Essays features a selection of the year"s outstanding essays, essays of literary achievement that show an awareness of craft and forcefulness of thought. Hundreds of essays are gathered annually from a wide assortment of national and regional publications. These essays are then screened, and approximately one hundred are turned over to a distinguished guest editor, who may add a few personal discoveries and who makes the final selections. The list of Notable Essays appearing in the back of the book is drawn from the final comprehensive list that includes not only all the essays submitted to the guest editor but also many that were not submitted. To qualify for the volume, the essay must be a work of respectable literary quality, intended as a fully developed, independent essay on a subject of general interest(not specialized scholarship), originally written in English(or translated by the author)for publication in an American periodical during the calendar year. Today"s essay is a highly flexible and shifting form, however, so these criteria are not carved in stone. Magazine editors who want to be sure their contributions will be considered each year should submit issues or subscriptions to: Robert Atwan, Series Editor, The Best American Essays. P. 0. Box 220, Redville, MA 02137. Writers and editors are welcome to submit published essays from any American periodical for consideration; unpublished work does not qualify for the series and cannot be reviewed or evaluated. Please note: all submissions must be directly from the publication and not in manuscript or printout format. Editors of online magazines and literary bloggers should not assume that appropriate work will be seen; they are invited to submit printed copies of the essays(with full citations)to the address above.
单选题
"Essays end up in books, "—like this one—"but they start their lives in magazines, " this sentence means______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】解析：根据题干定位至首段。由第一句“‘Essay end up in books，’一like this one一‘but they start their livesin magazines，’wrote Susan Sontag in her introduction to The Best American Essays 1992．”可知，this one是指The Best American Essays 1992这本书。从下一句“That’s what I see first，year and year：themagazines．”可以知道这本书中的essay是之前Susan Sontag为杂志写的文章，故B为答案。
单选题
"These criteria are not carved in stone". It can be safely assumed according to the article that this sentence means______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】解析：根据题干定位至第三段最后一句。这里作者提到了文章出版需要达到的一系列标注，然后指出“Today’s essay is a highly flexible and shifting form，however，so these criteria are not carved in stone．”从however可以判断这里说的“so these criteria are not carved in stone”正好与“essay is a highly flexible andshifting form”情况相反，B是对该处含义的正确解读，故为答案。
单选题
How are the best essays selected?
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】解析：由题干中的“select”定位至第三段。第三句提到文章的选择过程“These essays are then screened，and approximately one hundred are turned over to a distinguished guest editor，who may add a few personaldiscoveries and who makes the final selections．”句中的screen意为“筛选”，说明先由编辑筛选之后送到著名特约编辑处作最后定夺，故D为答案。
单选题
The phrase "personal discoveries" most probably means______.