单选题 Insurance(保险)is the sharing of risks. Nearly everyone is exposed to risk of some sort. The house owner, for example, knows that his property can be damaged by fire, the ship-owner knows that his vessel may be lost at sea: the breadwinner knows that he may die at any early age and leave his family poorer. On the other hand,not every house is damaged by fire nor every vessel lost at sea. If these persons, each put a small sum into a pool. there will be enough to meet the needs of the few who do suffer loss. In other words, the losses of the few are met from the contributions of the many. This is the basis of insurance. Those who pay the contribution are known as insured and those who administer(管理)the pool of contributions as insurers.
The legal basis of all insurance is the policy. This is a printed form of contract on stout paper of the best quality. It states that in return for the regular payment by the insured of a named sum of money, called the premium (保险费), which is usually paid every year, the insurer will pay a sum of money or compensation for loss, if the risk or event insured against actually happens. The premium for an insurance naturally depends upon how likely the risk is to happen, as suggested by past experience. If companies fix their premiums too high, there will be more make the premium too low. they will lose money and may even have to drop out of business. So the ordinary forces of supply and demand keep premiums at a level satisfactory to both the insurer and the insured.

单选题 According to the writer, insurance is possible because______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[答案精解] 题干意为“根据文章,保险是可行的,原因是…”。该题为细节题。由第一段中“On the other hand, not every house is damaged…”可以看出,并不是所有的人都遭受损失,损失的只是一小部分。
单选题 By "the pool of contributions" the writer means______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[答案精解] 题干意为“集中的捐献是指…”。该题为推理题。由第一段可以看出,这些集中的捐献是指保户们支付的保险费。
单选题 A policy is______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[答案精解] 题干意为“保险单是…”。该题为细节题。由第二段第一句“The legal basis of all insurance...”可以看出保险单是法律上的合同。
单选题 Insurance premiums do not become too high because______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[答案精解] 题干意为“保险费不会很高是因为…”。该题为推理题。由第三段第二句“If companies fix their premiums too high. there will…”可以看出如果有公司把保险费定的过高,就会有公司把保险费降低,保险费高的公司就会没有生意而赔钱,保险公司相互之间是竞争的。
单选题 According to the writer,insurance is______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[答案精解] 题干意为“根据文章,保险是…”。该题为主旨题。文章先说明保险的可行性,又说明保险费不是很高,投保的人还会受益,可以看出保险虽然很费钱,但是还是值得买的。