单选题 When I was a child in Sunday school, I would ask searching questions like "Angels can fly up in heaven, but how do clouds hold up pianos?" and get the same puzzling response about how that was not important, what was important was that Jesus died for our sins and if we accepted him as our savior, when we died, we would go to heaven, where we'd get everything we wanted. Some children in my class wondered why anyone would hang on a cross with nails stuck through his hands to help anyone else; I wondered how Santa Claus knew what I wanted for Christmas, even though I never wrote him a letter. Maybe he had a tape recorder hidden in every chimney in the world.
This literal-mindedness has stuck with me; one result of it is that I am unable to believe in God. Most of the other atheists I know seem to feel freed or proud of their unbelief, as if they have cleverly refused to be sold snake oil. My husband, who was reared in a devout Catholic family, has served as an altar boy. So other than baptizing our son to reassure our families, we've skated over the issue of faith.
Some people believe faith is a gift; it's a choice, a matter of spiritual discipline. I have a friend who was reared to believe, and he does. But his faith has wavered. He has struggled to hang onto it and to pass it along to his children. Another friend of mine never goes to church because she's a single mother who doesn't have the gas money. But she once told me a day when she was washing oranges as the sun streamed onto them. As she peeled one, the smell rose to her face, and she felt she received the Holy Spirit. "He sank into my bones," she recounted. "I lifted my palms upward, feeling filled with love."
Being no theologian, and not even a believer, I am not in a position to offer up theories, but mine is this: people who receive faith directly, as a spontaneous combustion of the soul, have fewer questions. They have been sparked with a faith that is more unshakable than that of those who have been taught.

单选题 From the first paragraph of the passage we know that______.
A. the author was a Sunday school boy
B. the author used to be puzzled at many things
C. the school didn't teach the children enough knowledge
D. tape recorders were popular in daily life

单选题 The word "his" in "a cross with nails stuck through his hands" (Line 6, Para.1) refers to______.
A. Jesus' B. a child's C. anyone's D. Santa Claus'

单选题 It can be inferred from the second paragraph that______.
A. the author believes in God
B. most people are atheists
C. most American families baptize their babies
D. the author hasn't a religious family background

单选题 In the third paragraph the author uses the example of the single mother to indicate that faith______.
A. is a gift B. is a choice
C. can be easily wavered D. is a spontaneous impulse

单选题 Which of the following may be the best title of the passage?
A. The Issue of Faith. B. A Child's Fancy.
C. The Belief in God. D. The Combustion of Soul.