阅读理解
Lacking a cure for AIDS, society must offer education, not only by public pronouncement but in classrooms. Those with AIDS or those at high risk of AIDS suffer prejudice, they are feared by some people who find living itself unsafe, while others conduct themselves with a "bravado (冒险心理)" that could be fatal. AIDS has afflicted a society already short on humanism, open-handedness and optimism. Attempts to strike it out with the offending microbe are not abetted (教唆) by pre-existing social ills. Such concerns impelled me to offer the first university-level undergraduate AIDS course, with its two important aims:
To address the fact that AIDS is caused by a virus, not by moral failure or societal collapse. The proper response to AIDS is compassion coupled with an understanding of the disease itself. We wanted to foster(help the growth of) the idea of a humane society.
To describe how AIDS tests the institutions upon which our society rests. The economy, the political system, science, the legal Establishment, the media and our moral ethical-philosophical attitudes must respond to the disease. Those responses, whispered, or shrieked, easily accepted or highly controversial, must be put in order if the nation is to manage AIDS. Scholars have suggested that how a society deals with the threat of AIDS describes the extent to which that society has the right to call itself civilized. AIDS, then, is woven into the tapestry (挂毯) of modem society; in the course of explaining that tapestry, a teacher realizes that AIDS may bring about changes of historic proportions. Democracy obliges its educational system to prepare students to become informed citizens, to join their voices to the public debate inspired by AIDS. Who shall direct just what resources of manpower and money to the problem of AIDS? Even more basic, who shall formulate a national policy on AIDS? The educational challenge, then, is to enlighten(启发) the individual and the societal, or public, responses to AIDS.
单选题
What is the passage mainly about?
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】本题译文：本文主要是关于什么的?本题要求掌握文章的大意。解答此题与确定中心思想的方法基本一致。读完全文以后，再将每小段的首尾句都放在一起看，基本上可确定文章的话题与要旨。若每段首尾句主干放在一起，我们可以发现文章的要点构成的框架：Society must offer education (第一段首句) …Such concerns impelled me to offer the first university-level under- graduate AIDS course，with its two basic aims (第一段尾句)：To address the fact that AIDS is caused by a virus，… (第二段首句)。… We wanted to foster the idea of a humane society(第二段尾句)。To describe how AIDS tests the institutions upon which our society rests(第二小段首句)。…The educational challenge，then，is to enlighten the individual and the societal，or public，responses to AIDS．这样，便很快明白原文主要说明“我”为什么开设AIDS课程，也用来说明第一句society must offer education about AIDS。
单选题
Why did the author offer the AIDS course?
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】本题译文：作者为什么要开设艾滋病课程?本题要求了解作者的态度和意图。作者在文中第一小段说了他开设AIDS course的原因。此小段最后一句是：Such concerns impelled me to offer the first university-level undergraduate AIDS course．那么such concerns指什么呢?在该句之前有三句，讲了三点，其中第一点就是人们对AIDS 病人或有 AIDS病的风险的人有偏见，有些人又太随便(with a bravado)；这一点导致第二点：AIDS has afflicted a society。第三点是：并非早已存在的社会丑恶现象／病态教唆人们试图用有害的微生物去消灭艾滋病。暗示意思是说：人们这样做是有其深层的思想原因的。基于以上分析，结合文中第二、三小段，可以知道这一题答案是选项D，而不足选项A、B或C。
单选题
The word "afflict" in the third sentence of the first paragraph most probably means "______".
单选题
Which of the following can best explain "AIDS tests the institutions upon which our society rests" according to the passage?
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】本题译文：根据本文，下面哪一句能够最好地解释"AIDS tests the institutions upon which our society rests"?本题要求理解个别句子的意义，也理解上下文之间的逻辑关系。题干中引号部分出现在原文第三小段的第一句中。读者得先明白此句的意思：为了描述 AIDS如何考验我们的社会赖以存在的基本机构。文中后面的部分则说明这一句。此小段第四句(Scholars have suggested that how a society deals with the threat of AIDS describes the extent to which that society has the right to call it civilized．)意为：学者们提出，一个社会如何应付艾滋病的威胁表明该社会在何种程度上有权称为文明社会。有常识的读者都知道，一个社会如何应付某一问题取决于社会的基本部分或机构如何应付它。因而应将这一句与第三小段第二、三句联系起来。可以看出这些社会机构对AIDS的反应与how a society deals with the threats of AIDS是一同事。那么，可以说第三小段第四句解释了题干中引号内的内容。比较A。B、C、D四个选项，可知只有选项C与该句意思相同。C为答案。