单选题 Engineering students are supposed to be examples of practicality and rationality, but when it comes to my college education I am an idealist and a fool In high school I wanted to be an electrical engineer and, of course, any sensible student with my aims would have chosen a college with a large engineering department, famous reputation and lots of good labs and research equipment. But that's not what I did.
I chose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts (文科) university that doesn't even offer a major in electrical engineering. Obviously, this was not a practical choice, I came here for more noble reasons. I wanted a broad education that would provide me with flexibility and a value system
to guide me in my career. I wanted to open my eyes and expand my vision by interacting with people who weren't studying science or engineering. My parents, teachers and other adults praised me for such a sensible choice. They told me I was wise and mature beyond my 18 years, and I believed them.
I headed off to college sure I was going to have an advantage over those students who went to big engineering "factories" where they didn't care if you had values or were flexible. I was going to be a complete engineer: technical genius and sensitive humanist (人文学者) all in one.
Now I'm not so sure. Somewhere along the way my noble ideals crashed into reality, as all noble ideals eventually do. After three years of struggling to balance math, physics and engineering courses with liberal-arts courses, I have learned there are reasons why few engineering students try to reconcile (协调) engineering with liberal-arts courses in college.
The reality that has blocked my path to becoming the typical successful student is that engineering and the liberal arts simply don't mix as easily as I assumed in high school. Individually they shape a person in very different ways; together they threaten to confuse. The struggle to reconcile the two fields of study is difficult.

单选题 The author chose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts university because he ______.

单选题 According to the author, by interacting with people who study liberal arts, engineering students can______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】事实细节题。解题的依据是第二段中的这句话“I wanted to open my eyes and expand my vision by interacting with people who weren't studying science or engineering”，也就是说，作者进入文科大学是为了拓宽自己的眼界。在这一点上，A) 中的broaden their horizons与文中的expand my vision意思相同，故正确。

单选题 In the eyes of the author, a successful engineering student is expected______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】逻辑推理题。解答本题需要结合上两题的内容一起进行判断。作者在上面说到，要想成为一名全面的工程师，必须既具备技术，又具有人文学者的素质，而且要有宽广的眼界。根据第二段的这句话“I wanted a broad education that would provide me with flexibility and a value system to guide me in my career”，可以看到A) 的叙述并不完全吻合，所以不对。而C) 、D) 的内容在文中并没有提及。

单选题 The author's experience shows that he was______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】事实判断题。从文章后三段的叙述我们可以看出作者遇到了困难，而他的noble ideals crashed into reality。显然，作者认为自己的选择是不实际的。四个选项中，A) 的意思是“创造性的”，B) 是“非理性的”，C) 是“有抱负的”，而D) 是“不实际的”。比较看来，似乎B) 是合适的，但它与作者反复使用的noble这个词并不是相反的，而D) 的“不实际的”与noble的“高尚的，高远的”恰好相反。

单选题 The word "they" in "… together they threaten to confuse" (Line 3, Para. 5) refers to______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】事实判断题。这里的they指的是什么要参照上一句话“The reality that has blocked my path to becoming the typical successful student is that engineering and the liberal arts simply don't mix as easily as I assumed in high school(阻挡我成为一名成功学生的现实就是，工程学与文科并没有像我在高中所想象的那样容易融合在一起) ”。很明显，后一句话中的they便是指工程学和文科这两种不同的学科。而且，最后一句话又说到“The struggle to reconcile the two fields of study is difficult”，更是明确了它的所指。