单选题 It's not that we thought things were fine. It's just that this year there were no fixes to the messes we made—no underwater off-well caps, no AIG bailouts, no reuniting the island castaways in a church and sending them to heaven. We had to idly watch things completely fall apart, making us feel so pathetic that planking seemed like a cool thing to do. This was the year of the meltdown.
If a meltdown could happen at a nuclear reactor in Japan—a country so obsessed with keeping up to date that its citizens annually get new cell phones and a new Prime Minister—we should have known we were all doomed. Meltdowns happened to the most unlikely victims. Everyone was so vulnerable to meltdowns that even Canadians rioted, though they did it only so the rest of the world wouldn't feel bad about their riots.
It didn't take a tsunami; anything could trigger a meltdown. Greece, a country so economically insignificant that its biggest global financial contribution to this century was that Nia Vardalos movie, sent the entire European economy into a meltdown. A meltdown of both the U. S. credit rating and Congress's approval rating was unleashed over raising the debt ceiling, something so routine and boring. Sometimes, it didn't take an actual sexual affair to ruin your promising political career.
Sometimes, crises sprang out of tiny mistakes that usually have no consequences whatsoever, like that day in college when you went to a protest, charged a couple more things on your nearly maxed-out credit card and drunkenly told the pizza guy with all the dumb ideas that he should totally run for President. Well, when the entire country does that at once, you get a meltdown.
There was even a meltdown of the once powerful American middle class. A year ago ours was still a country that pretended there was no class system, where rich people all called themselves "upper-middle class". Now we are full-on feudal, with an angry 99% and a 1% who actually understand the things which the 99% are inarticulately complaining about. The meltdown itself melted down when Occupy Wall Street protesters and police couldn't agree on lawn care.
It's too late to cool the rods. We are either going to abandon the old structures altogether—nuclear power, the euro, Arab secular role, unregulated capitalism—or wait a really long time for things to get better. We are finally going to have to choose between our modern love of constant drama and our modem laziness. I know which I'm betting on. Laziness has a really high melting point.

单选题 According to the author, what could we do about the messes we made?
A. We could spare our effort to change them. B. We could watch things fall apart leisurely.
C. We were incapable of doing anything. D. We could stay cool in face of messes.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 本题是事实细节题，根据题干定位到全文第一段。第一段第二句中there were no fixes to me messes we made(我们对自己制造的混乱局面束手无策)以及第三句中we had to idly watch things completely fall apart(我们只能眼睁睁看着事情变得彻底分崩离析)都表达了作者的观点：我们对于混乱的局面无能为力。
单选题 Which of the following is true of the second paragraph?
A. Japanese fall victims to meltdowns easily.
B. Japanese rarely change cell phones and Prime Ministers.
C. Canadians riot because the rest of the world wouldn't feel bad about their riots.
D. Everyone could become victim of themselves.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 本题是事实细节题，根据题干定位到全文第二段。第二段第二句Meltdowns happened to the most unlikely victims. (灾难发生在最不可能成为受害者的人身上。)以及第三句中Everyone was so vulnerable to meltdowns...(每个人都如此容易受到灾难的影响)都表明每个人都可能成为灾难的受害者。
单选题 The word "unleashed" (line 4, Para 3) is closest in meaning to ______.
A. triggered off B. recovered C. realized D. restated
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 本题是语义理解题，根据题干定位到全文第三段。分析unleashed所在句可知，unleash这一动作的发起者是raising the debt ceiling(提高债务上限)，而承受者则是a meltdown of both the U. S. credit rating and Congress's approval rating(美国信用评级和国会支持率的灾难)，结合时政知识可知，正是由于美国试图提高债务上限，从而引发了信用评级和国会支持率下跌这双重灾难，可以推知unleash的意思是“引发”，与trigger off相同。
单选题 What do the 1% people know according to Paragraph 5?
A. They know that rich people are called "upper-middle class" in their country.
B. They know what the 99% are not satisfied with.
C. They know that there is no class system in their country.
D. They know that their country is completely feudal.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 本题是事实细节题，根据题干定位到全文第五段。第五段第三句指出Now we are full-on feudal, with an angry 99% and a 1% who actually understand me things which the 99% are inarticulately complaining about. (现在，我们完全成为了封建国家，99%的人满腔怒火，而只有1%的人真正明白99%的人所难以清楚表达的愤怒究竟是什么。)由此可知，1%的人知道其余99%的人对什么不满。
单选题 Regarding all the meltdowns happening in the world this year, the author feels ______.
A. indifferent B. optimistic C. pessimistic D. puzzled
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 本题是观点态度题，根据题干定位到全文。文章第一段就表达了作者对目前世界局势混乱的悲观态度：there were no fixes to the messes we made(我们对自己制造的混乱局面束手无策)，而在文末作者再次表达了这种悲观态度：It's too late to cool the rods. (现在想要给“燃料棒”降温已经太晚了。)，足见作者对世界上发生的诸多灾难持悲观态度。