单选题 I had an experience some years ago which taught me something about the ways in which people make a bad situation worse by blaming themselves. One january, I had to officiate at two funerals on successive days for two elderly women in my community. Both had died "full of years," as the bible would say; both yielded to the normal wearing out of the body after a long and full life. Their homes happened to be near each other, so I paid condolence (吊唁) calls on the two families on the same afternoon.
At the first home, the son of the deceased (已故的) woman said to me, "if only I had sent my mother to Florida and gotten her out of this cold snow, she would be alive today. It's my fault that she died. " At the second home, the son of the other deceased woman said, "if only I hadn't insisted on my mother's going to Florida, she would be alive today. That long airplane ride, the abrupt change of climate, was more than she could take. It's my fault that she's dead. "
When things don't turn out as we would like them to, it is very tempting to assume that had we done things differently, the story would have had a happier ending. Priests know that any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty. Because the course of action they took turned out badly, they believe that the opposite course-keeping mother at home, postponing the operation—would have turned out better. After all, how could it have turned out any worse?
There seem to be two elements involved in our readiness to feel guilt. The first is our pressing need to believe That the world makes sense, that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens. That leads us to find patterns and connections both where they really exist and where they exist only in our minds.
The second element is the notion that we are the cause of what happens, especially the bad things that happen. It seems to be a short step from believing that every event has a cause to believing that every disaster is our fault. The roots of this feeling may lie in our childhood. Psychologists speak of the infantile myth of omnipotence (万能). A baby comes to think that the world exists to meet his needs, and that he makes everything happen in it. He wakes up in the morning and summons the rest of the world to its tasks. He cries, and someone comes to attend to him. When he is hungry, people feed him, and when he is wet, people change him. Very often, we do not completely outgrow that infantile notion that our wishes cause things to happen.

单选题 What is said about the two deceased elderly women?

A. they lived out a natural life
B. they died due to lack of care by family members
C. they died of exhaustion after the long plane ride
D. they weren't accustomed to the change in weather

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[考点] 细节题 [解析] 定位到文章的第一段第三句，即“Both had died full of years as the Bible would say both yielded to the normal wearing out of the body after a long and full life. ”本句指出两位老人都是寿终正寝，而非死于事故或者亲人的过失。可以看出两位老人是正常的、自然的死亡。因此选择A选项。

单选题 The author had to conduct the two women's funerals probably because ______.

A. he had great sympathy for the deceased
B. he wanted to console the two families
C. he was priest of the local church
D. he was an official from the community

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[考点] 细节题 [解析] 题目问的是老妇人主持葬礼的原因。A项是作者对于死者怀有深深的同情；B项是作者想要安慰两位老妇人的家人，都不能成为主持葬礼的充分理由。而B是干扰项，因此C正确。

单选题 People feel guilty for the deaths of their loved ones because ______.

A. they believe that they were responsible
B. they had neglected the natural course of events
C. they couldn't find a better way to express their grief
D. they didn't know things often turn out in the opposite direction

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[考点] 细节题 [解析] 定位到文章第三段“Because the course of action they took turned out badly. they believe that the opposite course keeping mother at home, postponing the operation course would have turned out better. ”人们之所以自责是因为他们认为自己的过失导致了亲人的死亡，他们对其亲人的死亡负有责任。因此，选择A选项。

单选题 In the context of the passage, "...the world makes sense" (line 2, para, 4) probably means that ______.

A. we have to be sensible in order to understand the world
B. everything in the world is predetermined
C. there's an explanation for everything in the world
D. the world can be interpreted in different ways

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[考点] 推理题 [解析] 根据题干定位到“The first is our pressing need to believe that the world makes sense, that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens. ”从这个句子可以看出，“that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens. ”是对“the world makes sense”的解释，即世界上的每一件事情都是又解释的，有因必有果。因此，选择C选项。

单选题 People have been made to believe since infancy that ______.

A. every story should have a happy ending
B. their wishes are the cause of everything that happens
C. life and death is an unsolved mystery
D. everybody is at their command

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[考点] 细节题 [解析] 定位到文章的最后一段，即“A baby comes to thick that the world exists to meet his needs, and that he makes everything happen in it. ”婴儿认为世界因为它们的需求而存在，它们是所有事情的起因，这种想法一直延续到成人之后，人们总是认为自己就是事情的起因。因此选择B选项。