单选题 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" that could be fatal. AIDS has {{U}}afflicted{{/U}} a society already short on humanism, open-handedness and optimism. Attempts to strike it out with the offending microbe are not abetted 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 the AIDS is caused by a virus, not by moral failure of 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 {{U}}AIDS tests institutions upon which our society rests{{/U}}. The economy, the political sys- tem, 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 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 the individual and the societal, or public responses to AIDS.

单选题 What is the passage mainly talking about?

A. The necessity of the education about AIDS.
B. How to achieve the aims of AIDS courses.
C. Risks associated with AIDS.
D. Social responses to AIDS,

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】主旨题。文章第一段为全文的主旨段，第一句话即说明社会必须从公开宣传和课堂教育两个方面为人们提供关于AIDS的教育，然后分析了作者自己在大学开设AIDS课程的原因。而后面两段则是论述了他开设这一课程要达到的两个重要目标。因此不难看出全文主旨为[A]。

单选题 Why did the author offer the AIDS course?

A. He wanted to teach people about a cure for AIDS.
B. People need to be taught how to avoid those with AIDS.
C. He wanted to teach the students that AIDS resulted from moral failure.
D. People take improper attitudes towards AIDS and those with or at high risk of AIDS,

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】分析推理题。第一段分析了作者自己在大学开设AIDS课程的原因。作者指出，那些患上 AIDS的人和高危人群受到人们的歧视和不公正对待，人们害怕他们，而其他人则表现得强作镇定，这些都是be fatal。此外，AIDS已经使这个本已缺少人性、友好和乐观的社会雪上加霜，等等，都是作者开设这一课程的原因。对照选项，可知应选[D]。

单选题 The word "afflict" in the third sentence of the first paragraph most probably means "______".

A. benefit
B. cause suffering to
C. teach
D. draw attention from

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】词义推测题。由该词宾语society的后置定语already short on...and optimism可以看出，afflict应当是一种否定性含义，含有让本已不好的状况进一步恶化的意思。四个选项中只有[B]是否定义。 afflict指“使染上重病，折磨”。

单选题 What does the author think is the correct response to AIDS?

A. Fear and contempt.
B. Optimism and bravado.
C. Understanding and compassion.
D. Resentment and avoidance.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】细节题。答案信息对应于第二段第二句：The proper response to AIDS is compassion...an understanding of the disease itself，即对待艾滋病的正确态度是同情并了解这一疾病本身，选[C]。

单选题 Which of the following can best explain "AIDS tests the institutions upon which our society rests" ac- cording to the passage?

A. AIDS is a sign of moral failure and social collapse.
B. AIDS indicates that our social systems have been very inefficient.
C. The responses of a society to the threat of AIDS determines whether and to what extent the society can be called civilized.
D. The spreading of the fatal disease suggests that the nation's resources have been wrongly used.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】分析推理题。题中一句话是第三段的主旨句，第三段谈论的是国家单位、社会机构等对待艾滋病的态度会影响到与这一疾病的斗争结果、影响到社会的文明程度。由此可知这一主旨句的意思是[C]。