单选题
It"s not that we thought things were free. It"s just that this year there were no fixes to the messes we made—no underwater oil-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 rule, unregulated capitalism—or wait a really long time for things to get better. We are finally going to have to choose between our modem 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?
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干中的关键词the messes we made可定位到第一段第二句。
细节理解题。第一段第二句提到“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)”。之后在该段第三句作者又指出“making us feel so pathetic that planking seemed like a cool thing to do(我们对此感到无能为力，以至于颓然坐下似乎成了最冷静的做法)”。由此可知，选项C符合文意，为正确答案。
选项A和第一段第二句中的there were no fixes to the messes we made的意思相悖，可排除；选项B是本题的强干扰项，该项是利用第一段第三句的前半部分“We had to idly watch things completely fall apart(我们只能袖手旁观，眼看着事情变得彻底不可收拾)”设置的干扰项，这句话的内涵并不是说我们面对这些混乱局面能够做的是“从容地(leisurely)看着事情变得不可收拾”，而是表示一种无能为力的状态，并非“从容”，所以此选项错误；选项D在原文中没有提到，文章只提到颓然坐下似乎成了最冷静的做法，故也可排除。
单选题
Which of the following is true of the second paragraph?
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 题于已经明确指示本题是对第二段的考查。
细节理解题。第二段第二句指出“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)”，然后该段第三句指出“Everyone was so vulnerable to meltdowns(每个人都很容易受到灾难的影响)”，联系选项可知，选项D综合地表达了这两句话的意思，故为正确答案。
选项A在原文中没有提到；关于日本人的叙述出现在该段第一句破折号之间的部分，文中指出“a country so obsessed with keeping up to date that its citizens annually get new cell phones and a new Prime Minister(日本这个国家一心追求时髦，日本人每年都会换新手机和新首相)”，选项B与文意不符，应排除；选项C具有较强的干扰性，是利用第二段的第三句“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(每个人都很容易受到灾难的影响，就连加拿大人也发动了暴乱，尽管他们只是暴乱了一下，世界上其他国家不必为此感到不安)”而设置的干扰。选项C说“加拿大人发动了暴乱是因为世界上其他国家不会对他们的暴乱感到不安”，错误理解了文中的逻辑关系，故也应排除。
单选题
The word "unleashed" (Line 4, Para. 3 ) is closest in meaning to ______.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 题干已经明确指示本题是对第三段中unleashed一词的考查。
推理判断题。该词所在的句子为“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(提高债务上限，这样常规而乏味的事，却触发了美国信用评级和国会支持率的双重灾难)”，其原意是“使爆发”，引申为“触发，引发”，选项A中“引发”符合此意，故为正确答案。
选项B“恢复”、C“实现”和D“重申”，都不能表达“触发，引发”的意思，代入文中句意不通顺，故均应排除。
单选题
What do the 1% people know according to Paragraph 5?
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 题干已经明确指示本题是对第五段的考查。再由关键词1% people可具体定位到第三句。
细节理解题。第五段第三句是说“with an angry 99% and a 1% who actually understand the things which the 99% are inarticulately complaining about(99%的人满腔愤怒，只有1%的人真正明白这99%的人难以说清的抱怨究竟是什么)”，结合选项可知，选项B与原文意思相符，故为正确答案。
选项A“他们知道在他们国家富人被称为中上阶层”、C“他们知道他们的国家没有阶级划分”和D“他们知道他们的国家完全是封建制的”均与原文表述有出入，且没有正确地表明1%与99%之间的关系，因此均应排除。
单选题
Regarding all the meltdowns happening in the world this year, the author feels ______.