单选题
{{B}}Passage Four {{/B}} This calming
down is perhaps the main reason why I keep a diary. It is incredible how the
written sentence can calm and tame a man. The sentence is always something
different from the man writing it. It stands before him as something alien, a
sudden solid wall which cannot be leaped over. One might walk around it, but
before one even arrives on the other side, there is a new wall at a sharp angle
to the first, a new sentence, no less alien, on less solid or high, and likewise
beckoning one to walk around it. Gradually, a labyrinth arises, in which the
builder just barely knows his way. He is calmed by its tangled paths.
The people closest to a writer could not stand hearing everything
that has excited him. Excitement is catching, and others hopefully have their
own lives, which cannot consist only of someone else's excitement, otherwise
they would suffocate. Then there are the things one cannot tell anybody, even
the closest people, because one is too ashamed. It is not good if they are not
articulated at all: it is not good if they pass into oblivion. The mechanisms
one uses to make life easy are far too well developed. First a man says,
somewhat timidly "I really couldn't help it". And then, in the twinkling of an
eye, the matter is forgotten. To escape this unworthiness, one ought to write
the thing down, and then much later, perhaps years later, when self-complacence
is dripping out of all one's pores, when one least expects it, one is suddenly,
and to one's horror, confronted with it. "I was capable of that, I did that".
The man who truly wants to know everything will learn
best from his own example. But he must not spare himself, he must treat himself
as though he was someone else, not less but more harshly.
The bleakness of many diaries is due to the total lace of anything to be
calmed down. One can hardly believe it, but some people are satisfied with
everything around them, even with a world about to collapse. Others, despite all
vicissitudes, are satisfied with themselves. Thus, as
we can see, calm as a function of diary is no great shakes. It is a calming of
the moment, of momentary weakness, which clears the day for work, and nothing
more. In the long run, a diary had the reverse effect, it does not permit one to
go to sleep, it interferes with the natural process of transfiguring a past
which is left to itself, and it keeps one awake and mordant.
单选题
In this analogy, the author compares sentences to______.
单选题
We can infer that one virtue of a diary is its ability to______.
A. inject humility at times of great self-confidence
B. provide a fascinating maze of words
C. record all that happens to the writer
D. record the writer's satisfaction with life
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 文章最后一段“…it keeps one awake and mordant”。而选项A的意思是：在充满自信的时候使你谦虚(inject humility at times of great self-confidence)，与其意思最接近，应选A。
单选题
According to the passage, the man who wants to learn______.
A. will learn from his own example
B. will do so from his diary
C. will use his diary as a source of calm
D. will treat himself subjectively
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 文章第三段“The man who truly wants to know everything will learn best from his own example”，作者强调的是真正想洞悉一切的人会从自己身上学到很多，与A项意思相符。
单选题
We can conclude that the author believes one's sins______.
A. must be expiated
B. need to be revealed somewhere
C. need open atonement
D. suffer in oblivion
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 文章第二段有关于人需要倾诉的叙述……向别人，或借助日记(To escape this unworthiness，one ought to write the thing down)，故选B项(need to be revealed somewhere)。
单选题
For the author, a primary effect of any diary is that it______.
A. allows man to become calm and relaxed
B. serves as atonement for the past
C. acts as a guide for future entries
D. ensures alertness and sensitivity to the past
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 使人平静下来只是日记的功效之一，这一功效是短暂的，微小的(is no great shakes)。在作者看来，日记的最大作用是使人认识你自己(In the long run，a diary had the reverse effect…it keeps one awake and mordant．)，故D为正确答案。
单选题
Which of the following is NOT true?
A. When the man learn best from his own example, he could know everything
better.
B. Some one can hardly believe that diaries could make people calm
down.
C. Diaries don't have any weakness at all.
D. The writer encourages people to write diaries.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] A，B两项可以在原文找到相应的表述，D项为作者表现出来的态度倾向。只有C项与原文意思相反，文章最后一段提到a diary had the reverse effect，即日记也会产生负面效果。因此，C为正确答案。