Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.
Text 4
It scares us more than anything except death. Being alone. Our fear of aloneness is so ingrained that given the choice of being by ourselves or being with others we opt for safety in numbers, even at the expense of lingering (逗留不去的) in painful, boring, or totally unredeeming company.
From childhood we’re conditioned to accept that when alone we instinctively(本能地)ache for company, that loners are outsiders yearning to get in rather than people who are content with their own company.
Alone, we squander(浪费) life by rejecting its full potential and wasting its remaining promises Alone, we accept that experiences unshared are barely worthwhile, that sunsets viewed singly are not as spectacular, that time spent apart is fallow and pointless.
And so we grow old believing we are nothing by ourselves, steadfastly shunning the opportunities for self-discovery and personal grown that solitude could bring us.
We’ve even coined a word for those who prefer to be by themselves: antisocial, as if they were enemies of society. They are viewed as friendless, suspect in a world that goes around in twos or more and is wary of solitary travelers.
Ironically, most of us crave more intimacy and companionship than we can bear. We begrudge(嫉妒)ourselves, our spouses, and our partners sufficient physical and emotional breathing room, and become bemoan the suffocation of relationship.
To point out these facts is not to suggest we should abandon all our close ties. Medical surveys show that the majority of elderly people who live alone, yet maintain frequent contact with relatives and friends, rate their physical and emotional well-being as “excellent”. Just as an apple a day kept the doctor away when they were young, an active social calendar appears to serve the same purpose now.
But we need to befriend and enjoy ourselves as well.
How does that old song go? “I’ve been to paradise, but I’ve never been to me…”
Let us learn, then, from those in search of what they have not been able to find and hold in the press of humanity around them: peace of mind, gentleness of heart, calmness of spirit and daily joy. Those who are mastering the art of flying solo and soaring to their highest human potentials, who have come to understand and to know and to love and to be of value to others, first must know and love and value themselves; that is, to find a way in the world, they have to start by finding themselves.