单选题 Engineering students are supposed to be examples of practicality and rationality, but when it comes to my college education I am an idealist and a fool. In high school, I wanted to be an electrical engineer and, of course, any sensible student with my aims would have chosen a college with a large engineering department, famous reputation and lots of good labs and research equipment. But that"s not what I did.
I chose to study engineering at a small liberal arts (文科) university that doesn"t even offer a major in electrical engineering. Obviously, this was not a practical choice; I came here for more noble reasons. I wanted a broad education that would provide me with flexibility and a value system to guide me in my career. I wanted to open my eyes and expand my vision by interacting with people who weren"t studying science or engineering. My parents, teachers and other adults praised me for such a sensible choice. They told me I was wise and mature beyond my 18 years, and I believed them.
I headed off to college sure I was going to have an advantage over those students who went to big engineering "factories" where they didn"t care if you had values or were flexible. I was going to be a complete engineer: technical genius and sensitive humanist (人文学者) all in one.
Now I"m not so sure. Somewhere along the way my noble ideals crashed into reality, as all noble ideals eventually do. After three years of struggling to balance math, physics and engineering courses with liberal arts courses, I have learned there are reasons why few engineering students try to reconcile (协调) engineering with liberal arts courses in college.
The reality that has blocked my path to become the typical successful student is that engineering and the liberal arts simply don"t mix as easily as I assumed in high school. Individually they shape a person in very different ways; together they threaten to confuse. The struggle to reconcile the two fields of study is difficult.
单选题 The author chose to study engineering at a small liberal arts university because he ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[考点] 事实细节题
[解析] 从文章第三段第二句话可知作者既想成为一名工程师，也想成为一名人文学家。故选B。
单选题 According to the author, by interacting with people who study liberal arts, engineering students can ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[考点] 事实细节题
[解析] 从文章第二段第四句话可知作者希望通过和非科学非工程系的学生交流，来开阔自己的眼界。故选D，能够开阔他们的眼界。
单选题 In the eyes of she author, a successful engineering student is expected ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[考点] 推理判断题
[解析] 从文章第三段第二句话可知一个完整的工程师，既要是一个技术天才，也要是一个感性的人文学者，因此一个成功的工程系学生不仅仅要成为一个技术天才，也要有广阔的眼界。故选D。
单选题 The author"s experience shows that he was ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[考点] 推理判断题
[解析] 从文章可知作者原来打算通过同时学习工程和文科来成为一名完美的工程师，但由第四段前两句可知，作者崇高的理想与现实发生了冲突。因此可判断作者是不切实际的。故选C。creative：富有创造力的；ambitious：有野心的；unrealistic：不切实际的；irrational：不理性的。
单选题 The underlined word "they" in Para. 5 refers to ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[考点] 词语理解题
[解析] 文章第五段主要讲工程和文科的区别，第一句话指出作者在高中时认为工程和文科可以一起学，但事实并非如此，第二句话则进一步补充说明，主题仍是工程和文科。故选A。