单选题   Faces, like fingerprints, are unique. Did you ever wonder how it is possible for us to recognize people? Even a skilled writer probably could not describe all the features that make one face different from another. Yet a very young child—or even an animal, such as a pigeon—can learn to recognize faces, we all take this ability for granted.
    We also tell people apart by how they behave. When we talk about someone's personality, we mean the ways in which he or she acts, speaks, thinks and feels that make that individual different from others.
    Like the human face, human personality is very complex. But describing someone's personality in words is somewhat easier than describing his face. If you were asked to describe what a 'nice face' looked like, you probably would have a difficult time doing so. But if you were asked to describe a 'nice person', you might begin to think about someone who was kind, considerate, friendly, warm, and so forth.
    There are many words to describe how a person thinks, feels and acts. Gordon Allport, an American psychologist, found nearly 18,000 English words characterizing differences in people's behavior. And many of us use this information as a basis for describing or typing his personality. Bookworms, conservatives, military types-people are described with such terms.
    People have always tried to 'type' each other. Actors in early Greek drama wore masks to show the audience whether they played the villain's (坏人) or the hero's role. In fact, the words 'person' and 'personality' come from the Latin persona, meaning 'mask'. Today, most television and movie actors do not wear masks. But we can easily tell the 'good guys' from the 'bad guys' because the two types differ in appearance as well as in actions.
单选题     By using the example of finger prints the author tells us that ______.
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。根据短文第一段第一句Faces, like fingerprints, are unique. 可知人的面部特征和指纹一样，都是独特的，都是不同的。故选D。
单选题     According to this passage, some animals have the gift of ______.
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。短文第一段最后一句指出Yet a very young child—or even an animal, such as a pigeon—can learn to recognize faces. 即有些动物，例如鸽子就有辨认面部特征的天赋。故选项D正确。
单选题     Who most probably knows best how to describe people's personality?
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】推理题。根据短文最后一段最后两句可知，现在的演员不再带能区分他们是好人还是坏人的面具，但是观众还是能够判断出剧中的好人和坏人，这是因为演员在外貌和行为动作上将他们区分，所以可推断出演员最懂得人的性格特征。故选项B正确。
单选题     According to the passage, it is possible for us tell one type of person from another because ______.
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】细节题。纵观全文可知，区分不同类型的人事因为人的外表face, appearance(即physical characteristics)和行为特征action(即behavioral characteristics)不同。故选项A正确。
单选题     Which of the following is the major point of the passage?
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】主旨题。短文中没有谈及为什么必须要确定人的个性特征，故A不对。选项C、D与文章内容无关，也可排除。选项B最能概括文章的主要内容，故B正确。