1998-2005六级阅读理解打印版.doc

2005年1月大学英语六级考试试题 Passage One Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage. 　　I had an experience some years ago which taught me something about the ways in which people make a bad situation worse by blaming themselves. One January, I had to officiate at two funerals on successive days for two elderly women in my community. Both had died full of years, as the Bible would say; both yielded to the normal wearing out of the body after a long and full life. Their homes happened to be near each other, so I paid condolence (吊唁) calls on the two families on the same afternoon. 　　At the first home, the son of the deceased (已故的) woman said to me, If only I had sent my mother to Florida and gotten her out of this cold and snow, she would be alive today. Its my fault that she died. At the second home, the son of the other deceased woman said, If only I hadnt insisted on my mothers going to Florida, she would be alive today. That long airplane ride, the abrupt change of climate, was more than she could take. Its my fault that shes dead. 　　When things dont turn out as we would like them to, it is very tempting to assume that had we done things differently, the story would have had a happier ending. Priests know that any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty. Because the course of action they took turned out badly, they believe that the opposite course - keeping Mother at home, postponing the operation – would have turned out better. After all, how could it have turned out any worse? 　　There seem to be two elements involved in our readiness to feel guilt. The first is our pressing need to believe that the world makes sense, that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens. That leads us to find patterns and connections both where they really exist and where they exist only in our minds. 　　The second element is the notion that we are the cause of what happens, especially the bad things that happen. It seems to be a short ste