2014高考英语阅读理解优化二轮精品题12.docVIP

2014高考英语阅读理解 阅读理解 “To be or not to be”．Outside the Bible, these six words are the most famous in all the literature of the world．They were spoken by Hamlet when he was thinking aloud, and they are the most famous words in Shakespeare because Hamlet was speaking not only for himself but for every thinking man and woman．To be or not to be----to live or not to live, to live richly and abundantly and eagerly, or to live dully and meanly and scarcely．A philosopher once wanted to know whether he was alive or not, which is a good question for everyone to put to himself occasionally．He answered it by saying, “I think, therefore I am．” But the best definition of existence I ever saw was one written by another philosopher who said, “To be is to be in relations．” If this is true, then the more relations a living thing has, the more it is alive．To live abundantly means simply to increase the range and intensity （强度） of our relations．Unfortunately, we are so constituted that we get to love our routine．But other than our regular occupation, how much are we alive? If you are interested only in your regular occupation, you are alive only to that extent．So far as other things are concerned----poetry and prose, music, pictures, sports unselfish friendships, politics, international affairs----you are dead． On the contrary, it is true that every time you acquire a new interest----even more, a new accomplishment----you increase your power of life．No one who is deeply interested in different kinds of subjects can remain unhappy．The real pessimist is the person who has lost interest． Bacon said that a man dies as often as he loses a friend．But we gain new life by contacts with new friends, and new ideas and thoughts, too．Where your thoughts are, there will be your life also．If your thoughts are limited only to your business, only to your physical welfare, only to your narrow circle of the town in which you live, then you live in a narrow restricted life．But if you are interested in