1、第 第 頁全國英語專業(yè)八級閱讀考試精彩訓(xùn)練A wise man once said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. So, as a police officer, I have some urgent things to say to good people.Day after day my men and I struggle to hold back a tidal wave of crime. Something has gone terribly

2、wrong with our once-proud American way of life. It has happened in the area of values. A key ingredient is disappearing, and I think I know what it is: accountability.Accountability isnt hard to define. It means that every person is responsible for his or her actions and liable for their consequence

3、s.Of the many values that hold civilization together - honesty, kindness, and so on - accountability may be the most important of all. Without it, there can be no respect, no trust, no law - and, ultimately, no society.My job as a police officer is to impose accountability on people who refuse, or h

4、ave never learned, to impose it on themselves. But as every policeman knows, e*ternal controls on peoples behavior are far less effective than internal restraints such as guilt, shame and embarrassment.Fortunately there are still communities - smaller towns, usually - where schools maintain discipli

5、ne and where parents hold up standards that proclaim: “In this family certain things are not tolerated - they simply are not done!”Yet more and more, especially in our larger cities and suburbs, these inner restraints are loosening. Your typical robber has none. He considers your property his proper

6、ty; he takes what he wants, including your life if you enrage him.The main cause of this break-down is a radical shift in attitudes. Thirty years ago, if a crime was committed, society was considered the victim. Now, in a shocking reversal, its the criminal who is considered victimized: by his under

7、privileged upbringing, by the school that didnt teach him to read, by the church that failed to reach him with moral guidance, by the parents who didnt provide a stable home.I dont believe it. Many others in equally disadvantaged circumstances choose not to engage in criminal activities. If we free

8、the criminal, even partly, from accountability, we become a society of endless e*cuses where no one accepts responsibility for anything.We in America desperately need more people who believe that the person who commits a crime is the one responsible for it.習(xí)題1. What the wise man said suggests that _

9、.A its unnecessary for good people to do anything in face of evilB its certain that evil will prevail if good men do nothing about itC its only natural for virtue to defeat evilD its desirable for good men to keep away from evil2. According to the author, if a person is found guilty of a crime, _.A

10、society is to be held responsibleB modern civilization is responsible for itC the criminal himself should bear the blameD the standards of living should be improved3. Compared with those in small towns, people in large cities have _.A less self-disciplineB better sense of disciplineC more mutual res

11、pectD less effective government4. The writer is sorry to have noticed that _.A people in large cities tend to e*cuse criminalsB people in small towns still stick to old discipline and standardsC todays society lacks sympathy for people in difficultyD people in disadvantaged circumstances are engaged in criminal activities5. The key point of the passage is that _.A stricter discipline should be maintained in schools