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The biographer has to dance between two shaky positions with respect to the subject. Too close a relation, and the writer may lose objectivity. Not close enough, and the writer may lack the sympathy necessary to any effort to portray a mind, a soul, the quality of life. Who should write the biography of a family, for example? Because of their closeness to the subject, family members may have special information, but by the same token, they may not have the distance that would allow them to be fair. Similarly, a king’s servant might not be the best one to write a biography of that king. But a foreigner might not have the knowledge and sympathy necessary to write the king’s biography—not for a readership from within the kingdom, at any rate.There is no ideal position for such a task. The biographer has to work with the position he or she has in the world, adjusting that position as necessary to deal with the subject. Every position has strengths and weaknesses; to thrive, a writer must try to become aware of these, evaluate them in terms of the subject, and select a position accordingly.When their subjects are heroes or famous figures, biographies often reveal a democratic motive; they attempt to show that their subjects are only human, no better than anyone else. Other biographies are meant to change us, to invite us to become better than we are. The biographies of Jesus found in the Bible are in this class.Biographers may claim that their account is the “authentic” one. In advancing this claim, they are helped if the biography is “authorized” by the subject; this presumably allows the biographer special access to private information. “Unauthorized” biographies also have their appeal, however, since they can suggest an independence of mind in the biographer. In book promotions, the “unauthorized” characterization usually suggests the prospect of juicy gossip that the subject had hoped to suppress. A subject might have several biographies, even several “authentic” ones. We sense intuitively that no one is in a position to tell “the” story of a life, perhaps not even the subject, and this has been proved by the history of biography.1.According to the authors an ideal biographer would be one who （）.2.The author cites the biographies of Jesus in the Bible in order to show that （）. 3.Which of the following statements is true, according to the passage?4.An unauthorized biography is likely to attract more readers because （）. 5.In this passage, the author focuses on （）.

Gray clouds move as low as smoke over the treetops at Lolo Pass. The ground is white. The day is June 10. It has been snowing for the past four days in the Bitterroot Mountains. Wayne Fairchild is getting worried about our trek over the Lolo Trail—95 miles from Lolo Montana to Weippe in Idaho, across some of the roughest country in the West. Lewis and Clark were nearly defeated 200 years ago by snowstorms on the Lolo. Today Fairchild is nervously checking the weather reports. He has agreed to take me across the toughest, middle section of the trail—“but with this weather?’’When Lewis climbed atop Lemhi Pass, 140 miles south of Missoula, on Aug. 12, 1805, he was astonished by what was in front of him: “immense ranges of high mountains still to the West of us with their tops partially covered with snow”. Nobody in what was then the US knew the Rocky Mountains existed, with peaks twice as high as anything in the Appalachians back East. Lewis and Clark weren’t merely off the map; they were traveling outside the American imagination.Today their pathway through those mountains holds more attraction than any other ground over which they traveled, for its raw wilderness is a testimony to the character of two cultures: the explorers who braved its hardships and the Native-Americans who prize and conserve the path as a sacred gift. It remains today in virtually the same condition as when Lewis and Clark walked it.The Lolo is passable only from July to mid-September. Our luck is holding with the weather, although the snow seeps getting deeper. As we climb to Indian Post office, the highest point on the trail at 7,033 ft., the drifts are 15 ft, and up. We have covered 12 miles in soft snow, and we barely have enough energy to make dinner. After a meal of chicken and couscous, I sit on a rock on top of the ridge. There is no light visible in any direction, not even another campfire. For four days we do not see another human being. We are isolated in a way that mixes fear with joy. In our imagination we have finally caught up with Lewis and Clark.1.We learn from the passage that before 1805 （）. 2.Judging from the context, the word “trek” (Line 3, Para. 1) is closest in meaning to （）.3.We learn from the passage that the Lolo Pass （）. 4.Judging from the context. Lewis and Clark were most probably （）. 5.We can infer from the passage that in crossing the Lolo Pass the author （）.

For most people, shopping is still a matter of wandering down the high street or loading a cart in a shopping mall. Soon, that will change. Electronic commerce is growing fast and will soon bring people more choice. There will, however, be a cost; protecting the consumer from fraud will be harder. Many governments therefore want to extend high-street regulations to the electronic world. But politicians would be wiser to see cyberspace as a basis for a new era of corporate self-regulation.Consumers in rich countries have grown used to the idea that the government takes responsibility for everything from the stability of the banks to the safety of the drugs, or their rights to refund when goods are faulty. But governments cannot enforce national laws on businesses whose only presence in their country is on a screen. Other countries have regulators, but the rules of consumer protection differ, as does enforcement. Even where a clear right to compensation exists, the on-line catalogue customer in Tokyo, say, can hardly go to New York to extract a refund for a dud purchase.One answer is for governments to cooperate more: to recognize each other’s rules. But that requires years of work and volumes of detailed rules. And plenty of countries have rules too fanciful for sober states to accept. There is, however, an alternative. Let the electronic businesses do the “regulation” themselves. They do, after all, have a self-interest in doing so.In electronic commerce, a reputation for honest dealing will be a valuable competitive asset. Governments, too, may compete to be trusted. For instance, customers ordering medicines on-line may prefer to buy from the United States because they trust the rigorous screening of the Food and Drug Administration; or they may decide that the FDA’s rules are too strict, and buy from Switzerland instead.Consumers will still need to use their judgment. But precisely because the technology is new, electronic shoppers are likely for a while to be a lot more cautious than consumers of the normal sort—and the new technology will also make it easier for them to complain noisily when a company lets them down. In this way, at least, the advent of cyberspace may argue for fewer consumer protection laws, not more.1.According to the author, what will be the best policy for electronic commerce?2.In case an electronic shopper bought faulty goods from a foreign country, what could he do in the present circumstances?3.In the author’s view, businesses would place a high premium on honest dealing because in the electronic world （）. 4.We can infer from the passage that in licensing new drugs the FDA in the United States is （）. 5.The world “cyberspace” in the last paragraph probably refers to（）.

In some ways, the Unites States has made spectacular progress. Fires no longer destroy 18.000 buildings as they did in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, or kill half a town of 2,400 people, as they did the same night in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. Other than the Beverly Hill Supper Club fire in Kentucky in 1977, it has been four decades since more than 100 Americans dies in a fire.But even with such successes the United States still has one of the worst fire death rates in the world. Safety experts say the problem is neither money nor technology, but the indifference of a country that just will not take fires seriously enough.American fire departments are some of the world's fastest and best equipped. They have to be. The United States has twice Japan’s population, and 40 times as many fires. It spends far less on preventing fires than on fighting them. And American fire-safety lessons are aimed almost entirely at children, who die in disproportionately large numbers in fires but who, contrary to popular myth, start very few of them.Experts say the fatal error is an attitude that fires are not really anyone’s fault. That is not so in other countries, where both public education and the law treat fires as either a personal failing or a crime. Japan has many wood houses; of the estimated 48 fires in world history, that burned more than 10,000 buildings, Japan has had 27 Penalties for causing a severe fire by negligence can be as high as life imprisonment.In the United States, most education dollars are spent in elementary school. But the lessons are aimed at a too limited audience; just 9 percent of all fire deaths are caused by children playing with matches.The Unites States continues to rely more on technology than laws or social pressure. There are smoke detectors in 85 percent of all homes. Some local buildings codes now require home sprinklers. New heaters and irons shut themselves off if they are tipped.1.The reason why so many Americans die in fires is that （）.2.Although the fire death rate has declined the United States （）. 3.It can be inferred from the passage that （）. 4.What aspects of fire safety and prevention should the United States learn from Japan?5.To narrow the gap between the fire death rate in the United States and in other countries, the author suggests（）.

The journalist got the （）news that the famous actress would change her husband for the seventh time.

When writing about controversial topics, some authors try to be（）.

The tragedy of the CHALLENGER（）an ongoing controversy on all aspects of America’s space program.

In order to strengthen his arguments, Toffler （）respectable social scientists who agree with him.

All parts of this sewing machine are （）so that it is very simple to get replacements for them.

The importance of interior design becomes （）when we realize how much time we spend surrounded by four walls.

When asked for your views about your （）job, on no account must you be negative.

While the doctor analyzed the patient’s condition, his family waited outside in considerable （）.

At the conference yesterday, our differences were further （）. The next step is to work out a solution acceptable to both sides.

The plot of the novel （）the economic development of the village.

A railway ticket should indicate the place of departure as well as the （）of the trip.

I have searched all the book stores in this town. The book you asked for is not （）.

The meeting was（） by the National Association of Women for the purpose of furthering the women’s liberation movement.

After months of investigation, the policeman judges it as a (n) （）murder.

Jennies, the former chairman of the oil company, criticizes severely his（）whose false judgment led the company to bankruptcy.

The secretary （）the foreign minister of an interview he was to give that afternoon.

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