In ancient Greece, Socrates was a great philosopher (哲学家), who was widely known for his wisdom (智慧).
One day the great philosopher met a man, who ran up to him excitedly and said, “Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?”
“Wait a moment,” Socrates replied. “Before you
tell me, I’d like you to pass a little test. It’s called the Test of Three.”
“Test of Three?”
“That’s correct,” Socrates continued. “The first test is Truth. Are you sure that what you are about to tell me is true?”
“No,” the man replied, “actually I just heard about it.”
“All right, so you don’t really know if it’s true or not,” said Socrates. “Now let’s try the second test, the test of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?”
“No, on the contrary...”
“So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about him even though you’re not sure it’s true?”
The man shrugged (耸肩), a little embarrassed.
“The third test – the filter (过滤) of Usefulness,” Socrates continued. “Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?”
“No, not really...”
“Well,” Socrates said, “if what you want to tell me is neither true, nor good, nor even useful, why do you want to tell me at all?”
The man was ashamed (惭愧的) and said no more.
1. When the man tried to tell Socrates something about his student, Socrates _____.
A. listened to him carefully B. told him to go away
C. asked him to pass a test D. walked away quickly
2. What is the Test of Three mainly about?
A. Love, Truth and Honesty. B. Truth, Goodness and Usefulness.
C. Wisdom, Love and Goodness. D. Honesty, Wisdom and Truth.
3. The third test is to check whether what the man wanted to say is _____.
A. useful B. true C. good D. funny
4. What can we learn from the story?
A. Don’t tell a lie to a philosopher. B. Truth always hides behind small things.
C. No one wants to listen to bad news.D. Think twice before you spread a piece of news.
5. Which is Not True according to the passage?
A. One day a man ran up to Socrates excitedly because he was one of his students.
B. Socrates asked the man to pass the Test of Three.
C. The man knew what he wanted to tell Socrates was not true. He just wanted to talk with him.
D. At last the man felt ashamed.