I entered high school having read hundreds of books. But I was not a good reader. Merely bookish, I lacked a point of view when I read. Rather, I read in order to get a point of view. I searched books for good expressions and sayings, pieces of information, ideas, themes-anything to enrich my thought and make me feel educated. When one of my teachers suggested to his sleepy tenth-grade English class that a person could not have a "complicated idea" until he had read at least two thousand books, I heard the words without recognizing either its irony (嘲讽) or its very complicated truth. I merely determined to make a list of all the books I had ever
read. Strict with myself, I included only once a title I might have read several times. (How, after all, could one read a book more than once?) And I included only those books over a hundred pages in length. (Could anything shorter be a book?)
There was yet another high school list I made. One day I came across a newspaper article about an English professor at a nearby state college. The article had a list of the "hundred most important books of Western Civilization." "More than anything else in my life," the professor told the reporter with finality, "these books have made me all that I am." That was the kind of words I couldn't ignore. I kept the list for the several months it took me to read all of the titles. Most books, of course, I hardly understood. While reading Plato's The Republic, for example, I needed to keep looking at the introduction of the book to remind myself what the text was about. However, with the special patience and superstition (迷信) of a schoolboy, I looked at every word of the text. And by the time I reached the last word, pleased, I persuaded myself that I had read The Republic and seriously crossed Plato off my list.
1. On hearing the teacher's suggestion of reading, the writer thought______.
A. one must read as many books as possible.
B. a student should not have a complicated idea.
C. it was impossible for one to read two thousand books.
D. students ought to make a list of the books they had read
2. While at high school, the writer_________.
A. had plans for reading B. learned to educate himself
C. only read books over 100 pages D. read only one book several times
3. The underlined phrase "with finality" in the second paragraph probably means_________.
A. firmly B. clearly C. proudly D. pleasantly
4. The writer's purpose in mentioning "The Republic" is to________.
A. explain why it was included in the list[
B. describe why he seriously crossed it off the list
C. show that he read the books blindly though they were hard to understand
D. prove that he understood most of it because he had looked at every word
5. The writer provides two book lists to________.
A. show how he developed his point of view
B. tell his reading experience at high school
C. introduce the two persons' reading methods
D. explain that he read many books at high school