Question

Do you think telling lies, whether a little or a lot, isn’t that big of a deal? Well, that depends on the situation. If someone asks, “Does this dress make me look fat?” we might all lie somewhat. We might say, “Of course not. You look great.” Lying to spare someone’s feelings is one thing. Lying to destroy someone’s character or fame is another.

“What’s really terrible is that you can’t undo a big lie,” says a minister we’ll call Morgan. “I promise if you go house to house to say, ‘I feel terrible I wrongly accused my neighbor of stealing,’ the lie will spread like a fire fueled by gasoline. You can’t call back a lie very easily.”

Morgan goes on to say that lies have hurt people more than guns.

“We have a grandfather in our church whose former son-in-law told people the man treated his own children cruelly,” Morgan says. “To this day, we don’t know whether it is true or not. I would tend to doubt it, but I can’t take a chance, especially if he is working with young people in our church.”

Disarming someone who lies is tough. It’s like disarming someone who’s prepared to fire.

That’s why our society is full of people who are forced to cover up the lies of other people.

“I worked with a man who was stealing money from our employer,” says a man we’ll call Fred. “He was so good at lying and doctoring the books (做假账) that it would have taken an FBI agent to stop him. I worried, ‘If I turned him in, and he got out of the trouble, my career at our company would come to an end.’”

Fred says he came up with a plan to drop hints ( 暗 示 ) to the company owner. “I found printed materials on monitoring possibly dishonest employees. I started mailing them to the company owner without leaving my name. Then one day, over lunch, I told my boss he should have the books checked carefully. He got the hint.”

Fred told us that when the books were checked, the dishonest co-worker tried to blame him for the errors. However, Fred told the company owner he had been dropping hints for some time. The boss got the picture. Fred kept his job. The dishonest guy was fired.

Figuring out how to make a liar public takes work. It can be done, but you might have to move at the pace of a turtle. The slower you move, the more control you will have. You have to give others time to take in the truth.

1.The  underlined  phrase  “spare  someone’s  feelings”  in  Paragraph  1  can  be  replaced  by

A. destroy someone’s feelings

B. avoid hurting someone

C. put someone in a bad mood

D. express someone’s ideas

2.Which of the following can be used to conclude Paragraph 2?

A. It’s no use crying over spilt milk.    B. Every man has his faults.

C. There is no smoke without fire.    D. Pride goes before a fall.

3.How does the author develop this passage?

A. By listing numbers.

B. By making comparisons.

C. By giving examples.

D. By following order of time.

4.What can we know from the passage?

A. It was true that the grandfather treated his own children cruelly.

B. It is not difficult to persuade a dishonest man into telling the truth.

C. Fred’s boss believed the dishonest employee’s words and fired Fred.

D. To make a liar public, we should figure out effective ways in advance.

Answer

1.D

2.A

3.A

4.B

【解析】本篇属于议论文，文章开头提出观点，到底谎言是好还是不好呢？这要视情况而定．然后下面举例来论证有的谎言是为别人考虑的，这是可以接受的，而有的是为自己的私利，这就不可接受，最后又通过例子来告诉我们如何恰当地揭露一个谎言．

1.D 推理判断题 根据下一句Lying to destroy someone's character or fame is another通过撒谎诋毁别人的名声是另一回事了．说明spare someone'sfeelings应该与destroysomeone's character or fame相对，应该是avoid hurting someone避免伤害别人，故答案为D。

2.A 逻辑推理题 根据第二段"What's really terrible is that you can't undo a big lie，"糟糕的是我们对于天大的谎言是无能为力的，'the lie willspread like a fire fueled by gasoline．You can't call back a lie very easily．"谎言会像着火的燃料汽油一样蔓延你是不那么容易把一个谎言收回的．由此可知，应该是It's no use crying over spilt milk．覆水难收，故答案为A。

3.A 归纳判断题 文章开头提出观点，到底谎言是好还是不好呢？这要视情况而定．然后下面举例来论证有的谎言是为别人考虑的，这是可以接受的，而有的是为自己的私利，这就不可接受，又通过例子来告诉我们如何恰当地揭露一个谎言，故答案为A。

4.B 主旨归纳题 开头提出观点，到底谎言是好还是不好呢？这要视情况而定，最后告诉我们应该恰当地揭露一个谎言，尽量把伤害降到最低，故答案为B。

【名师点睛】

如何做好推理判断题？考生做题时一定要从整体上把握语篇内容，在语篇的表面意义与隐含意义、已知信息与未知信息间架起桥梁，透过字里行间，去体会作者的弦外之音。首先，要求考生在阅读时，要抓住文章的主题和细节，分析文章结构，根据上下文内在联系，挖掘文章的深层含义．在进行推理时，考生一定要仔细阅读短文，千万不可脱离原文而仅凭个人的看法，主观臆断。其次，对于暗含在文章中的人物的行为动机、事件的因果关系及作者未言明的倾向、意图、态度、观点等要进行合乎逻辑的判断、推理、分析，进一步增强理解能力，抓住材料实质性的东西。再次，在解答推理性问题时，应清楚所要解答的问题是针对某个细节进行推断，还是针对主题思想、作者的意图进行推断。