Passage 5

Life is difficult.

     It is a great truth because once we truly understand and accept it. Then life is no longer difficult.

     Most do not fully see this truth. Instead they complain  about their problems and difficulties as if life should be easy. It seems to them that difficulties represent (代表) a special kind of suffering especially forced upon them or else upon their families, their class, or even their nation.

     What makes life difficult is that the process of facing and solving problems is a painful one.  Problems, depending on their nature, cause us sadness, or loneliness or regret or anger or fear. These are uncomfortable feelings, often as painful as any kind of physical pain. And since life causes an endless series of problems, life is always difficult and is full of pain as well as joy.

     Yet, it is in this whole process of solving problems that life has its meaning. Problems are the serious test that tells us success from failure.  When we desire to encourage the growth of human spirit, we encourage the human ability to solve problems, just as in school we set problems for our children to solve. It is through the pain of meeting and work- ing out problems that we learn. As Benjamin Franklin said, Those things that hurt, instruct.  It is for this reason that wise people learn not to fear but to welcome the pain of problems.

1. From the passage, it can be inferred that______.
   A. everybody has problems
   B. we become stronger by meeting and solving the problems of life
   C. life is difficult because our problems bring us pain
   D. people like to complain: about their problems
答案: B 指导：全文主要讲述有人抱怨生活的艰难，作者也承认生活是艰难的，然而正是这艰难的解决问题的过程使生活更有意义，所以文中最后一段第三行When we desire to encourage the growth“human spirit，we encourage the human ability to solveproblems，故此B为最佳选项。
2. The writer probably used just one short sentence in the first paragraph to______.
   A. save space
   R persuade readers
   C. make readers laugh
   D. get readers' attention
答案: D 指导：写文章的目的就是解决问题，本文首先开门见山地点出问题，显然是为了吸引读者的注意力，而不是其他选项。
3. The main idea of Paragraph 3 is that______.
   A. most people feel life is easy
   B. the writer feels life is easy
   C. the writer likes to complain about his problems
   D. most people complain about how hard their lives are
答案: D 指导：由第三段第一句和第二句可知第三段的主要意思是“人们经常抱怨生活多么艰辛”。
4. According to the passage, we give school children difficult  problems to solve in order to______.
   A. encourage them to learn
   B. teach them to fear the pain of solving the problem
   C. help them learn to deal with pain
   D. teach them how to respect from problems
答案: A 指导：由文章倒数第四句"we encourage the human ability to solve problems，justasin school we set problems for our childrentosolve"可知A为最佳选项。
5. The saying from Benjamin Franklin "Those things that hurt,instruct" suggests that______.
   A. we do not learn from experience
   B. we do not learn when we are in pain
   C. pain teaches us important lessons
   D. pain cannot be avoided
答案: C 指导：由文中"It is through the para of meeting and working out problems that we learn"可知答案为C，意思是”正是通过解决问题的痛苦，我们学到了知识”。