I.CAREFUL READING

Passage 1

Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.

He was a funny looking man with a cheerful face, good natured and a great talker. He was described by his student, the great philosopher Plato, as “the best and most just and wisest man”. Yet this same man was condemned ( 判刑 ) to death for his beliefs.

The man was the Greek philosopher, Socrates, and he was condemned for not believing in the recognized gods and for corrupting young people. The second charge stemmed from his association with numerous young men who came to Athens from all over the civilized world to study under him.

Socrates’ method of teaching was to ask questions and, by pretending not to know the answers, to press his students into thinking for themselves. His teachings had unsurpassed influence on all the great Greek and Roman schools of philosophy. Yet, despite his fame and influence, Socrates himself never wrote a word.

Socrates encouraged new ideas and free thinking in the young, and this was frightening to the conservative people. They wanted him silenced. Yet, many were probably surprised that he accepted death so readily.

Socrates had the right to ask for a lesser penalty, and he probably could have won over enough of the people who had previously condemned him. But Socrates, as a firm believer in law, reasoned that it was proper to submit to the death sentence. So he calmly accepted his fate and drank a cup of poison in the presence of his grief-stricken friends and students.

1. According to Plato’s description, Socrates_______.

A. was a funny and good-tempered man

B. was the most just and intelligent man

C. had a special way to attract his students

D. had close relationships with his students

2. Socrates was condemned for all the following reasons EXCEPT________.

A. doubting the publicly recognized gods

B. corrupting the young people with his teachings

C. grouping students together to study under him

D. pressing his listeners into thinking for themselves

3. Socrates’ teaching was intended to_________.

A. encourage independent thinking

B. win over the conservative people

C. inform students of his radical ideas

D. lead his audience to be disobedient

4. The word “ unsurpassed ” in the third paragraph is closest in meaning to_____.

A. untold                                                      B. unequalled