A wise man once said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. So, as a police officer, I have some urgent things to say to good people.
　　Day after day my men and I struggle to hold back a tidal wave of crime. Something has gone terribly wrong with our once-proud American way of life. It has happened in the area of values. A key ingredient is disappearing, and I think I know what it is: accountability.
　　Accountability isn’t hard to define. It means that every person is responsible for his or her actions and liable for their consequences.
　　Of the many values that hold civilization together — honesty, kindness, and so on — accountability may be the most important of all. Without it, there can be no respect, no trust, no law — and, ultimately, no society.
　　My job as a police officer is to impose accountability on people who refuse, or have never learned, to impose it on themselves. But as every policeman knows, external controls on people’s behavior are far less effective than internal restrains such as guilt, shame and embarrassment.
　　Fortunately there are still communities — smaller towns, usually — where schools maintain discipline and where parents hold up standards that proclaim: “In this family certain things are not tolerated — they simply are not done!”
　　Yet more and more, especially in our larger cities and suburbs, these inner restraints are loosening. Your typical robber has none. He considers your property his property; he takes what he wants, including your life if you enrage him.
　　The main cause of this break-down is a radical shift in attitudes. Thirty years ago, if a crime was committed, society was considered the victim. Now, in a shocking reversal, it’s the criminal who is considered victimized: by his underprivileged upbringing, by the school that didn’t teach him to read, by the church that failed to reach him with moral guidance, by the parents who didn’t provide a stable home.
　　I don’t believe it. Many others in equally disadvantaged circumstances choose not to engage in criminal activities. If we free the criminal, even partly, from accountability, we become a society of endless excuses where no one accepts responsibility for anything.
　　We in America desperately need more people who believe that the person who commits a crime is the one responsible for it.
　　1. What the wise man said suggests that ______.
　　A. it’s unnecessary for good people to do anything in face of evil
　　B. it’s certain that evil will prevail if good men do nothing about it
　　C. it’s only natural for virtue to defeat evil
　　D. it’s desirable for good men to keep away from evil
　　2. According to the author, if a person is found guilty of a crime, ______.
　　A. society is to be held responsible
　　B. modern civilization is responsible for it
　　C. the criminal himself should bear the blame
　　D. the standards of living should be improved
　　3. Compared with those in small towns, people in large cities have ______.
　　A. less self-discipline    B. better sense of discipline
　　C. more mutual respect    D. less effective government
　　4. The writer is sorry to have noticed that ______.
　　A. people in large cities tend to excuse criminals
　　B. people in small towns still stick to old discipline and standards
　　C. today’s society lacks sympathy for people in difficulty
　　D. people in disadvantaged circumstances are engaged in criminal activities
　　5. The key point of the passage is that ______.
　　A. stricter discipline should be maintained in schools and families
　　B. more good examples should be set for people to follow
　　C. more restrictions should be imposed on people’s behavior
　　D. more people should accept the value of accountability

　　Passage 4
　　Researchers have established that when people are mental1y engaged, biochemical changes occur in the brain that allow it to act more effectively in cognitive（认知的） areas such as attention and memory. This is true regardless of age.
　　People wi1l be alert (警觉的) and receptive (接受能力强的) if they are faced with information that gets them to think about things they are interested in. And someone with a history of doing more rather than less wil1 go into old age more cognitively sound than someone who has not had an active mind.
　　Many experts are so convinced of the benefits of challenging the brain that they are putting the theory to work in their own lives. "The idea is not necessarily to learn to memorize enormous amounts of information," says James Fozard, associate director of the Nation-al Institute on Aging. "Most of us don't need that kind of skill. Such specific training is of less interest than being ab1e to maintain mental alertness.” Fozard and others say they challenge their brains with different mental skills, both because they enjoy them and because they are sure that their range of activities will help the way their brains work.
　　Gene Cohen, acting director of the same institute, suggests that people in their old age should engage in mental and physical activities individually as well as in groups. Cohen says that we are frequently advised to keep physically active as we age, but older people need to keep mentally active as we1l. Those who do are more like1y to maintain 1f heir intellectual abilities and to be generally happier and better adjusted. "The point is, you need to do both", Cohen says," Intellectual activity actually influences brain cell health and size. ”
　　1. Peop1e who are cognitively healthy are those______.
　　A. who can remember 1arge amounts of information
　　B. who are highly intelligent
　　C. whose minds are alert and receptive
　　D. who are good at recognizing different sounds
　　2. According to Fozard’s argument, people can make their brains work more efficiently by______.
　　A. constantly doing memory work
　　B. taking part in various mental activities
　　C. going through specific training
　　D. making frequent adjustments
　　3. The findings of James and other scientists in their work ______.
　　A. remain a theory to be further proved
　　B. have been challenged by many other experts
　　C. have been generally accepted
　　D. are practised by the researchers themselves
　　4. Older people are generally advised to ______.
　　A. keep fit by going in for physical activities
　　B. keep mentally active by challenging their brains
　　C. maintain mental alertness through specific training
　　D. maintain a balance between individual and group activities
　　5. What is the passage mainly about ?
　　A. How biochemical changes occur in the human brain.
　　B. Why people should keep active not only physically but also mentally.
　　C. How intellectual activities influence brain--cell health.
　　D. Why people should receive special mental training as they age.