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Passage 2

Engineering students are supposed to be examples of practicality and rationality»but when it comes to my college education I am an idealist and a fool. In high school I wanted to be an electricsl engineer and，of course»any sensible student with my aims would have chosen a college with a large engineering department»famous reputation and lots of good labs and research equipment. But that’s not what I did. I chose to study engineering at a small Liberal arts (文科）university that doesn’t even offer a major in electrical engineering. Obviously，this was not a practical choice； I came here for more noble reasons. I wanted a broad education that would provide me with flexibility and a value system to guide me in my career. I wanted to open my eyes and expand my vision by interacting with people who weren’t studying science or engineering. My parents，teachers and other adults praised me for such a sensible choice.

They told me I was wise and mature beyond my 18 years and I believed them.

I headed off to college sure I was going to have an advantage over those students who went to big engineering “factories” where they didn’t care if you had values or were flexible. I was going to be a complete engineer： technical genius and sensitive humanist (人文学者）all in one.

Now I’m not so sure. Somewhere along the way my noble ideals crashed into reality*as all noble ideals eventually do. After three years of struggling to balance math* physics and engineering courses with liberal arts courses*I have learned there are reasons why few engineering students try to reconcile engineering with liberal arts courses in college.

The reality that has blocked my path to become the typical successful student is that engineering and the liberal arts simply don’t mix as easily as I assumed in high school. Individually they shape a person in very different ways； together they threaten to confuse. The struggle to reconcile the two fields of study is difficult.

2. The word “they” in “... together they threaten to confuse. ” (Line 3，Para 4) refers to

A. engineering and the liberal arts

B. reality and noble ideals

C. flexibility and a value system

D. practicality and rationality
参考答案
【讲解答案】
A 看r下含有这个词的句子和上下文：The reality that has blocked my path to become the typical successful student is that engineering and liberal arts simply don’t mix as easily as I assumed in high school. Individually they shape a person in very different ways； together they threaten to confuse. (真正阻碍我成为2个成功的学生的原因是，理工科和文科的融合并不像我在中学想像地那样容 易。分开时，它们以不同的方式塑造人;合在一起时，它们就混淆不清了。）这个句中的they和前 面的they—样都是指上句中的engineering and liberal arts。所以A项正确。