1 . Directions: After reading the passages below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
As a liberal arts teacher, it is my more often average to find myself obligated(不得不) to speak to my students about books that I haven’t read, 1 in the strict sense (having never opened them) or the attenuated(宽松的) sense (having only skimmed them or almost forgotten them). I am not sure whether I have dealt with this sort of situations better than my colleagues. But I have often attempted 2 (reassure) myself with the thought that those who are listening to me are no doubt on similar ground and are probably 3 (confident) about it than I am. Of course, there is always a risk that my class will be disrupted and I will find myself humiliated, if even one of my students has read the text I’m discussing.
As a result of such all-too-familiar situations, I believe I am well positioned, if not to offer any real lesson on 4 to talk with others about unread books, at least to convey a deeper understanding of the non-reader’s experience.
Admit it or not, we still live in a society, on the decline though it may be, 5 reading remains the object of a kind of worship. This worship 6 (apply) particularly to a number of books —the list may vary based on the circles one moves in —which it is practically forbidden not to have read if one wants to be taken seriously.
To speak without shame about books we haven’t read, we would thus need to free ourselves of the oppressive image of cultural literacy 7 (impose) by school and society, for we can strive toward this image for a lifetime 8 ever managing to coincide with it. Truth destined for others is less important than truthfulness to ourselves, something attainable only by those who free themselves from the obligation to seem cultivated, which tyrannizes(欺压) us from within and prevents us from being ourselves.
