Though its villain also receives his rightful deserts, the thriller presents a less comfortable and credible world. The sequence of fist fights, revolver duels, car crashes and escapes from gas-filled cellars exhausts the reader far more than the hero, who, suffering from at least two broken ribs, one black eye, uncountable bruises and a hangover, can still chase and overpower an armed villain with the physique of a wrestler, He moves dangerously through a world of ruthless gangs, brutality, a vicious lust for power and money and, in contrast to the detective tale, with a near-omniscient arch-criminal whose defeat seems almost accidental. Perhaps we miss in the thriller the security of being safely led by our imperturbable investigator past a score of red herrings and blind avenues to a final gathering of suspects when an unchallengeable elucidation of all that has bewildered us is given and justice and goodness prevail. All that we vainly hope for from life is granted vicariously.

 

56. The crime novel is regarded by the author as _________________.

A. a not respectable form of the traditional novel

B. not a true novel at all

C. related in some ways to the historical novel

D. a distinct branch of the traditional novel

 

57. The creation of detective stories has its origin in _______________.

A. seeking rest from work or worries

B. solving mysterious deaths in this society

C. restoring expectations in polite society

D. preventing crimes

 

58. The characters of the detective stories are, generally speaking, _____________.

A. more profound than those of the traditional novels

B. as real as life itself

C. not like human beings at all

D. not very profound but not unlikely

 

59. The setting of the detective stories is sometimes in a more remote place because ___________.

A. it is more real

B. our friends are familiar with it

C. it pleases the readers in a way

D. it needs the readers’ support

 

60. The writer of this passage thinks _____________.

A. what people hope for from life can finally be granted if they have confidence

B. people like to feel that justice and goodness will always triumph

C. they know in the real world good does not prevail over evil

D. their hopes in life can only be fulfilled through fiction reading

 

Passage 6

Whenever we are involved in a creative type of activity that is self-rewarding, a feeling overcomes us—a feeling that we can call “flow.” When we are flowing we lose all sense of time and awareness of what is happening around us; instead, we feel that everything is going just right.

A rock dancer describes his feeling of flow like this: “If I have enough space, I feel I can radiate an energy into the atmosphere. I can dance for walls, I dance for floors. I become one with the atmosphere.” “You are in an ecstatic state to such a point that you don’t exist,” says a composer, describing how he feels when he “flows.” Players of any sport throughout the world are familiar with the feeling of flow; they enjoy their activity very much, even though they can expect little extrinsic reward. The same holds true for surgeons, cave explorers, and mountain climbers.

Flow provides a sort of physical sensation along with an altered state of being. One man put it this way: “Your body feels good and awake all over. Your energy is flowing.” People who flow feel part of this energy; that is, they are so involved in what they are doing that they do not think of themselves as being separate from their activity. They are flowing along with their enjoyment. Moreover, they concentrate intensely on their activity. They do not try to concentrate harder, however; the concentration comes automatically. A chess player compares this concentration to breathing. As they concentrate, these people feel immersed in the action, lost in the action. Their sense of time is altered and they skip meals and sleep without noticing their loss. Sizes and spaces also seem altered: successful baseball players see and hit the ball so much better because it seems larger to them. They can even distinguish the seams on a ball approaching them at 165 kilometers per hour.

It seems then that flow is a “floating action” in which the individual is aware of his actions but not aware of his awareness. A good reader is so absorbed in his book that he knows he is turning the pages to go on reading, but he does not notice he is turning these pages. The moment people think about it, flow is destroyed, so they never ask themselves questions such as “Am I doing well?” or “Did everyone see my jump?”