I met David in Oslo in December of 2011, in the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize, which was given jointly that year to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gboweeand and Tawakkol Karman of Yemen for “their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights”.
I was accompanying Johnson Sirleaf as her long-time advisor. David was the special representative for the Financial Times for the Middle East and Africa. Soon we became good friends and partners in many projects.David and I shared a solicitude for Africa,where he found inspiration on the continent when he first visited in the early 1990s—“so much hope and potential,” he would tell me. He chose to travel light. In that way, there would be no limit when he suddenly decided to take a field trip to a village in Sierra Leone to arrange for seven children to travel to France for surgery.
Then David introduced me to his mother, Janet, a Holocaust (大屠杀) survivor, from Nowy Targ, Poland.Janet admired his son so much. But I knew well that the pride David created for her came with a self-added burden—to make worthy her suffering and sacrifice. This was because my grandmother, Manja Pakter Kroner,was a survivor of Berlin Holocaust, and I too lived to make her proud.
In 2014, after two dozen publishers had turned down my book, David agreed to take it on, with his one-man publishing house, Kiwai Media, and his good friend, play writer John Strand, as my editor. The book, Choosing the Hero: My Improbable Journey and the Rise of Africa’s First Woman President was released in May 2016 and earned high praise.
In 2019, David moved back to his native New Jersey, where he passed away while shooting baskets with his eldest son. We lost him much too soon, but I take comfort in knowing that his spirit will last forever.
4. Which has the closest meaning to the underlined word “solicitude” in paragraph 2?
A.Concern. | B.Talent. |
C.Comment. | D.Expectation. |
5. What does the author have in common with David?
A.They liked travelling around the world. | B.They tried to make their families proud. |
C.They were famous writers in their time. | D.They contributed much to women’s rights. |
6. What do we know about the book “Choosing the Hero”?
A.It won the Nobel Literature Prize. | B.It gained publishers’ welcome. |
C.It was really highly spoken of. | D.It was published easily at first. |
7. What is the best title for the text?
A.A Precious Gift to the World | B.A Significant Life Journey |
C.A Remarkable Book Review | D.A Respectable Close Friend |