The COVID-19 lockdown worried me. I worried about what the weeks and months ahead might look like. I decided to take the idea of "love the neighbour" seriously, though I had only On a Saturday morning, I made a sign that said, "Have a nice day, "and stuck it on my met them from the kitchen window.
On a Saturday morning, I made a sign that said, “Have a nice day,” and stuck it on my kitchen window, with a smiley face. A while later that day, the neighbour living across from me, taped up a sign on the window with a message for us. "Thank you. You too! "We went on like this for a few days , back and forth, like an echo, and I thought of how this would be a nice story for us all: move from strangers in the beginning to good friends in the end.
Somewhere around Day 5, I positioned"Beaker the Muppet"in the window, and they responded with a cute stuffed dog. Then I put a note of a Mary Oliver poem about spring to raise the bar. Maybe I was showing off. Sure enough, no"echo this time.
The next day, Dewey was barking at their dog in the backyard. I saw one of the guys when I went out to stop my dog. “Sorry, we didn’t find a poem,” he said. “We meant to,” he added, And then we never did." “That’s okay, I replied. And we both went back inside.
During the following days, I also ran into the neighbour in the driveway some times as we walked our dogs, and found the note already started to feel a little silly. What if my notes were a chore to them, and not a charm?
For months, I had avoided my favourite blocks sidewalk that cut through my neighbourhood. Going for walks these days made me sad, or mad, because the story had no good ending.
I kept thinking, "How do I love you, my neighbour, like I'm supposed to? I have decided after this is all over, I will finally have all my neighbours over for dinner. I will write this invitation on a piece of paper and stick it on my kitchen window for them to read, for old, bad times’ sake. Maybe we can have a little laugh together about how we tried to be kind. We’ll say even during the hard time, nothing can lock us.
4. Which of the following can explain the underlined expression "raise the bar" in paragraph 3?
A.Have more fun. | B.Make it more difficult. |
C.Remove the barrier. | D.Invite them out for a drink. |
5. How did the author feel after meeting with her neighbor physically?
A.She became annoyed. | B.She felt relieved. |
C.She became uneasy. | D.She felt closer to the neighbour. |
6. What can we infer from the text?
A.The idea of"Love the neighbour” kept the author positive. |
B.Communication cannot last long without meeting face to face. |
C.The author changed the walk routes in order to take a shortcut. |
D.A social gathering can solve all the problems of neighbourhood. |
7. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
A.Trust the Next-door Strangers |
B.Get"Unlocked" at the Lockdown |
C.Unsuccessful Ice Breaking Between Neighbours |
D.Strangers in the Beginning, Good Friends in the End |