I was putting on my boots just now in what the novelists call “a brown study.” There was no urgent reason for putting on my boots. I was not going out, and my slippers were much more comfortable. But something had to be done. I wanted a subject for an article. Now if you are accustomed to writing articles for a living, you will know that sometimes the difficulty is not writing the article, but choosing a subject. It is not poverty you suffer from, but an embarrassment of riches.
But what has this to do with putting on my boots? It is a reasonable question and I will tell you. For an hour I had paced my room in my slippers in search of a subject. I had looked out of the window over the sunlit valley, and watched the smoke of a distant train disappearing towards the west. I had sharpened every pencil I had on me with great care. But the more I sharpened my pencils, the more anxious I grew about the theme for an article.
It was at this moment that I remembered my boots. The act of bending my body changed the current of the blood. You saw things in a new light. So I fetched my boots and sat down to put them on.
The thing worked like a charm. For in my preoccupied condition I picked up my right boot first. Then mechanically I put it down and seized the left boot. And then the fact flashed on me that all my life I had been putting on my left boot first. If you had asked me five minutes before which boot I put on first, I should have said that there was no first about it; yet now I found I was in a habit so fixed that the attempt to put on my right boot first affected me. The thing couldn’t be done. And then came into my mind that fascinating book of Samuel Butler’s on Life and Habit. Yes, certainly, here was a subject that would “go.” I took out a pencil, seized some writing paper, and sat down to write on “The Force of Habit.”
1. By “It is not poverty you suffer from, but an embarrassment of riches.” in paragraph 1, the author means _____.| A．some subjects are too complicated or embarrassing to write on |
| B．poverty is no longer a problem nowadays, but embarrassment is |
| C．poor people don’t encounter as many embarrassments as the rich |
| D．there’re so many subjects that it’s hard to decide which to choose |
| A．To help himself promote thinking. | B．To draw what he saw out of the window. |
| C．To write his article more smoothly. | D．To relieve himself of anxiety about writing. |
| A．get rid of his fixed habit | B．lower his blood pressure |
| C．see things from a new angle | D．free his preoccupied mind |
| A．personal attitude towards habits | B．daily routines as a professional writer |
| C．writing process of a special article | D．decision making on the theme for an article |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】At age 23, Chad’s life was just beginning. But one night, a drunk driver crashed into his motorcycle and his leg was severely injured. To save the leg, Chad went through operation after operation, but in vain. When the doctor announced the leg had to come off, Chad sank into a bitter desperation. How would he function with only one leg? Would he have the family he had always dreamed of? And how would he ever pay off the hospital bills?
Nothing we did eased his deep frustration. One night, I brought Gene, the husband of my colleague, to Chad’s hospital room. Gene joked with Chad at once, telling him he was “on his last leg”. Chad exploded, “How can you talk like that when they’re going to cut off my leg?” Gene just bent over, rolled up his trousers and revealed his own prosthesis (假肢). I left them alone.
When I returned an hour later, the light had come back into Chad’s eyes. “Gene said that people who give to others always get back more than they give. He said I should not worry about my future and the most important thing was never to give up.”
Four months later, Chad was back at work. He remembered Gene’s words. He learned to ride a bicycle with his fake leg, swam one-legged and practiced running slow. However, the hardest problem was how he would ever get back on his “foot” financially. The hospital bills would take him thirty years to pay.
His doctor often called to ask him to rush to the hospital and offer comfort to an injury victim. No matter how tired Chad was, no matter when he was called, he would drop everything to help. One day, he received a different call. “Chad,” the doctor began, “I am calling to tell you that a stranger has just paid all your medical bills.”
Gene was right. People who give freely to others get back more than they give.
1. What can we learn about Chad after the accident?| A．He felt concerned about his future. | B．He left the hospital in desperation. |
| C．He regretted riding the motorcycle. | D．He refused to receive the treatment. |
| A．He tended Chad carefully and lovingly. |
| B．He offered some funny words of comfort. |
| C．He shared a similar story of his own with Chad. |
| D．He proved to be capable of swimming one-legged. |
| A．Determined and helpful. | B．Caring and humorous. |
| C．Confident and cooperative. | D．Ambitious and warmhearted. |
| A．Love breaks down barriers. | B．Kindness is always rewarded. |
| C．A good medicine tastes bitter. | D．He who laughs last laughs best. |
【推荐2】An 80-year-old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45-year-old highly educated son.
Suddenly a crow (乌鸦) perched on the tree near their window.
The father asked his son, “What is this?”
The son replied, “It is a crow.”
After a few minutes, the father asked his son the 2nd time, “What is this?”
The son said, “Father, I have just now told you ‘It’s a crow.’”
After a little while, the old father again asked his son the 3rd time, “What is this?”
“It’s a crow, a crow, a crow,” said the son loudly.
A little after, the father again asked his son the 4th time, “What is this?”
This time the son shouted at his father, “Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again? ‘IT IS A CROW’. Are you not able to understand this?”
A little later, the father went to his room and came back with an old diary, which he had kept since his son was born. Opening a page, he asked his son to read that page. When the son read it, the following words were written in the diary: “Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa, when a crow was sitting on the window. My son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied to him all 23 times that it was a crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question a- gain and again for 23 times. I did not at all feel annoyed. I rather felt affection for my innocent child. ”
1. In what tone did the son say to his father “It’s a crow, a crow, a crow”?| A．Hurried. | B．Impatient. |
| C．Excited. | D．Surprised. |
| A．Because he couldn’t understand what his son said. |
| B．Because he was too old to remember anything. |
| C．Because he wanted to make his son angry. |
| D．Because he wanted to see how patient his son would be. |
| A．80 years old. | B．45 years old. |
| C．38 years old. | D．35 years old. |
| A．A Crow | B．An Old man |
| C．An Old Dairy | D．Father’s Love |
【推荐3】Both of my parents worked full-time when I was a little girl, so my grandmother would stay at our house during the day. We would watch game shows in the living room. Our favorite was The Price is Right. We would call out our answers along with the contestants.
When I got older and started going to school, we couldn’t watch our game shows regularly. That was okay with me, though, because the one thing I liked better than watching game shows with my grandmother was helping her bake. Watching her in the kitchen was amazing: she never seemed to need the recipes but everything she made tasted delicious.
At first I would just sit in the kitchen and watch, even though I didn’t understand what she was doing. As I got older, she let me help with the easy parts, such as measuring the sugar. The day she let me separate the eggs, I felt like I had found complete pleasure.
At last, my parents decided that I could take care of myself, and my grandmother stopped coming over every day. The love of baking, however, stayed with me. I started baking by myself, and even if the cookies ended up burnt sometimes, more often they turned out pretty well. I tried out new recipes, and whenever I got to a thorny part, I would call my grandmother for advice. Sometimes I would call her just to talk, too. I felt like I could talk to her about anything.
My grandmother passed away ten years ago, but I still think of her every day. Last week, I found a recipe book she made for me. It included her recipes for brownies, cookies, and my favorite, lemon pie. As I looked through the pages, I thought I could hear her voice. She was the one who taught me not just about baking, but about life.
1. The passage is developed in order of .| A．time | B．place |
| C．logic | D．events |
| A．missed the game shows |
| B．refused to go to school |
| C．showed great interest |
| D．could take care of herself |
| A．Basic. | B．Common. |
| C．Difficult. | D．Special. |
| A．lived with her family |
| B．was very skilled at baking |
| C．published a recipe book |
| D．had been on a game show |
When I got there, it looked like she had been overcome by weep than that she had fallen; she was a young woman who looked exhausted with dark circles under her eyes. She dropped something as I helped her up, and I picked it up and gave it to her. It was a coin.
At that moment, everything came into focus for me: the crying woman, the ancient Suburban packed full of stuff and three kids in the back, and the gas pump(汽油泵) reading $4.95.
I asked her if she was okay and if she needed help, and she just kept saying “I don’t want my kids to see me crying,” so we stood at the other side of the pump from her car. She said she was driving to California for Christmas and that things were very hard for her right now.
I took out my credit card and swiped(刷磁卡) it through the card reader on the pump so that she could fill up her car completely, and I bought 2 big bags of food for her kids in the car who attacked it like wolves. While it was fueling, she asked, “So, are you an angel or something?” I said, “At this time of year, angels are really busy, so sometimes God uses common people.”
It was unbelievable to be part of someone else’s miracle. And of course, you guessed it, when I got in my car it started right away and got me home with no problem. Sometimes, angels fly close enough to you that you can hear the flutter(摆动) of their wings.
1. . Caught in traffic, the author still felt happy because .
| A．she could fill up her car to get home in time |
| B．the woman who needed help was waiting there |
| C．she could find a warm place to wait |
| D．she could do something for others in the gas station |
| A．her situation was very terrible | B．her kids wouldn’t listen to her |
| C．she was too tired | D．she fell down and got injured |
| A．the author was driving carelessly on the way home |
| B．the young woman was interested in long driving |
| C．the young woman didn’t want to see her kids crying |
| D．the kids were extremely hungry at that time |
| A．was a kind person | B．liked to deal with others’ business |
| C．had no thought for others | D．was a real angel |
【推荐2】“Twelve years ago, I was a professional dancer and black belt in taekwondo (跆拳道) when a disease went undiagnosed and wiped out my muscular system. I finally ended up on life support in intensive care unit with organ failure,” Kaufman recalled. “I went from living this big life to not knowing how I was going to survive. Fortunately, on my birthday in 2009, I received a new heart and was given a second chance of life!”
After volunteering in Los Angeles hospitals, Kaufman started the non-profit organization, Ava’s Heart. She and her organization offered transplant patients services that were often not covered by insurance, including food, gas, co-pays on medicines, and housing.
“What I found out was that if you didn’t have post-transplant housing, you couldn’t get listed and admitted into the hospital,” Kaufman said. She learned that for the nearly110,000 people in the US waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant, it was not just a matter of adding their name to the list. Patients must be financially secure and be able to afford transportation. What’s more, they must find accommodations near their transplant hospital. Kaufman runs two housing locations, which allow the patients to remain close to their transplant hospital during the period of their aftercare, typically about three months at no cost.
Her organization also helps donor families, which she thinks make the whole circle complete.” One organ donor can save eight lives and then there’s tissue and skin and eye sand blood vessels (血管) and so many other things,” Kaufman said. “The donor is the whole story. Without the donor, there are no transplant centers, no transplant surgeons, and no me. In my eyes, the donors are the heroes.”
To date, Ava’s Heart has helped nearly 90 families with burial costs for their loved ones whose organs have saved lives. Kaufman also works to build relationships between receivers and donor families and spread awareness of the importance of organ donation.
1. Why did Kaufman talk about her memory in Paragraph 1?| A．To illustrate the significance of life. |
| B．To recall her plain and boring days. |
| C．To indicate her motivation for paying back. |
| D．To confirm her enthusiasm for the profession. |
| A．secure finance | B．health insurance |
| C．sufficient community service hours | D．working experience in the hospital |
| A．Brave and caring. | B．Grateful and warm-hearted. |
| C．Considerate and hardworking. | D．Sympathetic and easy-going. |
| A．It’s better to give than to receive. | B．Health matters much more than wealth. |
| C．The blessed should bear the heart of giving. | D．Volunteering makes the world a better place. |
A Sea Story
About three years ago, something terrible happened to me. That was the day when it took only six hours to break my body and soul. You think I am a very old man—but I am not. It took less than a single day to change my hair from black to white.
One day, my two brothers and I were coming back from the islands where we often risked going and got more fish than others. All at once, the sky was covered with dark clouds and in less than a minute we were in a terrible storm. A hug wave covered our boat and my younger brother fell into the sea. My elder brother put his mouth close to my ear and cried out “Moskoe-strom!” The moment I heard the word I became very frightened. I knew what he meant by that one word well enough.
With the wind and waves, we were going in the direction of the whirlpool. We were hopeless. Nothing could save us. I felt sick, as if I was falling from a mountain top in a dream. We went round and round, nearer and nearer to the horrible edge of the whirlpool, I felt calmer than when we were moving towards it. I began to think how amazing a thing it was to die in such a way, and how wonderful it was to see the power of nature. Suddenly, we went over the edge. I thought my life was over. But moment after moment passed, and I was still safe.
The boat was on the inside of the huge whirlpool and we were going round in circles at great speed, I saw clearly that there were other objects in the whirlpool—trees and barrels. After a while, I became curious about the whirlpool itself. I then made three important observations. The first, the larger the bodies were, the more rapidly they fell; the second, between two objects of equal extent, round objects fell down less rapidly; and the third, between two objects of the same size, objects shaped like a tube fell down more slowly. So I tied myself to a barrel to help me float. I tried to make my brother understand, but he was too frightened and stayed in the heavy boat. Without waiting, I jumped into the sea to try and escape.
Some time after I left the boat, with my brother in it, it was pulled into the bottom of the whirlpool. Soon after that, the whirlpool became less wild. Then the sky was clear, the wind calmer, and the moon was shining. I was still tied to the barrel and the waves soon carried me to an area where the other fishermen were. In the end, a boat picked me up. I was very tired. The fishermen were my old friends, but they were unable to recognize me. (adapted from Lesson 1, 480 words)
1. What were the three observations the storyteller made?2. Why did the storyteller survive while his elder brother didn’t?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
The other fishermen couldn’t recognize me because my appearance had greatly changed after I struggled and survived a whirlpool.
4. What lessons have you learnt from the story? Give your reasons. (about 40 words)
