I’ve been happily married to my wife for 25 years. We have gone through a lot together, but I have never seen anyone that has remained so calm and cool through it all. We have three wonderful children together and she just recently went back to finish her education degree to become a teacher in Louisiana, which is more about pride than a prize.
A couple of years ago, my wife was in a rather bad accident. We were shopping together in a Dollar General and when we were at the checkout she sent me back to pick up a fan for her mother. While I was back there, I heard a horrific noise, and she screamed my name. When I got to the front of the store, I realized that an elderly driver had hit the gas instead of the brake, hitting my wife.
I was able to get a cooler that had fallen on her and decided to go with her to the hospital. She had to have work done on her knee by herself from all the glass that had gotten impaled into it, but it was nothing short of a miracle that she wasn’t hurt further.
That’s when we learned of another miracle. During an ultrasound and X-ray to make sure that my wife’s back was okay, we discovered that not only did she lack one of her kidneys, but she also had a birth defect. This wonderful woman has given me so much that I can never thank her enough. I was medically dismissed from the military and went on disability. She has held a job and helped to take care of me and our three children, 20, 17, and 13, through some of the craziest stuff I can imagine.
She is a strong and resolute woman that takes pleasure in teaching her children in the classroom. And I could not ask for a better woman to love and live with.
1. What was to blame for the accident of the author’s wife?| A．Her birth defect. | B．A horrible noise. |
| C．The author’s indifference. | D．A driver’s mistake. |
| A．She called the police. |
| B．She went to hospital alone. |
| C．She fell unconscious on the ground. |
| D．She dealt with the wound by herself. |
| A．Through a routine medical test. |
| B．By examining her wounded back. |
| C．By checking her birth defect. |
| D．Through clearing all the glass. |
| A．To share his life experience. |
| B．To show his love for his family. |
| C．To express his thanks to his wife. |
| D．To honor his wonderful marriage. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Empty nest syndrome refers to the feelings of loneliness and grief that parents experience when children leave home for college, work or just to live on their own. It can be a difficult experience for a parent.
Prepare for the transition
Many parents are shocked that 17 or 18 years can pass by so quickly, and often feel lost when they're faced with their children leaving the nest for good. So it's necessary for you to start preparing for this transition as early as possible.
Rediscover yourself
Cultivate a hobby you love and get involved in meaningful work.
Reconnect with your spouse and friends
Your primary focus may have been parenting for many years, but when your children leave the home, you have an opportunity to reconnect with your spouse and become more involved in each other's lives again.
In today's world, it can be much easier to stay in touch with your children more regularly through technology. You can talk to them on the phone, text them and schedule regular Skype sessions.
It's also important to remember that the happiness you seek is within yourself. Consider your empty nest as an opportunity to rediscover and reconnect with yourself, your partner and your community.
| A．Make use of technology. |
| B．Schedule a regular phone call. |
| C．How did you get involved in empty nest syndrome? |
| D．What did you like to do before you became a mother or father? |
| E．It is a new opportunity to improve the quality of your marriage. |
| F．Here are several ways to help you love the next chapter, instead of fearing it. |
| G．You can make plans with the family when everyone is still under the same roof. |
【推荐2】As I went down the wooden snowy steps, I held the rough railing (栏杆) with one hand, held my crying daughter Kelly with the other and made my way into the yard. I knew everything would be okay if I located my mother.
Instead of a smile, she greeted me with concern. I knew she had read my face as I’d approached. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
I held the baby out. “I can’t take care of this baby,” I said simply. My mother didn’t take her from my arms as I expected. She smiled slightly, and then replied firmly, “You have to take care of that baby.” This was not the response I wanted. Couldn’t she hear the baby crying? I wanted her to fix this problem. Instead, she took off her gloves and asked me in for some coffee.
Mom held Kelly while I held the coffee cup. At that moment the baby finally stopped crying. I glanced over at Kelly, content in my mother’s arms. Her tiny blue eyes were fixed on me, as if to ask, “What’s the problem here, Mama?” Her sweet, familiar breath eased the stress in the air. I looked at my mother, feeling foolish but relieved. She stood and placed an arm around my shoulders. “By the time you came along, things were quite the opposite for me. But with my first child, you can bet that I often felt helpless.”
The baby showed no signs of our afternoon struggle, while my own hair remained damp and messy from sweat and worry. “Crying is the only way babies have to communicate. Try to listen to her cries and hear them as language. She’s not crying to annoy you; she’s trying to convey a message with the only voice she has.”
Once again, her gentle guidance had supported me through a storm and back into clear skies. As I headed back to my own home, Mom reminded me, “It won’t always be so hard. Children grow fast. Before you know it, you’ll have an empty nest and you’ll miss her.”
1. Why did the author visit her mother in the rough weather?| A．She was concerned about her mother’s safety. |
| B．She was helpless and needed her mother’s help. |
| C．She wanted everything to be OK with her family. |
| D．She wanted to learn to care for babies from her. |
| A．Experienced and confident. |
| B．Inexperienced but patient. |
| C．Thoughtless and unconcerned. |
| D．Considerate but impatient. |
| A．It’s babies9 way of expressing discomfort or hunger. |
| B．It’s babies9 main way to exercise and grow healthy. |
| C．It’s babies, only way of communication with people. |
| D．It’s babies’ fight for love and care from the world. |
| A．She likes to raise small children and give advice. |
| B．She lives a lonely life without her children. |
| C．She used to sail out to the sea with the author. |
| D．She often gives advice to the author in trouble. |
【推荐3】In my hometown, Oklahoma, the dirt goes everywhere. When my sister, Faye, and I walk to school, we cover our mouths so we don't breathe in the dirt. Mama says all the dust is due to the drought.
Last Sunday, there was no dirt in the air, only bright spring sunshine and a clear blue sky. After church, Papa went to the field to check on the cattle while Mama started dinner. Faye and I played in the yard. Then the temperature suddenly dropped, and Mama shouted from the house, “Iris, you and Faye get inside, real quick now!”
I looked to the west and saw a huge black cloud of dust. "Faye, go with Mama!” I shouted. “I will warn Papa.” Covering my face with one hand, I struggled my way toward our family car and got in. The storm hit so fast that the day turned into night in an instant. Papa was still out there! I needed to help him find the car. I turned on the front lights, but would Papa see them in the thick darkness? I pushed the horn （喇叭）again and again, hoping Papa would hear it.
Suddenly, to my great surprise and relief Papa's face appeared at the window. He opened the door and climbed onto the scat next to me. After Papa shut off the car's lights, we huddled together in the darkness for hours. I worried the dirt would bury us.
Finally, the wind subsided and the dust began to settle. We got out and reached the front porch just as Mama and Faye came out from the house.
"I'm safe thanks to Iris,“ Papa said. "The car's horn led me to shelter.”
"I'm so proud of you,“ Mama said to me.
Tears of joy streamed down my dirty checks because our family had survived the horrible storm.
1. When the storm struck, Iris went to the car to.| A．direct her papa to shelter | B．turn to her papa for help |
| C．warn her papa of the storm | D．tell her papa about her safety |
| A．got up | B．died down |
| C．went on | D．came along |
| A．Love for Papa | B．Rescue on black Sunday |
| C．Drought in Oklahoma | D．Papa trapped in the storm |
【推荐1】Ekua Holmes and Elam Walker are cousins who grew up together in Roxbury, Mass. They based their first book named Dream Street on their childhood living place — a beautiful place full of parks and gardens, full of different kinds of houses, old and new, full of different persons, old and young.
“We grew up together, played a lot together and created a lot together,” says Elam Walker. She was a lawyer but gave up her job to write. They knew they wanted to work on a book together, but they didn’t quite know where to begin. So Holmes began sending her cousin images of collages (拼贴画) with their experiences of daily life.
In them Elam Walker found some poems in a book and a piece of wallpaper in their home from the 1950s... cloth and lace (饰带) used before and things like that. Elam Walker love all the things that have been used before because they already had a life, and they already had a story.
Elam Walker pieced together the story, filling Dream Street with characters from their childhood. They named the librarian after Elam Walker’s mother, Ms. Barbara, who loved books, especially children’s books and thought children’s books could solve the problems of the world. They were also inspired by everyone in the neighborhood: from their teachers, to their cousins, to church ladies. “I was always crazy about them, in their beautiful hats and flowers. And even people at the bus stop,” says Holmes. “Those are the moments that we may walk by every day but not realize how precious they are.”
They write together and dream that someday they’ll create the book about their child-hood. “I just love,” says Elam Walker, “that our story is written in the story and it’s the story of our dream.”
1. What did Elam Walker do before she decided to write?| A．A lawyer. | B．A teacher. | C．A farmer. | D．A writer. |
| A．The things that they used before. |
| B．Their experiences of daily life. |
| C．Some kinds of poems in a book. |
| D．The images of collages. |
| A．To make comparisons. | B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To provide an example. | D．To support her argument. |
| A．The true friendship of two cousins. |
| B．The experiences of two cousins’ childhood. |
| C．A book’s characters designed from the childhood. |
| D．A book written based on the childhood hometown. |
【推荐2】The sun near the equator is never-ceasing, bearing down as I lead Elaine, a dark brown horse, through thick bushes. It’s been a long day on horseback. My legs ache and our camp signals across a ridge of ancient folding hills in the Lolldaiga Range of northern Kenya, a mosaic (马赛克) of twisted landscapes and communities.
Suddenly Elaine’s ears flick into alert, and the muscles of her body tense beneath me. Our guide Nicholus stretches out a lean arm toward a bush just meters away. My eyes focus, trying my best to see what the others already have: two amber balls glowing from a shadowed form. It’s a young lion, quick and strong, in the middle of the high grass.
A wild silence hangs between us.
Without the defensive hunting vehicle, I feel completely exposed. Peering into the bush, I’m suspended between wonder and terror, the distance between myself and the Savannah’s most notorious hunter unbelievably small. Usually, I’m the one tracking the lion, camera in hand. Now, the lion shifts in my consciousness from object to subject. I shift, too, strongly aware of the soft flesh of my own body.
Nicholus nods his head in the other direction, a safer distance away. He points to shallow holes in the dust. “Look, this is a big lion, and these are young ones, some cubs,” he says. “Probably a mother.” Pawprints marked the earth, each telling the story of more lions, moving in different directions.
It was time to go.
Horseback safaris are still the most immersive way to view wildlife in Kenya. To journey on horseback is to break down the walls — meant to protect, but also to separate us from the natural world. And as we’re absorbed in the thrill of the experience, we’re vividly reminded of the importance of protecting these wild spaces.
Out here your horse is your translator, responding to the low hiss of a leopard, the soft scent of an elephant herd, the cool morning breeze descending from Mount Kenya’s glacial peaks. Your job is to learn how to listen.
1. Which words can NOT describe my horseback journey?| A．Thrilling. | B．Tiring. | C．Breathtaking. | D．Boring. |
| A．I regretted not having driven a vehicle. |
| B．I felt extremely tense in case of lions’ attack. |
| C．There will be a big battle between lions and us. |
| D．It was out of my expectation to break into a lion’s world. |
| A．Horses are much cheaper than vehicles. |
| B．Visitors will experience the wildlife anytime. |
| C．It is a safe and exciting way to enjoy the wildlife. |
| D．It offers a chance to reconsider the connection between humans and wildlife. |
| A．Find more animals to feed. | B．Ask your horse for translation. |
| C．Feel nature with your heart. | D．Listen to the sound of every animal. |
【推荐3】Itzhak Perlman was born in Tel Aviv, in what was then Palestine, in 1945. Today he lives in New York City. But his music has made him a citizen of the world. He has played in almost every major city. He has won many Grammy awards for his recordings. He has also won Emmy Awards for his work on television.
Itzhak Perlman suffered from polio (小儿麻痹症) at the age of four. The disease damaged his legs. He uses a wheelchair or walks with the aid of crutches (拐杖) on his arms. But none of this stopped him from playing the violin. He began as a young child. He took his first lessons at the Music Academy of Tel Aviv. Very quickly, his teachers recognized that he had a special gift.
At thirteen he went to the United Sates to appear on television. His playing earned him the financial aid to attend the Juilliard School in New York. In 1964 Itzhak Perlman won the Leventritt Competition in that city. His international fame had begun.
His music is full of power and strength. It can be sad or joyful, loud or soft. But critics (评论家) say it is not the music alone that makes his playing so special. They say he is able to communicate the joy he feels in playing, and the emotions that great music can deliver.
Anyone who has attended a performance by Itzhak Perlman will tell you that it is exciting to watch him play. His face changes as the music from his violin changes. He looks sad when the music seems sad. He smiles and closes his eyes when the music is light and happy. He often looks dark and threatening when the music seems dark and threatening.
1. According to the passage, what do we know about Itzhak Perlman?| A．He is 75 years old today. |
| B．He was born in New York City. |
| C．He has some achievements in music. |
| D．He was a rich citizen of the world. |
| A．ignored his talents | B．thought he was fit to learn music |
| C．had pity on him | D．didn't want to accept him |
| A．The emotions he communicates in his playing. |
| B．The style in which he plays his music. |
| C．The kind of music he plays. |
| D．The power and strength in his music. |
| A．Moved. | B．Calm. |
| C．Funny. | D．Excited. |
【推荐1】“Well，we're in our new house.Let's get a new pet to go along with it，”Mrs.Brown said to her husband.
“That sounds like a very good idea，”he answered.“Do you want to see the ads in the newspaper？”
“Let's go to the animal shelter.Many pets there need homes.Since tomorrow is Saturday，we can both go，”she said.
The next morning the Browns met Mr.Snow at the animal shelter.“We want to be sure that the pets here go to good homes，”Mr.Snow said，“So I need to ask you some questions.”
After they talked for a while，the Browns decided to get a small dog.It wouldn't need a big house or a big yard.A small dog would bark（吹）and warn them if someone tried to break intotheir house.After Mr.Snow gave the Browns a book on pet care，they chose one and wanted to take her home right away.But the animal doctor hadn’t examined her yet.So Mr.Snow told them to return on Sunday.
On Sunday afternoon the Browns went to the animal shelter.The animal doctor said，“Shadow has had all of her shots（预防针）.She will be healthy.”The Browns thanked the doctor and took Shadow home.
1. From the reading we learn that_______.| A．the Browns have never had a pet before |
| B．the Browns knew about Shadow from the newspaper. |
| C．Shadow is a small and healthy dog |
| D．Mr. Brown didn't quite agree with his wife |
| A．a place to sell small dogs. | B．a place to keep homeless animals |
| C．a place to study animals. | D．a place to sell books on pet care |
| A．see if they had moved to a new house | B．find out how rich the Browns were |
| C．know where they'd keep their new pet | D．make sure they'd take good care of pets |
| A．doesn't need any room to keep | B．can help them watch their house |
| C．eats less food than a bigger one | D．usually has a beautiful name |
| A．Shadow will not be easy to get ill |
| B．the Browns were not pleased with Shadow |
| C．Mr. Snow didn't examine Shadow at all |
| D．Shadow likes barking a lot |
【推荐2】In a small Italian town, hundreds of years ago, a small business owner owed a large sum of money to a loan-shark. The loan-shark was a very old, unattractive looking guy that just so happened to fancy the business owner’s daughter.
He decided to offer the businessman a deal that would completely wipe out the debt he owed him. However, the trap was that he would only wipe out the debt if he could marry the businessman’s daughter, heedless to say, this proposal was met with a look of disgust.
The loan-shark said that he would place two pebbles into a bag, one white and one black. The daughter would then have to reach into the bag and pick out a pebble. If it was black, the debt would be wiped, but the loan-shark would then marry her. If it was white, the debt would also be wiped, but the daughter wouldn’t have to many the loan-shark.
Standing on a pebble-strewn path in the businessman’s garden, the loan-shark bent over and picked up two pebbles. While he was picking them up, the daughter noticed that he’d picked up two black pebbles and placed them both into the bag. He then asked the daughter to reach into the bag and pick one.
She drew out a pebble from the bag, and before checking, it ‘accidentally’ dropped into the midst of the other pebbles. She said to the loan-shark, “Oh，how clumsy (笨拙的) of me. Never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.” The pebble left in the bag is obviously black, and not wanting to be exposed, the loan-shark had to play along as if the pebble the daughter dropped was white, and clear her father’s debt.
1. What is the businessman and his daughter’s attitude towards the proposal?| A．Supportive. | B．Disapproved. | C．Neutral. | D．Skeptical. |
| A．Because the daughter pretended it |
| B．Because the pebble was too slip to hold. |
| C．Because the daughter was too clumsy to hold it. |
| D．Because the businessman was angry and rejected the game. |
| A．She refused to pick a pebble from the bag. |
| B．She took both pebbles out of the bag and expose the cheat. |
| C．She chose not to expose the loan-shark while winning the bet with a trick. |
| D．She picked the black pebble from the bag and decided to sacrifice herself. |
The student turned to the teacher saying: “We will hide his shoes, and hide ourselves behind those trees, and wait to see what he will do”.
“My young friend,” answered the teacher, “we should never make fun of the poor. Why not put a coin in each shoe, and then we will hide ourselves and watch?” The student did so and they both hid themselves behind the trees. The poor man soon finished his work, and came across the field to the path where he had left his coat and shoes.
After putting on his coat, he put his foot into one of his shoes, and felt something hard. Then he bent (弯腰) down to feel what it was, and found the coin. Surprised, he looked at the coin, turned it around and looked at it again. He then looked around, but no person was seen. He put the money into his pocket, and continued to put on the other shoe. His surprise was doubled on finding the other coin.
He couldn’t control his feelings and fell to his knees, looked up to the sky and expressed his thanks. Then he spoke of his wife, sick and helpless, and his children without bread. He said the help would save them from dying.
The student stood there deeply moved, and his eyes filled with tears. “Now,” said the teacher, “Are you not much happier than if you had hidden the shoes?”
1. When the student saw the shoes, he wanted to_______.
| A．steal them | B．play a joke on the owner |
| C．find their owner | D．give the owner some money |
| A．quiet and honest | B．kind and friendly |
| C．patient and clever | D．strict and careful |
| A．was surprised and decided to find the owner |
| B．was worried and looked up at the sky |
| C．was very excited and grateful |
| D．spoke of his difficulties and asked for more help |
| A．True happiness comes from helping others. |
| B．All good things come to an end. |
| C．Where there is a will，there is away. |
| D．It is never too late to learn. |
