Not long ago when I had a dinner party, a guest noticed the gravy boat (船形酱汁壶) — a piece of china, “Is it a heirloom (传家宝)?” The boat is very old, matches nothing else, and has a V-shaped cut on it. But it is the one I will keep forever.
Our history together began fifty years ago when I was seven. That December the river started to rise. We worked hard against the disaster and even kept a rowboat downstairs. My mother carefully packed the china in the study upstairs because it’d been her mother’s and was valuable to her. She told me, “You must treasure the things people you love have treasured. It keeps you in touch with them.” But then I didn’t really understand her concern.
The water rose higher. One night, the floor of the study fell through and the china was on the first floor under the rising river. The loss really broke her heart. That night she sat on the top of the stairs and cried.
The next morning I could tell how bad she still felt. Suddenly I saw the rowboat —yes, I could fish for the china. I put a hook (钩) onto a line, let it down until I felt it hit bottom and slowly moved the rowboat back and forth, pulling my line, but time after time I pulled the line up empty.
When we had to leave as the water poured in, I tried for the last time. Suddenly I felt something and raised my catch. The gravy boat! The moment I took it out in front of my mother, she was in tears of joy.
It was just then that I realized how deeply that old gravy boat connected me to the people and places of my past, tying me to my mother as well as her life, her joy and her love.
1. What can we learn about the gravy boat?| A．It is fifty years old. | B．It means much to “my” family. |
| C．It is old but perfect. | D．It matches the furniture well. |
| A．Pain of the injury. | B．Rise of the river. |
| C．Damage of the study. | D．Loss of the treasure. |
| A．Caring. | B．Honest. | C．Confident. | D．Responsible. |
| A．Stay calm in face of a disaster. |
| B．“Heirlooms” connect generations. |
| C．Suffering improves the parent-child tie. |
| D．Mother’s love promotes her child’s growth. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】At a restaurant, a cockroach(蟑螂) suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to throw away the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky.
The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but ...it landed on another lady in the group. Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama. The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.
Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, I picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach responsible for their dramatic behavior? If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed? He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos. It is not the cockroach, but the inability of those people to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach, that disturbed the ladies.
I realized that, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or my wife that disturbs me, but it's my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me. It's not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me. More than the problem, it's my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my life.
1. What does word “the drama” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Escape from the restaurant . | B．Sip her coffee. |
| C．Get rid of the cockroach. | D．Rush to the waiter. |
| A．Calm. | B．Brave. | C．Confident. | D．Stubborn. |
| A．Being laughed at by her group. | B．Her fear of the cockroach. |
| C．Her incapability to deal with the cockroach. | D．Her jumping and screaming. |
| A．It is never too late to learn. |
| B．Think twice before you act. |
| C．Always be ready to help others. |
| D．Your reaction to the problem determines how you feel. |
【推荐2】Your mind is very powerful. Yet, if you’re like most people, you probably spend very little time reflecting on the way you think. After all, who thinks about thinking?
Your thoughts are a catalyst(催化剂)for self-perpetuating(自我持续的)cycles.
I see this happen all the time in my therapy office. Someone will come in saying, “I’m just not good enough to advance in my career.” That assumption leads her to feel discouraged and causes her to put in less effort.
Once you draw a conclusion about yourself, you’re likely to do two things; look for evidence that reinforces your belief and discount anything that runs contrary to your belief. Someone who develops the belief that he’s a failure, for example, will view each mistake as proof that he’s not good enough.
| A．When he does succeed, he’ll owe it to luck. |
| B．That lack of effort prevents her from getting promoted. |
| C．Creating a more positive outlook can lead to better outcomes. |
| D．With conscious effort, you can learn to think more positively. |
| E．However, the way you think about yourself turns into your reality. |
| F．Once that belief gets deeply rooted in his mind, he will suffer a lot. |
| G．What you think directly influences how you feel and how you behave. |
【推荐3】In the late afternoon, 15-year-old Saanya Hasan Ali can often be found in her comfortable family room.
Saanya made cards to sell at a family wedding that summer. To her own surprise, she earned $600, enough to send eight children to school for the year. “I kept on making cards, and the following summer I was able to help support the kids for another year,”” explains Saanya.
Saanya acknowledges that her project has helped her to see the world through different eyes. “Now that I am in high school, I would also like to inspire other kids to do their own projects.
| A．I was in third grade then. |
| B．Saanya’s unexpected success began in 2005. |
| C．But Saanya decided to raise the money herself. |
| D．But she isn’t doing homework or in front of a computer screen |
| E．No matter who you are, there is always an opportunity to make a difference. |
| F．Saanya had established her own non-profit organization called “Children Helping Children”. |
| G．One of her goals is to support the schooling of these eight children until they graduate from college. |
【推荐1】The spring before our son Hank was scheduled to enter kindergarten, we were invited to the school's “Kindergarten Round-up”. The title led me to believe that Hank and I would be enjoying a fun night.999
We arrived to find several on-the-spot tests to see where Hank ranked academically. Somewhat nervously, I watched as Hank recited the alphabet (字母表), counted as high as he could, and arranged blocks in a series of confusing patterns. So far, so good. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“All right, Hank,” the tester said, “just a few more easy questions.” Then she explained to me that she wanted to hear what Hank thinks was the logical thing to do in certain situations. I smiled and nodded, but inside I felt a fresh flash of panic. What if Hank couldn't reach any logical conclusions?
After several dialogues, like “Eating too much sugar?” “Tooth decay!”, the tester nodded her head. “Okay, Hank, tell me what you'd do if you went into a dark room.” Without thinking, Hank said, “Be brave.”
The tester waited a moment before promoting, “What else would you do? Wouldn't you turn on a light?” “Oh, yeah,” Hank said, “if I could reach it.”
Obviously, being brave wasn't the expected answer, but as I listened, all I could think about was how many events awaited him when bravery would be enormously helpful. While it's smart to turn on a light, it never hurts to be brave while you're waiting for your eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness. From the mouth of my child, I realized that I'd handed my son advice that applied to my life just as much as it did to his.
Hank and I left the "Kindergarten Round-up" with a light heart, both believing he was going to be just fine.
1. What’s the purpose of the “Kindergarten Round-up”?| A．To evaluate kids' academic level. |
| B．To help kids pass kindergarten tests. |
| C．To let parents learn about kindergarten. |
| D．To please pre-schoolers. |
| A．Pleased. | B．Relaxed. |
| C．Worried. | D．Confident. |
| A．She taught Hank an important lesson. |
| B．She was happy about Hank's answer. |
| C．She got valuable advice from the tester. |
| D．She was dissatisfied with the tester's reaction. |
| A．No Need to Turn on a Light | B．Kindergarten Will Just Be Fine |
| C．A Fruitless Kindergarten Round-up | D．Being Brave Is the Same Important |
【推荐2】In the Pascucci household, putting up Christmas lights was always a big day of celebration and a family affair. Every year, Anthony Pascucci, the male head of the family, and his older sister, Connie Pascucci, and Anthony’s son, Anthony Jr., and daughter, Sara, pitched in it.
In 2020, Anthony Sr., 60, tied colorful lights all around their roof until it looked as if the brightness of the lights could counter some of the darkness of the past year with COVID-19. However, just several days after Christmas Eve the pandemic claimed his life.
Sara says the next weeks were the worst of her life. But when she pulled up to the house at the end of a long day, the twinkling Christmas lights brought her a spark of joy. Taking the lights down felt like a final act of closure she wasn’t ready to take. So she kept them up.
One day Sara received an unsigned letter which read “Take your Christmas lights down! It’s Valentine’s Day!!!” Sara was shocked and angry. She decided to post the letter. “I wanted to remind people that we all had a tough year and people should be a little more caring toward each other,” she says.
“I know what it feels like to lose someone and not want to put their things away. It’s very hard,” one man commented. And something strange began to happen. Sara was driving back from work one day when she noticed that Christmas lights were appearing — or reappearing — on neighbors’ houses. The mystery had a sweet explanation: Her neighbors had gotten together and decided, collectively, to hang their lights back up and turn them back on in honor of Sara’s father.
“To see the lights and the block lit up again,” Sara said, “it touched my heart.” A few weeks later, Sara decided she was ready to take down the lights. Sara said it was hard to pack them away — “but not as hard as I think it would have been if we hadn’t experienced all that support and love.”
1. In Sara’s family, putting up Christmas lights .| A．was in the charge of Anthony | B．was a family routine |
| C．was the biggest event in a year | D．could remove the darkness of the past year |
| A．they reminded her of her father | B．it was still Christmas season then |
| C．it was too troublesome to remove them | D．she couldn’t tolerate them |
| A．share her anger and shock |
| B．win others’ sympathy and favor |
| C．criticize the person who wrote the letter |
| D．appeal to people to show more consideration to others |
| A．Up in Lights | B．Sara’s Sweet Neighbors |
| C．An Unforgettable Christmas | D．Let Your Neighbors’ Lights On |
【推荐3】I arrived at my mother’s home for our Monday family dinner. The smells of food flew over from the kitchen. Mother was pulling out quilt (被子) after quilt from the boxes, proudly showing me their beauties. She was preparing for a quilt show at the Elmhurst Church. When we began to fold and put them back into the boxes, I noticed something at the bottom of one box. I pulled it out. “What is this?” I asked.
“Oh?” Mom said, “That’s Mama’s quilt.”
I spread the quilt. It looked as if a group of school children had pieced it together; irregular designs, childish pictures, a crooked line on the right.
“Grandmother made this?” I said, surprised. My grandmother was a master at making quilts. This certainly didn’t look like any of the quilts she had made.
“Yes, right before she died. I brought it home with me last year and made some changes,” she said. “I’m still working on it. See, this is what I’ve done so far.”
I looked at it more closely. She had made straight a crooked line. At the center of the quilt, she had stitched (缝) a piece of cloth with these words: “My mother made many quilts. She didn’t get all lines straight. But I think this is beautiful. I want to see it finished. Her last quilt.”
“Ooh, this is so nice, Mom,” I said. It occurred to me that by completing my grandmother’s quilt, my mother was honoring her own mother. I realized, too, that I held in my hands a family treasure. It started with the loving hands of one woman, and continued with the loving hands of another.
1. Why did the author go to mother’s home?| A．To see her mother’s quilts. | B．To help prepare for a show. |
| C．To get together for the family dinner. | D．To discuss her grandmother’s life. |
| A．the quilt looked very strange | B．her grandmother liked the quilt |
| C．the quilt was the best she had seen | D．her mother had made some changes |
| A．unfinished | B．broken | C．bent | D．unusual |
| A．A Quilt Show | B．Mother’s Home | C．A Monday Dinner | D．Grandmother’s Quilt |
【推荐1】On a Friday night, a poor young artist stood at the gate of a New York subway station, playing his violin. Many of passers-by slowed down their paces and put some money into the hat of the young man.
The next day, at the same place, he put his hat on the ground gracefully. Different from the day before, he took out a large piece of paper and laid it on the ground and put some stones on it. Then he adjusted the violin and began playing. It seemed more pleasant to listen to.
The words read, “Last night, a gentleman named George Sang put an important thing into my hat mistakenly. Please come to claim it soon.”
Seeing this, people wondered what it could be. After about half an hour, a middle-aged man ran there hurriedly and rushed through the crowd to the violinist and grabbed his shoulders and said, “Yes, it’s you. You do come here. I knew that you were an honest man and would certainly come here.”
“Are you Mr. George Sang? ” asked the young violinist.
The man nodded. “Did you lose something?” “Lottery. It’s lottery.” “Is it?” The violinist took out a lottery ticket and asked.
George nodded immediately and seized the lottery ticket and kissed it, and then he danced with the violinist.
The story turned out to be this: George Sang bought a lottery ticket, winning a prize of $ 500,000. After work, he passed the station and felt the music was so wonderful that he took out 50 dollars and put it in the hat. However, the lottery ticket was also thrown in. The violinist was a student at an Arts College and had planned to attend further study in Vienna. He had booked the ticket and would fly that morning. However, when he was cleaning up he found the lottery ticket. Thinking that the owner would return to look for it, he cancelled the flight and came back to where he was given the lottery ticket.
When asked why he didn’t take the lottery ticket for himself, the violinist said, “Although I don’t have much money, I live happily; but if I lose honesty, I won’t be happy forever.’’
1. What is the order of the story?a. The violinist tried to look for the ticket owner.
b. George Sang won a lottery.
c. George Sang threw $ 50 and his lottery ticket in the hat of a violinist.
d. The violinist found the owner of the lottery ticket.
e. A young student played the violin near a subway station.
| A．c, d, e, a, b | B．b, c, e, d, a |
| C．b, e, c, a, d | D．c, a, d, b, e |
| A．moved | B．disappointed |
| C．mad | D．pleased |
| A．getting rich overnight is important |
| B．showing sympathy for others is important |
| C．being honest is of great importance |
| D．school fees are high at present |
| A．the college the young violinist was going to attend is not in New York |
| B．many people usually put their money in their hat in the distant past |
| C．George Sang may give some money to the young violinist as a reward |
| D．all the people who win lotteries are generous and easy-going |
【推荐2】Abraham Lincoln was a typical self-made man. He obtained his license to practice law without ever having stepped foot inside a college or academy building. Books became his academy. Everywhere he went, Lincoln carried a book with him. He thumbed through page after page while his horse rested at the end of a long row of planting. Whenever he could escape work, he would lie with his head against a tree and read.
Though the young Lincoln never left America, he traveled with Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage to Spain and Portugal; accompanied Robert Burns to Edinburgh; and followed the English kings into battle with Shakespeare. As he explored the wonders of literature and the history of the country, the young Lincoln developed ambitions far beyond the expectations of his family and neighbors. It was through literature that he was able to
go beyond his surroundings and reach his destination.The volumes to feed Lincoln’s intellectual hunger did not come cheaply. The story is often recounted of the time he borrowed Parson Weems’s The Life of George Washington from Josiah Crawford, a well-to-do farmer. Thrilled by this account of the first president’s life, he took the book to his loft at night, where he read as long as he could stay awake, placing the book on a makeshift shelf between the cabin logs so he could fetch it at daybreak. During a severe rainstorm one night, the book was badly soiled. Lincoln went to Crawford’s house, explained what had happened, and offered to work off the value of the book. Crawford calculated the value of two full days’ work pulling corn, which Lincoln considered an unfair repayment. Nevertheless, he straightway set to work and kept on until all work was done. Then, having paid his debt, Lincoln wrote poems and songs teasing Josiah’s large nose. Thus Crawford, in return for loaning Lincoln a book and then overly punishing him, won a permanent place in American history.
1. What can we learn about Lincoln from the first paragraph?| A．He wasn’t academically competent. | B．He read on horseback to escape work. |
| C．He failed to obtain a valid law license. | D．He is an excellent autonomous learner. |
| A．By reading extensively. | B．With his family’s support. |
| C．Through self-employment. | D．By traveling around the world. |
| A．Stolen by a farmer. | B．Burned by a candle fire. |
| C．Damaged in a rainstorm. | D．Lost and never recovered. |
| A．Tough and helpful. | B．Diligent and generous. |
| C．Intelligent and humble. | D．Determined and sharp-tongued. |
“Today we buried our 20-year-old son. He was killed in a motorcycle accident on Friday night. How I wish I had known that the last time I had talked to him would be the last time. If I had only known that, I would have said to him, ‘Jim, I love you and I’m always so proud of you.’ I would have taken the time to count the many blessings he had brought to the lives of the people who loved him. I would have taken the time to appreciate his beautiful smile, his laughter, and his genuine love to other people.
“When I put all the good things on the scale and try to balance them with all the irritating (恼人的) things such as the radio that was always too loud, the haircut that wasn’t to our liking, the dirty socks under the bed, etc., I find that the irritations really don’t amount to much.
“I won’t get another chance to tell my son all that I would have wanted him to hear, but, other parents, do have a chance. Tell your young people what you would want them to hear as if it may be your last conversation. The last time I talked to Jim was the morning of the day when he died. He called me to say, ‘Hi, Mom! I just called to say I love you. You have to go to work now. Bye.’ That day, he gave me something to treasure forever. ”
If there is any purpose at all for Jim’s death, maybe it is to make others appreciate life more and to tell people, especially family members, that they should take the time to let each other know just how much they care. You may never have another chance. Do it today!
1. Who was Jim?
| A．The child of the Tyners’. | B．The writer’s relative. |
| C．The president of a school board. | D．An official of a school. |
| A．The learning difficulty. | B．The physical problems. |
| C．The psychological problems. | D．The communication difficulty. |
| A．He was always sad about his school marks. |
| B．His parents always scolded him about his bad school marks. |
| C．His study needed more attention from his parents and teachers. |
| D．He was killed in a car accident. |
| A．memorize her son |
| B．teach parents to appreciate their children |
| C．teach children how to be good boys |
| D．give some advice on how to deal with children’s problems |
