When her five daughters were young, Helen An always told them that there was strength in unity (团结). To show this, she held up one chopstick, representing one person. Then she easily broke it into two pieces. Next, she tied several chopsticks together, representing a family. She showed the girls it was hard to break the tied chopsticks. This lesson about family unity stayed with the daughters as they grew up.
Helen An and her family own a large restaurant business in California. However, when Helen and her husband Danny left their home in Vietnam in 1975, they didn’t have much money. They moved their family to San Francisco. There they joined Danny’s mother, Diana, who owned a small Italian sandwich shop. Soon afterwards, Helen and Diana changed the sandwich shop into a small Vietnamese restaurant. The five daughters helped in the restaurant when they were young. However, Helen did not want her daughters to always work in the family business because she thought it was too hard.
Eventually the girls all graduated from college and went away to work for themselves, but one by one, the daughters returned to work in the family business. They opened new restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Even though family members sometimes disagreed with each other, they worked together to make the business successful. Daughter Elizabeth explains, “Our mother taught us that to succeed we must have unity, and to have unity we must have peace. Without the strength of the family, there is no business.”
Their expanding business became a large corporation in 1996, with three generations of Ans working together. Now the Ans’ corporation makes more than $ 20 million each year. Although they began with a small restaurant, they had big dreams, and they worked together. Now they are a big success.
1. Helen tied several chopsticks together to show ________.| A．the strength of family unity | B．the difficulty of growing up |
| C．the advantage of chopsticks | D．the best way of giving a lesson |
| A．started a business in 1975 |
| B．left Vietnam without much money |
| C．bought a restaurant in San Francisco |
| D．opened a sandwich shop in Los Angeles |
| A．How to Run a Corporation | B．Strength Comes from Peace |
| C．How to Achieve a Big Dream | D．Family Unity Builds Success |
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【推荐1】My daughter Kelly is a cautious person. She needs to warm up to situations, and is hesitant to try new things. But this has been a year of firsts for my girl that has filled her with a new sense of confidence. This year she moved to lap lane in swimming where she was preparing for a swim team. This year she learned to ride a bike without training wheels. And this year she completed her first kids’ triathlon (三项全能).
On Saturday, with a thunderstorm coming soon and my son’s birthday party later in the day, we all went out in the dark of the morning for Kelly to participate in her first triathlon. We practiced transitions from swim to bike to run with her, we got all the equipment she’d need, and we kept talking about the race. But as we waited the two hours for the older kids to finish before her turn, she held my leg a little harder and told me she loved me a few too many times. She was nervous but trying to keep it together.
And then it was her turn. From the second she jumped into the water, my heart soared. My daughter transformed into the most confident human being I had ever seen. She dominated that swim, crushed that bike ride and ran to the finish with the biggest smile on her face.
I can honestly say that I never felt so proud of someone in my entire life. It wasn’t because she did a sport or anything like that. It was because she was afraid of something and conquered that fear with confidence and a fire I hadn’t seen before.
I kept looking at her with smile. She might be wearing the finalist medal but I felt like I won that day. I won the chance to see my girl shine.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 2?| A．The race began in the early morning. |
| B．Kelly prepared for her brother’s birthday party. |
| C．Kelly was eager for her turn in the race. |
| D．The whole family gave Kelly support. |
| A．worried and hesitant | B．excited and proud |
| C．anxious and uneasy | D．curious and concerned |
| A．to succeed in dealing with or control something |
| B．to take control of an area and its people by force |
| C．to become very popular or successful in a place |
| D．to defeat someone especially in a competition |
| A．expressed love to her | B．won the gold medal |
| C．overcame the fear | D．took part in the sport |
【推荐2】I want to talk about a soldier. I saw him yesterday as my husband and I were enjoying a wonderful lunch in the cave-like dining room of an old hotel.
It is hard to imagine being comfortable in a room that probably seats a thousand, but the real magic of the place is its wonderful setting. Every comer is a wood and stone masterpiece, with high glass windows that look out to the huge cliffs of the valley.
A man entered with his family and took a seat. He wasn't in uniform, but he walked with the dignity of a soldier, and a slight limp (瘸). My suspicion was confirmed when he removed his hat and placed it on the table where I could see it. Embroidered (绣) on the cap were the words: "Iwo Jima Survivor".
As they were waiting for lunch, the others talking happily, this gentleman was stating out of the window. He was content to be left out of the conversation and allowed to take in the wonderful and impressive view of the waterfall.
I watched him, and imagined how much horror he had seen in the war. What losses did he suffer, and how many friends did he lose? What he had witnessed should have given him a good reason to lose faith in the world. Yet this tired soldier was smiling at the sky, at the sun and the roaring of the waterfall. Somehow, after everything, the world was still beautiful to him.
I walked over to him and said, "Excuse me, sir. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I saw your hat, and I just wanted to say thank you for serving."
He looked up at me, surprised, and said proudly, "You're welcome, and thank you, too."
I told him I would go home and tell my children about this experience that I'd met him.
1. The place where the author enjoyed lunch was __| A．only open to people of the upper classes |
| B．once visited by many famous people |
| C．attractive because of its beautiful surroundings |
| D．modeled on scenes from American history |
| A．The author at first thought the gentleman was famous. |
| B．The gentleman stood out because of his uniform. |
| C．The gentleman’s family didn’t like to talk with him. |
| D．The gentleman wasn’t expecting the author to thank him. |
| A．His disability. |
| B．His loneliness. |
| C．His contribution to his country. |
| D．His bravery to fight in the war. |
| A．Admiring. | B．Satisfied. |
| C．Sympathetic. | D．Doubtful. |
【推荐3】At eleven, I decided to learn to swim. There was a pool at the YMCA offering exactly the opportunity. My mother continually warned against it, and kept fresh in my mind the details of each drowning in the river. But the YMCA pool was safe.
I had a childhood fear of water. This started when I was three years old and my father took me to the beach.The huge waves knocked me down and swept over me.
The pool was quiet. I was afraid of going in all alone, so I sat on one side of the pool to wait for others. Then came a big boy. He yelled, “Hi, how’d you like to be ducked?” With that he picked me up and threw me into the deep end.I landed in a sitting position, and swallowed water. But I was not frightened out of my wits—when my feet hit the bottom, I would make a big jump to come out of the surface. It seemed a long way down. I gathered all my strength when I landed and made what I thought was a great spring upwards. Then I opened my eyes and saw nothing but water. I tried to yell but no sound came out. I went down, down, endlessly.
When I came to consciousness, I found myself lying on the bed in the hospital.
I never went back to the pool. I avoided water whenever I could. This misadventure stayed with me as the years rolled by.It deprived(剥夺) me of the joy of boating and swimming. Finally, I decided to get an instructor. Piece by piece, he built a swimmer. Several months later, the instructor was finished, but I was not .Sometimes the terror would return.
This went on until July. I swam across the Lake Went worth.Only once did the terror return. When I was in the middle of the lake, I put my face under and saw nothing but bottomless water. I laughed and said, “Well, Mr Terror, what do you think you can do to me?” I had conquered my fear of water.
1. What was the author’s original fear of water caused by?| A．His poor skill in swimming. |
| B．His mother’s warning of drowning. |
| C．An outing to the beach with his father. |
| D．An unpleasant memory of the pool. |
| A．He knew how to swim in the pool. |
| B．He felt that the YMCA pool was safe. |
| C．He was waiting for others to save him. |
| D．He came up with an idea to go upwards. |
| A．He was still a poor swimmer. |
| B．He had not overcome the fear yet. |
| C．He was not afraid of drowning any more. |
| D．He was not satisfied with the swimming training. |
| A．Goodbye,Mr Terror |
| B．Hello,Childhood Fear |
| C．A Swimming Adventure |
| D．My Passion for Swimming |
