Callaghan, father of a teenage girl — Emma, couldn’t understand why he had developed a disease which normally affects men twice his age.
“I was by myself,” Callaghan recalled. “I thought it was a kidney stone (肾结石). I was in the doctor’s office for about 45 minutes that day. I don’t remember anything more than one minute of it.” He believed anyone who had his condition would live only 12 months. And he would take tablets every day, possibly for the rest of his life.
Callaghan began finding hope in a small act of love for Emma: handwriting notes of love on a napkin and placing it in her lunch box; nothing unusual or life-changing, just some words of encouragement to Emma to think of during the day. His numbered days meant numbered napkins. “The reason why I started writing notes to her is that I want to matter in her life,” Callaghan said. “I see so many working parents today who give up a lot of their parenting. I want Emma to be able to look at me at whatever age she is and say ‘My dad loves me. I need his advice, I need his love and I trust that my dad’s going to be there.’”
But what started out as a father’s way of showing his daughter his love quickly grew. His idea of sharing his inspirational napkin messages with friends and family on Facebook got a generous response from the media. His new book Napkin Notes shares each message he’s ever sent to his daughter as well as more about his brave battle against cancer and life lessons he hopes Emma and maybe even grown readers can learn.
Now Callaghan is still fighting for his life. “The act of taking a napkin, holding my pen and thinking of something to write down inspires me just as much as I hope it inspires my daughter,” Callaghan said.
1. What doubt did Callaghan have in Para. 1?| A．Why he suffered the disease twice. |
| B．Why he had the disease at an early age. |
| C．Why he had to receive treatment twice. |
| D．Why the disease affected more men than women. |
| A．He felt lucky to be her father. | B．He desired to change her life. |
| C．He decided to number his days in this way. | D．He found it a good way to inspire both of them. |
| A．Creative. | B．Confident. |
| C．Humorous. | D．Patient. |
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【推荐1】Monica Bertagnolli is an oncologist (肿瘤学家) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. Growing up in Wyoming, she was well aware of the lack of health care resources in rural areas. Access to in-depth care for cancer patients is hard to get. She’s worked throughout her career to change that.
In Wyoming, there’s a great distance to travel between where people live and where they can find a cancer specialist. “If you need treatments and they have to be administered every day, and if it’s 120 miles from where you live, that ends up being a huge barrier to receiving the kind of care you need.”
And now Monica serves as the vice president of the Coalition (联盟) of Cancer Cooperative Groups (CCCG) — an international network of individuals who work to improve the quality of life and survival of cancer patients by increasing participation in cancer clinical trials.
She said, “One of the really important things is, we’re trying to make sure that cancer clinical trials can get to every single patient who needs them in my own state.” The coalition set up sites in northern and southern Wyoming that are able to run clinical trials. Before those trials became available, patients would usually go to Denver or Salt Lake City — a three-to-seven-hour drive.
Monica’s efforts to increase access to the health care needs of her rural Wyoming patients also include helping to develop new policies that will allow patients to participate in more clinical trials, and linking them with a regional doctor who can get them the access to the care they need.
In addition to the clinical trials, Monica said that technology’s progress like better cell phone and internet service in the mountains of Wyoming, as well as social media, has helped rural residents stay in touch with loved ones and medical professionals despite their distance. She is trying to advocate strongly for those changes to continue.
“I still consider myself part of Wyoming and I am very devoted to making sure that patients can get access to care.”
1. What do rural cancer patients in Wyoming need most?| A．Health care. | B．Better housing. |
| C．Further education. | D．Public transportation. |
| A．By offering clinical trials. | B．By advocating financial aid. |
| C．By improving internet service. | D．By training medical professionals. |
| A．Determined and loyal. | B．Honest and generous. |
| C．Grateful and courageous. | D．Devoted and responsible. |
| A．Technology: A push for progress | B．Monica: A helper for cancer patients |
| C．CCCG: A pioneer for cancer treatment | D．Clinical trials: A hope for cancer patients |
【推荐2】There was a boy named Drake. He was just 12 years old. His parents had no money to educate him. They had no choice other than to tell their children to leave school and start helping them with their shop’s work.
Drakeassimilatedthis and started waking up before sunrise and going to their shop and cleaning it. He was really a hardworking guy. He always wanted something big to happen in his life, but he knew that a change does not happen in a day. So he started caching himself and completed all senior high school courses at the age of 18. When he turned 20, he got a job offer from an electrical company.
He started working in that company, and every day after coming from his job, he would learn more and more about bulbs (灯泡) because he saw a lot of bulb production there. After some years he made a new improved bulb of his own. He was really excited to show it to his boss, but when the boss saw it, he wasn’t interested in it and said it was of little use. But still, he believed in himself and didn’t give up.
After a few months, he thought of setting up his own factory where he and his wife would put the improved bulb into production. When they made the bulbs, they started selling them. No one was interested in those bulbs, but still, he kept believing in himself.
One day when the sun was rising, he got an order of l,000 pieces of the bulbs. This totally changed his life. After that, he started getting more and more orders.
1. Why did Drake’s parents ask him to work in their shop when he was 12?| A．They wanted him to catch himself. |
| B．They expected him to be successful. |
| C．They wished him to be hardworking. |
| D．They were unable to pay for his schooling. |
| A．Remembered. | B．Understood. | C．Expressed. | D．Hated. |
| A．Surprising. | B．Attractive. | C．Popular. | D．Valueless. |
| A．All things are difficult before they are easy. |
| B．Confidence is the first secret of success. |
| C．Learn to say before you sing. |
| D．Practice makes perfect. |
【推荐3】My family moved to St.Paul,Minnesota last year, where the average winter temperature is around 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Once summer ended,everyone went inside to play ice hockey. I’d been on the ice only a couple of times when I was much younger. When I’d fallen and broken my wrist during my second lesson, I’d decided never to put on ice skates again.
Ben,the friend I made in the new city, volunteered to teach me to skate. Even though he was very patient, I was so embarrassed by my clumsiness that I began to make up excuses for not skating.
One day I discovered a faster route home. It took me past a large frozen pond.I noticed a woman teaching a young girl to skate. The girl was attempting to jump and spin in the air. Over and over, she pushed off the ground with the toe of her skate. And over and over, she landed hard on the ice.After I had been watching the girl practice for about a week, one afternoon she suddenly lifted off the ground, spun in the air,and landed on her feet!
The next day I bought myself some brand new skates. Every day on the way home l stopped at the pond and wobbled onto the ice, right next to the girl who had landed her jump.As she perfected her twists and tricks, I taught myself to glide and turmn. It was hard being a beginner,and when I felt I had to fight the urge to simply give up.Instead,every time I went down, I just picked myself up and started over again. Soon I was able to keep my balance and skate more confidently.In just a few weeks,I was actually ready to practice the speed skating, fast stops,and quick turns needed for ice hockey. When I was finally ready to show Ben my newfound skating ability, he told me I should join the local hockey league.I tried out and was chosen for a team. By the end of the season, I was part of a winning team.
1. What can we learn about the author?| A．He learned skating from the girl |
| B．He preferred ice hockey to skating |
| C．He had once given up learning skating |
| D．He moved to a new city without summer. |
| A．To prove the girl was skillful |
| B．To suggest the girl inspired him |
| C．To show the girl was a quick learner. |
| D．To explain how he came across the girl |
| A．easy and basic | B．hard but rewarding |
| C．boring and tiring | D．strict but interesting |
【推荐1】Linda Brown is a softly-spoken realtor (房地产经纪人) with a passion for helping the homeless. She’s moving mountains by combining her understanding of real estate (房地产) with her kindness-fueled determination to create beautiful permanent homes for disabled homeless people in her community.
In 2020, Mrs. Brown was awarded the Good Neighbor Award. This honor is initiated by The National Association of Realtors in the US. As its website details, working alongside her husband, Dr. David Brown, she has been transforming abandoned mobile homes into villages of tiny homes that offer permanent housing for homeless people who’re disabled.
The wish to help homeless people, and restore their dignity and self-worth, as Mrs. Brown explains, had been a joint mission for some years. As local blogger Aaron Nichols shares, the couple ran a local evening drop-in center for local homeless people called Gardening Tree, for almost a decade. This functioned as a shelter where people experiencing homelessness could grab a bite, shower, do laundry and relax.
But they wanted to do more than that. With local individual organizations’ help, the couple succeeded in raising almost $5 million, which enabled them to transform unused mobile homes and a deserted trailer park into a small village of tiny homes that opened in 2018. They named the shelter “Eden Village”.
As Mrs. Brown revealed in her award acceptance speech about her journey to creating Eden Village, helping homeless people is something personal, “I watched as my homeless friends walked off into the darkness to a hidden, wet and cold camp while we went home to a warm bed. I had to do something.”
Today, Eden Village includes a 4,000-square-foot community center offering cooking and laundry facilities, as well as a medical center and community gardens. Additionally, more sites are being developed thanks to the land donated to the nonprofit founded by the Browns. Eden Village 2 and 3 are at the planning stage. In the next six years, Mrs. Brown hopes to create five similar villages housing up to 200 people experiencing homelessness.
1. How does the author introduce the couple’s devotion to helping the homeless?| A．By mentioning local realtors’ praise. |
| B．By referring to related online descriptions. |
| C．By recording homeless people’s evaluations. |
| D．By detailing their interaction with the homeless. |
| A．Homeless people’s requests. |
| B．Official favorable policies. |
| C．The support from the society. |
| D．The prize from many associations. |
| A．To express her sympathy for her friends. |
| B．To highlight the influence of the village. |
| C．To show her sincere gratitude for the award. |
| D．To give her reason for setting up the village. |
| A．It is still a concept. | B．It keeps expanding. |
| C．It is carried out globally. | D．It lacks future plans. |
【推荐2】Anecdotes (趣闻) from around the world
A Lego wheelchair (乐高轮椅) for a turtle
An injured turtle that suffered a cracked shell is learning to get around again thanks to a wheelchair, made completely from Lego.
The 18-year-old turtle was found fighting for its life in the middle of the road by staff at the Maryland Zoo on their way to work. The zoo’s vets tried to fix his shell. They tried many kinds of materials to keep the turtle’s shell off the ground, but they did not work well. So the idea of Lego came about.
A school made from trash in Cambodia
Ouk Vandey, known as the “rubbish teacher”, teaches students in a classroom with walls made from painted used car tires (轮胎) at the Coconut School in Kampong Speu Province, Cambodia.
The school is almost completely built out of trash. At the entrance of the school, plastic bottles are shaped and colored like a Cambodian flag. On the left are used coffee cups and bottles to protect the building from rain. Ouk Vandey, a former hotel manager, dreams of a waste-free Cambodia in the future.
The man travelling most on Earth
Babis Bizas has been called the person travelling most in the world, as he has visited 195 countries in the past 40 years.
Babis Bizas has traveled since he was a student. He followed a group of young backpackers to India in his 20s. When his money was about to run out, he found a job on a Greek ship. Bizas is a fan of unusual places. Travelers, who wanted someone to lead their tours to places where no tourist infrastructure (基础设施) was available, followed him.
1. Who discovered the injured turtle?| A．Some Lego lovers. | B．The Maryland Zoo’s staff. |
| C．The Maryland Zoo’s vets. | D．The Maryland Zoo’s visitors. |
| A．He dreams of a waste-free Cambodia. |
| B．He built the trash school all by himself. |
| C．He encourages students to collect rubbish. |
| D．He teaches in a school built mainly with trash. |
| A．He also travels as a tour leader. |
| B．He enjoys traveling with others. |
| C．He hopes to improve tourist infrastructure. |
| D．He fell in love with traveling after graduation. |
【推荐3】A couple, Libby Green and Marcel Gnauk, like travelling and sharing their travel experiences online has become part of their routine.
Libby is skilled at using a camera. But they struggled to find a focus. Then, in Cambodia, Libby filmed some birds taking flight that she wanted to use in a film. But she couldn’t capture (捕获) the sound of their wing beats.
They looked on the Internet, searching sound libraries, but couldn’t find anything appropriate. So, Marcel took a $100 audio recorder, and went searching for the missing sound to record. He didn’t find any birds, but he did manage to change their future with it.
Marcel turned the recorder on in a small construction zone, listening through a cheap set of headphones. He was awed not just by the sounds of construction, but a man’s singing, and motorcycles passing by.
“It was just like the sound was falling into my head from all sides,” says Marcel. “Everything became alive, and from that day until now I have never stopped recording.”
In the six years since that first recording, the couple have captured sounds in more than 25 countries.
Libby shoots and edits their YouTube videos, and manages their website. Marcel does most of the sound recording and editing, as well as the social media postings. Through their website, they offer 500 free sound libraries. Of these, 145 are free to download.
Libby had added a donation button to their website, and a Hollywood post-production creative had donated a few dollars. It was then that Marcel realized others shared a passion for sound, and were willing to pay for it.
“We wanted to be a source that’s affordable for all types of people to download the sounds and we’re still excited to travel to new places and record new sounds,” says Libby.
1. What changed the couple’s life direction?| A．A camera. | B．A film. | C．A library. | D．A recorder. |
| A．attracted | B．cheated | C．confused | D．awoken |
| A．They are providing some free resources online. | B．They are studying the change of bird sounds. |
| C．They are building free libraries in poor areas. | D．They are advocating donations for Cambodians. |
| A．Sharing Love | B．A Caring Couple |
| C．A Passion for Sounds | D．Recording Good Life |
