1 . CHARITY HONORS SON’S MEMORY
Nonprofit providing gifts to 18 to 39-year-olds is raising memory
By PAM KRAOEN
RAMONA, Calif. — Before he died from cancer at age 29, Silas River Bennett spent his final months taking photographs of the world around him, emailing friends, buying Christmas gifts for his sisters and encouraging his family to give to the needy. “What was important to him was to have a sense of himself outside of cancer,” said his mom, Lorranie Kerz of Ramona.
Bennett went to the hospital in fall 2007 with severe back pains. He was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer that had spread to his bones. Doctors believed the cancer was environmentally caused, perhaps by exposure to some poisonous gas in the basement where he lived or poisons in the paints he used as a painter.
Kerz said her son was a man with a great sense of humor and a very creative mind. He had an “electric intellect” who loved debating, watching “Jeopardy!” — a game show on TV and telling stories with his photographs. After Bennett died in May 2008, Kerz wanted to honor the creative spirit and generosity of her son, whose nickname was “Sy”. The result was Sy’s Fund, a Romona-based all-volunteer national nonprofit that has fulfilled the wishes of more than 250 people aged 18 to 39 who are battling cancer. Sy’s Fund provides them with small gifts — such as laptops, cameras, guitar lessons, or printers — to lift their spirits and refocus their energies in a positive direction.
The group raises money through three fundraisers each year, such as golf tournaments and 5K races. This year, because of the COVID-19, they’re trying a virtual fundraiser for the first time. After registering online, participants must download the “Let’s Roam” app to their phones to donate. For those who want to apply for a wish grant, visit sysfund.org. The organization is also seeking more volunteer members. For details, email Kerz at lorraine@sysfund.org.
1. Why did Kerz found Sy’s Fund?| A．To honour his son. | B．To get rid of cancer. |
| C．To make his son famous. | D．To gain more profit. |
| A．His cancer was caused by poisonous paints. |
| B．He spent his final months preparing for the fund. |
| C．He was energetic and lived a short but colorful life. |
| D．He died more than one year after he was diagnosed with cancer. |
| A．By seeking more volunteers to tell stories. |
| B．By downloading some apps to the phones. |
| C．By providing cancer patients with small gifts. |
| D．By selling some things to cancer patients at a low price. |
| A．A newspaper. | B．A guidebook. |
| C．An announcement. | D．A diary. |
1.必要性；
2.具体措施；
3.发出倡议。
注意：1.词数100字左右；
2.可适当增加细节已使行文连贯；
3.开头和结尾已经为你写好，不计入词数。
Dear fellow students,
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Yours,
Li Hua
3 . People say money doesn’t buy happiness, but how much money you make can affect the way you experience it?
While it’s true that money can’t buy happiness, having money has certain benefits. For example, money can buy you time to do things that make you happier, and giving away some of your money can make you happier as well. Now scientists from the University of California at Irvine have found that how much money you make may impact (影响) how you experience happiness; higher earners are more likely to experience positive emotions focused on themselves, while lower earners are more likely to experience positive emotions focused on connecting with other people.
Scientists used data from an existing survey of 1,519 U.S. adults between the ages of 24 to 93, to be representative of the entire U.S. population. From the survey, scientist collected the household income of each person and analyzed how each person experienced the seven emotions that are believed to cause happiness: amusement, admiration, compassion, satisfaction, enthusiasm, love, and pride.
What they found was that higher earners were associated with the happiness-related emotions of satisfaction, pride, and amusement, all of which are self-focused in nature. Lower earners were associated with more other-oriented (他人指向) happiness-related emotions: compassion, love, and admiration. There were no differences observed with enthusiasm.
As to reasons for the difference, the researchers suppose that while pride and satisfaction may reflect upper class individuals’ (个人) desire for independence, increased love and compassion may help lower class individuals form more harmonious (和谐的), interdependent bonds to help deal with their more threatening environments. In other words, the researchers are not saying that one way of getting happiness is better than another, but rather that the way one obtains happiness may be a product of existing and coping within one’s particular circumstances.
1. What do higher earners prefer to do?| A．Long to connect with others. | B．Spend more money on the poor. |
| C．Buy things to make them happier. | D．Pay more attention to themselves. |
| A．They can make people happy. |
| B．They can be bought with money. |
| C．They are the most common feelings. |
| D．They are the results of and existing survey. |
| A．Pride and satisfaction. | B．Enthusiasm and amusement. |
| C．Admiration and compassion. | D．Compassion and satisfaction. |
| A．They all live a hard life. |
| B．They have different ways to get happiness. |
| C．They are all satisfied with their lives. |
| D．Their happiness has nothing to do with money. |
