1 . One morning in 2003, a 19-year-old Amy Purdy left for her job as a nursery teacher, feeling healthy and ready for her day. Halfway through her morning, she started to feel achy and unwell. Once home, she had a fever and fell into a deep sleep that was impossible for her to shake.
After a short, tense ride to the nearest hospital, Purdy was given less than a two percent chance of surviving. Over the course of the 2.5month treatment that followed, she lost kidney (肾) function and hearing in her left ear—then her spleen and, eventually, both of her legs. What doctors thought was the flu ended up being a very deadly meningitis (脑膜炎) infection. Purdy’s life was changed forever.
It was when she was in bed for months that she started to think about that big life question: what was her story going to be? She began dreaming about snowboarding and visualized herself carving down a mountain of powder, feeling the wind on her face.
This made her return to the sport as a double-amputee (截肢者). Being back on the board was rough at first—several times, her board and her prosthetic (假体的) legs flew down the mountain without her. But Purdy had a strong will and set out to build her own prosthetics that would be purpose built for snowboarding. Purdy’s first home made snowboarding feet is on display in the Smithsonian now.
In 2005, after her 21st birthday—and the gift of a new kidney from her father—Purdy decided to start Adaptive Action Sports. Purdy and her family organized a team of snowboarders and began pushing for their sport to be part of the 2014 Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia. After being turned down several times, they were finally granted access to the Paralympic Games, appearing as parasnowboarding for the first time in history. Since then, her snowboarding team has brought home six medals and raised the visibility of the sport.
Since her illness took her legs 18 years ago, Purdy has managed to squeeze as much achievement and joy out of her life as possible. “Maybe instead of looking at all our challenges and barriers as something negative or bad,” she proposes, “maybe we can look at them as little gifts that fire our imaginations.”
1. Amy Purdy eventually lost her legs because of________ .| A．a sudden accident |
| B．the serious infection |
| C．the sports training |
| D．the kidney failure |
| A．Purdy’s father donated a kidney to her |
| B．Purdy’s former job was a snowboard athlete |
| C．Purdy made her snowboarding feet with her friends’ help |
| D．Purdy’s team snowboarding succeeded when they applied for the first time |
| A．Smart and mature. |
| B．Selfless and patient. |
| C．Determined and optimistic. |
| D．Creative and modest. |
