When Breath Becomes Air is an autobiography about Paul Kalanithi’s experiences as a doctor and as a terminally ill patient. The book discusses Kalanithi’s longtime fascination with questions of human biology, mortality (必死的命运), and meaning. It then examines how these questions are heightened by the author’s own confrontation (冲突) with lung cancer, sickness, and death.
Kalanithi’s father was a doctor from New York City. The family moved to Kingman, Arizona, so that his father could pursue his medical career when Paul was young. His father worked long hours and was rarely home, which convinced young Paul that the last thing he wanted to do was to become a doctor himself. Paul’s mother was concerned about the weak school system in Kingman, and so made a long list of literary classics which she made Paul and his brothers read. As a result, Paul became fascinated by literature. He attended Stanford University, from which he graduated in 2000 with a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature and a B.A. in Human Biology. He earned an M. Phil in History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine from the University of Cambridge. In 2007, Paul graduated from the Yale School of Medicine with the highest honors. He returned to Stanford for residency training (住院实习) in Neurological Surgery. As he neared the end of his 7-year residency he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. The hopes and dreams he and Lucy, his wife, have held to are dramatically changed.
When Breath Becomes Air gives an account of Kalanithi’s transformation from an innocent medical student troubled by the question of “what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a young neurosurgeon (神经外科医生) at Stanford, guiding patients toward a deeper understanding of death and illness, and finally into a patient and a new father to a baby girl, confronting his own mortality. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a continuous present? What does it mean to have a child, to care for a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this deeply moving, delicately observed autobiography.
Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-confirming reflection on the challenge of facing mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both.
55. What can we learn from Paragraph 2?
A.What led to the diagnosis of Kalanithi’s lung cancer. |
B.Why Kalanithi changed his mind to become a doctor. |
C.When Kalanithi decided to follow in his father’s footsteps. |
D.How Kalanithi developed his interest in English literature. |
56. Kalanithi began to seek the meaning of life _______.
A.when he was a medical student |
B.when he became a neurosurgeon |
C.when he studied English literature |
D.when he was diagnosed with cancer |
57. What would the underlined phrase in Paragraph 3 most probably mean?
A.try to move something large, heavy, or difficult to move |
B.to fight someone by holding, pulling or pushing them |
C.try to understand or find a solution to something tough |
D.to take part in a wrestling match with someone |
58. Why are several questions presented in Paragraph 3?
A.Readers asked them out of curiosity about his life. |
B.The editor put forward them for the readers to think about. |
C.His patients discussed the value of life with them. |
D.The writer finished his transformation by thinking over them. |
59. Which of the following words can be used to best describe the book?
A.Discouraging. | B.Reflective. |
C.Delightful. | D.Controversial. |