A group of graduates, quite successful in their businesses, got together to visit their old college teacher. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Before offering his students coffee, the teacher went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and different kinds of cups—porcelain (瓷), plastic, glass, crystal, some
plain-looking and cheap, some exquisite (精美的) and expensive—telling them to help themselves to the coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the teacher said, “If you notice, all the nice-looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the place which your problems and stress come from.”
“Be sure that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most situations it is just more expensive and in some situations even hides what we think. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you went for the best cups. And then you began watching each other’s cups.” “Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position (地位) in society are the cups. They are just tools to contain (容纳)life, and the type of cup we have does not mean anything, and it doesn’t change the quality of life we live, either. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee.”
“The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.”
51. The successful graduates got together to ________.
A.complain about their stress in life and work |
B.visit their old teacher in college and express thanks |
C.discuss something about their common interest |
D.remember the happy days when they had been students |
52. What does the underlined word
“plain” mean in the passage?
A.Strange. | B.Ugly. | C.Pretty. | D.Silly. |
53. The teacher brought in different kinds of cups because ________.
A.he was richer than his students |
B.he was interested in collecting cups |
C.there were too many people drinking coffee |
D.the cups would play an important part in his talk |
54. The problems and stress in work and life came from ________.
A.choosing the best of everything |
B.failing to tell which was useful |
C.there were too many people drinking coffee |
D.too many people hoping to share the same thing |
55. From the passage we know that ________.
A.if you have the best of everything, you are always the happiest |
B.if you are the happiest, you always have the best of everything |
C.if you can make the best of everything, you are the happiest |
D.no one can be the happiest |