He was an old man who fished alone in a small boat on the sea and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish, the boy’s parents had told him that the old man was now salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and ordered the boy to join another boat, which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his boat empty. The sail looked like the flag of failure(失败)forever.

The old man was thin with deep wrinkles(皱纹)in the back of his neck. His face was terribly brown because of the strong sunlight on the sea every day and his hands had the deep scars(伤疤) from dealing with heavy fish on the lines. But none of these scars were fresh. Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful.

“Santiago,” the boy said to him as they climbed the bank from the sea.“I could go with you again. We’ve made some money.”

The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him.

“No,” the old man said. “You’re with a lucky boat. Stay with them.”

“But remember how you went eighty—four days without fish and then we caught big ones every day for three weeks. ”

“I remember,” the old man said.

“It was papa who made me leave. I am a boy and I must follow him.”

“I know,” the old man said. “It is quite normal.”

“He hasn’t much faith(信心).”

“No,” the old man said. “But we have. Haven’t we?”

“Yes,” the boy said. “Can I offer you a beer?”

“Why not?” the old man said “Between fishermen.”

1.The word“they” in Paragraph 2 refers to(指的是)_________ of the old man.

A. the hands B. the scars C. the eyes D. the wrinkles

2.The old man refused the boy to go fishing with him again because____.

A. he wanted to fish by himself

B. he could really understand the boy’s parents

C. the boy asked for some money

D. the boy had already learnt how to fish

3.From the story we can know that __________.

A. the boy was worried about the old man’s health

B. the boy’s parents believed in the old man

C. everyone laughed at the old man’s bad luck

D. the old man was always full of hope

When you make a mistake, big or small, treasure it as it's the most valuable thing in the world.

Most of us feel bad when we make mistakes, beat ourselves up about it, feel like failures, and get mad at ourselves.

And that's only natural: Most of us have been taught from a young age that mistakes are bad, and we should try to avoid mistakes. We've been punished when we make mistakes — at home, school and work. Maybe not always, but probably enough times to make feeling bad about mistakes an unconscious reaction(无意识的反应).

Yet without mistakes, we could not learn or grow. If you think about it that way, mistakes should be treasured and celebrated for being one of the most amazing things in the world: They make learning possible; they make growth and improvement possible.

By test and error — trying things, making mistakes, and learning from those mistakes — we have found out how to make electric lights, to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and to fly.

Mistakes make walking possible for the smallest toddler, make speech possible, and make works of genius(天才) possible.

Think about how we learn: We don't just get information about something and know it at once or know how to do it. You don't just read about painting, or writing, or computer programming, or baking, or playing the piano, and know how to do them right away. Instead, you get information about something, from reading or from another person or from watching usually ... then you set a model in your mind ... then you test it out by trying it in the real world ... then you make mistakes ... then you correct the model based on the results of your real world experiment ... and repeat, making mistakes, learning from those mistakes, until you've pretty much learned how to do something.

That's how we learn as babies and toddlers, and how we learn as adults. Mistakes are how we learn to do something new — because if you succeed in something, it's probably something you already knew how to do. You haven't really grown much from that success — at most it's the last step on your journey, not the whole journey. Most of the journey is made up of mistakes, if it's a good journey.

So if you value learning, if you value growing and improving, then you should value mistakes. They are amazing things that make a world full of wonders possible.

1.According to the passage, how should we treat mistakes?

A. We should try to avoid making mistakes.

B. We should owe(把…归功于) great inventions mainly to mistakes.

C. We should treat mistakes as good chances to learn.

D. We should make feeling bad about mistakes an unconscious reaction.

2.The underlined word “toddler” in Paragraph 6 probably means ________.

A. a small child learning to walk

B. a kindergarten child learning to draw

C. a primary pupil learning to read

D. a school teenager learning to write

3.We can learn from the passage that ________.

A. most of us can really grow from success

B. growing and improving are based on mistakes

C. we learn to make mistakes by test and error

D. we read about something and know how to do it right away

4.The author wants to tell us ________.

A. what you should do when meeting with difficulties

B. where you can find your mistakes

C. how you can avoid making mistakes

D. why you should celebrate your mistakes

A hobby is an activity we can do in our free time, so that we can keep ourselves busy with something that makes us happy. Different people have different kinds of hobbies, according to their personal likes and dislikes. Hobbies are activities we choose to do, but not activities we have to do. There is a lot of difference between wanting to do something and having to do it. We only want to do those things we like to do, and things that give us pleasure and peace of mind.

Hobbies play a very important role in our lives. For example, they are a way of connecting us with our inner self. The time devoted to taking up a hobby is our own time. This is the time when we can connect and communicate with ourselves. During this personal time, we can do whatever we like. Doing things according to our own wishes gives us a sense of inner satisfaction, and also helps develop self-confidence.

Hobbies also help discover talents. There is a possibility that we are interested in a certain activity, but have never had a chance to try it. If we develop our interest as our hobbies, it’s quite clear that we’ll do it with great interest. So, even if we have never tried a certain thing before, we can still learn to do it. The hobbyists’ hidden talents can be discovered, and this can make them feel more confident.

It’s human nature to try to know more about the things we like. The moment we pursue(追求) some activities as our favorite hobbies, we want to gain more knowledge about the same hobby. Whether it’s gardening, cooking, painting or collecting stamps, we always try to get a deeper understanding of what we’re doing, so that we can do it more correctly. What’s more, we also happen to meet people with similar tastes and sometimes, owning rich knowledge about their hobbies. Besides gaining knowledge, hobbies also provide us with a chance to meet people who share similar likes and dislikes with us.

Whatever our hobbies are, they can be developed at any age, as a child or as an adult. However, if we begin at a young age, we can get more time to experience the joys. The hobby may grow with us, and some day, may also take us to great heights.

Why do we take up hobbies?

Paragraph outline

Supporting details

Meanings

★Hobbies are activities we do in our spare time and can make us happy.

★Hobbies are activities we do according to the 1. we make.

Advantages

Helping connect with the inner self

★The time 2. on the hobby is our personal time when we can be free to do anything we like.

★We’ll feel 3. and become more confident.

Helping discover talents

★We can learn a lot by trying some activities with great interest.

★We’ll be able to find our hidden talents.

Helping gain knowledge

★When pursuing a hobby, we should try our best to 4. it well, and then we gain a lot of knowledge.

★We can also meet some learned people and learn a lot from them.

Conclusion

5. all hobbies can be developed at any age, yet it’s better to develop one when we are young.

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