题目内容
B. specimen
C. representative
D. representation
The Pecan Thief
When I was six years old, I was visiting my grandfather's farm in Kansas. Grandpa had sent me into the 36 to gather pecans for us to enjoy later.
Pecan picking was really 37 work and my little basket was only half full. I wasn't about to 38 Grandpa down. Just then something caught my 39 . A large brown squirrel was a few feet away. I watched as he picked up a pecan, hurried to a tree and 40 in a large hole in the trunk. A moment later the squirrel 41 out and climbed down to the ground to pick up another nut. Once again, he took the pecan back to his hiding place.
Not so 42 anymore, I thought. I dashed over to the tree and looked into the hole. It was 43 with pecans! Golden pecans were right there for taking. This was my 44 . Handful by handful, I scooped all of those pecans into my basket. Now it was full! I was so 45 of myself. I couldn't wait to show Grandpa all the pecans. 46 , I ran back and shouted, “Look at all the pecans!” He looked into the basket and said, “Well, well, how did you find so many ? ” I told him how I'd 47 the squirrel and taken the pecans from his hiding place.
Grandpa congratulated me on how smart I'd been in observing the squirrel and his habits. Then he did something that 48 me. He handed the basket back to me and put his arm gently 49 my shoulders.
“That squirrel worked very hard to gather his winter 50 of food, ” he said. “Now that all of his pecans are gone, don't you think that little squirrel will 51 the cold winter? ”
“I didn't think about that,” I said.
“I know, ” Grandpa said. “But a good man should never take 52 of someone else's hard work.”
Suddenly I felt a bit 53 . The image of the starving squirrel wouldn't 54 my mind. There was only one thing I could do. I carried the basket back to the tree and poured all the nuts into the hole.
I didn't eat any pecans that night, but I had something much more filling—the 55 of knowing I had done just the right thing.
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The most frightening words in the English language are, “Our computer is down.” You hear it more and more when you are on business. The other day I was at the airport waiting for a ticket to Washington and the girl in the ticket office said, “I’m sorry, I can’t sell you a ticket. Our computer is down.”
“If your computer is down, just write me out a ticket.”
“I can’t write you out a ticket. The computer is the only one allowed to do so.”
I looked down on the computer and every passenger was just standing there drinking coffee and staring at the black screen. Then I asked her, “What do all you people do?”
“We give the computer the information about your trip, and then it tells us whether you can fly with us or not.”
“So when it goes down, you go down with it.”
“That’s good, sir.”
“How long will the computer be down?” I wanted to know.
“I have no idea. Sometimes it’s down for 10 minutes, sometimes for two hours. There’s no way we can find out without asking the computer, and since it’s down it won’t answer us.”
After the girl told me they had no backup(备用) computer, I said. “Let’s forget the computer. What about your planes? They’re still flying, aren’t they?”
“I couldn’t tell without asking the computer.”
“Maybe I could just go to the gate and ask the pilot if he’s flying to Washington, ” I suggested.
“I wouldn’t know what gate to send you to. Even if the pilot was going to Washington, he couldn’t take you if you didn’t have a ticket.”
“Is there any other airline flying to Washington within the next few hours?”
“I wouldn’t know, ” she said, pointing at the dark screen. “Only ‘IT’ knows. ‘It’ can’t tell me.”
By this time there were quite a few people standing in lines. The word soon spread to other travelers that the computer was down. Some people went white, some people started to cry and still others kicked their luggage.
【小题1】The best title for the article is _______.
A.When the Computer Is Down |
B.The Most Frightening Words |
C.The Computer of the Airport |
D.Asking the Computer |
A.She could sell a ticket. |
B.She could write out a ticket. |
C.She could answer the passengers’ questions. |
D.She could do nothing. |
A.Because it was easy down |
B.Because it was very expensive. |
C.Because it was not advanced enough. |
D.Because it was not as big as the main computer. |
A.a modern computer won’t be down. |
B.computers can take the place of humans |
C.sometimes a computer may bring suffering to people |
D.there will be great changes in computers |
I stood outside New York's Madison Square Garden and just stared, almost speechless. I was a farm boy from County Kilkenny, a child who some thought would never walk, let alone go as far as I had in the world.
From the day I was born, there was a problem. The doctors at the Dublin hospital told my parents I had phocomelia, a deformity that affected both legs below the knee, which were outward and shorter than normal and each foot had just three toes.
Life was tough. I couldn't stand, much less walk. I rarely, left the farmhouse---and then only in someone's arms. Mam bundled me up whenever she took me to town, no matter the season.
“The world will see him when he can walk,” she told Dad. “And he will walk.”
Mam devoted herself to helping me. She tried everything to get me on my feet. When I was three, she and Dad took me to a clinic in Dublin.
A few weeks later we returned to Dublin with my artificial limbs (肢). Back home I practiced walking with my new limbs.
“There's nothing anyone can do but you can't,” Mam said. “You and I are going to walk through town.”
The next day Mam dressed me in my finest clothes. She wore a summer dress and fixed her hair and makeup. Dad drove us to the church. We stepped out of the car. Mam took my hand. “Hold your head up high, now, Ronan,” she said.
We walked 300 meters to the post office. It was the farthest I'd walked, and I was sweating from the effort. Then we left the post office and continued down the street, Mam's eyes shining with a mother's pride.
That night, back on our farm, I lay exhausted on my bed. It meant nothing, though, compared to what I'd done on my walk.
Then I began to pursue my dream of singing. And at every step Mam's words came back to me—Ronan, you can do anything anyone else can do—and the faith she had in God, who would help me do it.
I've sung from the grandest stages in Europe, to music played by the world's finest musicians. That night, I stood at the Madison Square Garden, with Mam's words chiming in my ears. Then I began singing. I couldn't feel the pulse of the music in my feet, but I felt it deep in my heart, the same place where Mam's promise lived.
【小题1】What was the problem with the author as a baby?
A.He was expected unable to walk. |
B.He was born outward in character. |
C.He had a problem with listening. |
D.He was shorter than a normal baby. |
A.shortcoming | B.disadvantage | C.disability | D.delay |
A.To hide their depressed feeling. |
B.To indicate it an unusual day. |
C.To show off their clothes. |
D.To celebrate his successful operation. |
A.determined | B.stubborn | C.generous | D.distinguished |
A.His consistent effort. | B.His talent for music. |
C.His countless failures. | D.His mother's promise. |