题目内容
— _____ I talked with her yesterday morning!
B. I beg your pardon?
C. Sorry to hear that.
D. Is that so?
One bitterly cold day, a snowstorm blew into our area. Needing firewood, I quickly set out with my best friend, Bruce, to look for a tree to cut down. I was glad to have Bruce along. Cutting down a tree in a snowstorm can be dangerous. So it was important to have a friend who could warn me of dangers.
When I chose a big 23-meter-tall tree and prepared to cut it down, my best friend suddenly warned me, “Don’t cut down that tree! It’s too close to the power line!” I wasn’t sure about it. So I decided to disregard his warning. I wanted to finish the job quickly and go home. So I began cutting down the tree. When the tree fell, there was no longer any doubt that my friend was right.
The tree caught the power line, bringing it to the ground. I considered cutting the tree off the line. After all, electricity can’t travel through wood, so I could safely remove the tree. As I reached out my finger to touch the tree, pain ran up my arm and through my head. I had been shocked!
After I returned home and told my mother what had happened, she quickly called the power company. Workers from the power company soon arrived on the scene. One of them asked if I had touched the tree, and when I told him I had, his face turned pale.
“You should have been killed,” he said.
So why am I still alive? It was my boots that saved my life.
Within two hours, the workers removed the tree. Soon the snowstorm calmed down—but not my mother.
Even though she was glad I wasn’t hurt, my mother was well serious with me. After all, I shouldn’t have brushed off my friend’s warning.
Through this experience, I learned that it’s important to listen to people who offer a different perspective(观点). Taking the time to listen might actually save a lot of time and trouble. It certainly would have kept me from getting the “shock of my life”.
【小题1】The underlined word “disregard ” in the second paragraph means “________”.
| A．pay no attention to | B．take notice of | C．consider | D．follow |
| A．he was sure there would be nothing to happen |
| B．he wasn’t sure whether Bruce was right and was anxious to go home |
| C．he didn’t hear his friend’s warning at all because of the blowing wind |
| D．he was angry with his friend and didn’t want to listen to him |
| A．give an account of one of his terrible experiences |
| B．make us know it’s important to listen to people who offer a different perspective (观点) through his experience |
| C．tell us not to cut trees down any more |
| D．remind us to be careful while working |
| A．But for his boots, the writer would have died. |
| B．The writer regretted having brushed off his friend’s warning. |
| C．The writer knew nothing about electricity. |
| D．When the tree was cut down, the writer realized his friend was right |
I was being interviewed by a senior manager for a big company, I told him honestly that the principal reason that I was interviewing with them was my need to keep my family in Boston. My wife had recently died of a heart attack. A job in Boston would help me reduce some pain for my 16-year-old daughter and me. It was important to me to keep her present high school.
Bruce, the interviewer, was politely kind, but he didn’t search any further. He acknowledged(承认) my loss and, with great respect, moved on to another subject. After the next round of interviews, Bruce took me to lunch with another manager. Then he asked me to take a walk with him. He told me that he had lost his wife. And, like me, he had also been married 20 years and had 3 children. I realized that he had experienced the same pain as I had and it was almost impossible to explain to someone who had not lost a loved one. He offered his business card and home phone number and suggested that, should I need help or just want someone to talk to, I should feel free to give him a call. Whether I got the job or not, he wanted me to know that he was there if I ever needed help.
From that one act of kindness, when he had no idea if we could ever see each other again, he helped our family deal with one of life’s greatest losses. He turned the normally cold business interview process into an act of caring and supporting for another person in a time of extreme need.
【小题1】According to the passage, the interviewer, Bruce, was very _______.
| A．generous | B．kind | C．happy | D．mean |
| A．main | B．unimportant | C．necessary | D．possible |
| A．The writer’s daughter was studying in Boston at that time. |
| B．Both the writer and the interviewer experienced the same pain. |
| C．Bruce was a senior manager of a big firm. |
| D．Bruce wanted to make friends with him because he gave him his business card and home phone number. |