题目内容
Alex Elman runs a big business --- something hard to imagine after she lost her sight in her twenties. But Elman says that losing her sight helped her focus on finding success.
Elman’s father planted a hillside vineyard in western Massachusetts in 1981. It’s where Elman fled during the darkest period of her life. When she was 27 years old, she went blind due to complications from juvenile diabetes (幼年型糖尿病) 17 years ago. She recalled, “I hid in my home. I hid in the place, to me, that was the safest place in the world.”
Elman is now the founder of Alex Elman Wines, a growing portfolio (股份) of organic wines from all around the world: Chianti from Italy, Torrontes from Argentina. Elman doesn’t work alone. Her assistant, a guide dog named Hanley, is something of a wine snob, and quite a beggar. Hanley travels to all of the wineries that Elman does, from South America to Europe.
At first, Elman resisted the idea of a seeing-eye-dog. Now it’s hard to imagine her life, or her business, without him. She said. “When someone tells me something is organic and I don’t really believe it because I taste something funny on it, I’ll put it in front of his face and if he likes the wine, he’ll actually go in and sniff it. If it’s not right, he’ll turn his head away…He gets in the dirt with me. He scratches around. He makes sure that we see earthworms and butterflies. That’s how we know that the soil is actually organic, that there are no chemicals.”
Elman told CBS News she believes the loss of her vision was a gift. She said, “It allowed me to pay attention to what I thought was important and also to be able to teach people that the broken hang nail is not a big deal, you know what I mean? Don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t sweat the big stuff either.”
1.Elman hid herself in her father’s vineyard probably because she ________.
A. suffered from juvenile diabetes
B. was extremely painful for her blindness
C. would like to help her father with the work
D. expected to recover her sight sooner or later
2.We can learn from Paragraph 3 that Elman ________.
A. has earned a large amount of money
B. plans to operate organic wine companies
C. has become successful with Hanley’s help
D. has travelled around the world with Hanley
3.Whenever Elman couldn’t judge the wine exactly, she would ________.
A. turn to Hanley for advice
B. have another taste in person
C. order Hanley to head away
D. make Hanley to drink it
4.The underlined phrase “the broken hang nail” (in Paragraph 5) probably refers to ________.
A. a nail which is of no use
B. a disadvantage you have in your life
C. a person who is hard to deal with
D. a task that is not easy to accomplish