题目内容
—Where my papers, Mum? And I will hand them in tomorrow.
—Sorry, I don’t know .You didn’t ask me to keep them, did you ?
A．have you put B．did you put C．were you putting D．do you put
A
“What is the most important thing you’ve done in your life?” The question was put to me during a presentation I gave to a group of lawyers.
The answer came to me in an instant. It’s not the one I gave, because the situation was not right. As a lawyer in the entertainment industry, I knew the audience wanted to hear some amusing stories about my work with well-known people. But here’s the true answer:
The most important thing I’ve ever done occurred on October 8, 1990. I began the day playing tennis with an old friend I hadn’t seen for a while. Between points we talked about what had been happening in each other’s lives. He and his wife had just had a baby boy, who was keeping them up at night.
While we were playing, a car came screaming up the road toward the courts. It was my friend’s father, who shouted to my friend that his baby had stopped breathing and was being rushed to the hospital. In a flash my friend was in the car and gone, disappearing in a cloud of dust.
For a moment I just stood there, paralyzed(呆若木鸡). Then I tried to figure out what I should do. Follow my friend to the hospital? There was nothing I could accomplish there, I convinced myself. My friend’s son was in the care of doctors and nurses, and nothing I could do or say would affect the outcome. Be there for moral support? Well, maybe. But my friend and his wife both had large families, and I knew they’d be surrounded by relatives who would provide more than enough comfort and support, whatever happened. All I could do at the hospital, I decided, was to get in the way. Also, I had planned a full day with my family, who were waiting for me to get home. So I decided to head back to my house and check in my friend later.
As I started my car, I realized that my friend had left his truck and keys at the courts. I now faced another problem. I couldn’t leave the keys in the truck. So I decided to go to the hospital and give him the keys.
When I arrived, I was directed to a room where my friend and his wife were waiting. As I had thought, the room was filled with family members silently watching my friend comfort his wife. I went in and stood by the door, trying to decide what to do next. Soon a doctor appeared. He approached my friend and his wife, and in a quiet voice told them that their son had died.
For a long time the two held each other and cried, unaware of the rest of us standing around in pained silence. After they had calmed themselves, the doctor suggested they spend a few moments with their son.
My friend and his wife stood up and walked past their families. When they reached the door, my friend saw me standing in the corner. He came over and hugged me and started to cry. My friend’s wife hugged me, too, and said, “Thanks for being here.”
For the rest of that morning, I sat in the emergency room of that hospital and watched my friend and his wife hold the body of their infant son, and say goodbye.
It’s the most important thing I have ever done.
The experience taught me two lessons.
First: The most important thing I’ve ever done happened when I was completely helpless. None of the things I had learned in university, in three years of law school or in six years of legal practice were of any use in that situation. Something terrible was happening to people Icared about, and I was powerless to change the outcome. All I could do was standing by and watching it happen. And yet it was critical that I do just that—just be there when someone needed me.
Second: The most important thing I’ve done almost didn’t happen because of things I had learned in classroom and professional life. Law school taught me how to take a set of facts, break them down and organized them. These skills are critical for lawyers. When people come to us for help, they’re often stressed out and depend on a lawyer to think logically. But while learning to think, I almost forget how to feel. Today I have no doubt that I should have leapt into my car without hesitation and followed my friend to the hospital.
From that one experience I learned that the most important thing in life isn’t the money you make, the status you attain or the honors you achieve. The most important thing in life is the kids’ team you coach or the poem you write—or the time when you’re just somebody’s friend.
【小题1】When he was asked about the most important thing he had done in life at a presentation, the author __________.
A felt it was not an interesting question
B. thought for a while and spoke his mind
C. gave an answer from a lawyer’s point of view
D. didn’t give the real answer
【小题2】When he saw his friend rush to the hospital, the author could not decide whether to follow mainly because he thought _________.
| A．he had to stay with his family | B．his friend did not need his help |
| C．he would not be of much help | D．the baby would be in the doctor’s care |
| A．he found out that he was in the way |
| B．he would have felt guilty if he had not been there |
| C．he regretted that he went too later |
| D．his friend would have felt better if he had not been there |
| A．Family and relatives can not take the place of friends. |
| B．More people are a great comfort when one is in trouble. |
| C．It is best to be here when someone needs you. |
| D．You can certainly help a friend if you want to. |
| A．what is taught in school is usually of no use |
| B．a lawyer cannot learn much in classrooms |
| C．a lawyer should know people’s feeling first |
| D．he needs to be able to feel as well as think logically |
One day, I happened to talk to a stranger (陌生人) on the bus. When he found out that I was from Chicago, he told me that one of his good friends lived there and he wondered if I happened to know him. At first I wanted to say that it was foolish (愚蠢的) to think like that, for from all the millions of people in Chicago, I could not possibly know his friend. But, instead, I just smiled and said that Chicago was a very big city. He was quiet for a few minutes, and then he began to tell me all about his friend.
He told me that his friend was an excellent tennis player and that he even had his own tennis court (网球场). He added that he knew a lot of people with swimming pools, but that he only knew two people in the country who had their own tennis courts. And his friend in Chicago was one of them. I told him that I knew several people like that, for example, my brother and my next-door neighbor. I told him that my brother was a doctor and he lived in California. Then he asked where my brother lived in California. When I said Sacramento, he said that last year his friend spent the summer in Sacramento and lived next door to a doctor. The doctor had a tennis court. I said that my next-door went to Sacramento last summer and lived in the house next to my brother’s. For a moment, we looked at each other, but we did not say anything.
“Would your friend’s name happen to be Roland Kirkwood?” I asked finally. He laughed and said, “Would your brother’s name happen to be Dr. Ray Hunter?” It was my turn to laugh.
【小题1】 Which of the following is true?
| A．The story happened in Chicago. |
| B．The writer’s brother lived in Sacramento. |
| C．Both the writer and the stranger lived in Chicago. |
| D．Both the writer and his brother lived in California. |
| A．it was possible for him to happen to know the stranger’s friend |
| B．he didn’t want to look for the stranger’s friend |
| C．he didn’t know the stranger’s friend |
| D．it was impossible to find the stranger’s friend |
| A．Four. | B．Five. | C．Six. | D．Seven. |
| A．On a bus | B．Two tennis players |
| C．One in a million | D．Chicago is a large city |