Andy Tomas is proof of the typical case that life-changing disaster awaits the drunken driver.

“A lot of teachers say, ‘Don’t drink,’ but I’m not going to say that, because I know that students are going to do it,” Andy says. “I just say, ‘Don’t get in a car.’”

As an 18-year-old, he could be a classmate or a friend, and that familiarity adds to the power of his words. He has spoken to more than 2500 high school students so far, and he has noticed their unusual silence.

One year ago, Andy, having been with friends drinking, lost control of his car and was thrown into trees 20 feet away. He was found covered in blood, with many bones broken. He was diagnosed with a severe brain injury and remained in an unconscious state and on life support for nearly three weeks. His skull was opened to reduce pressure on his brain.

At Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick, Doctor Erin Leahy initially found Andy unable to move the right side of his body. But by the end of his six-week stay, he was able to walk out of the building. Leahy called that an inspiration and a surprise.

Yet Andy’s recovery is incomplete. Brain and muscular therapy(治疗) has helped him regain movement in his right arm, but he still struggles with right hand.

In the process of recovery, Andy has thought deeply about what happened and why, and decided to share his story. Encouraged by his doctor, he began to attending meetings, delivering speeches.

He said he was nervous at first, but has grown used to the spotlight. “I feel like I know how to talk to people.” He said. And his recovery and visible injury help him draw serious attention from students.

Drunk driving, he tells students, is like playing gambles. “You might do it a bunch of times, but something is going to happen.

Now his days are all about the therapy, work and going to the gym. Mentally, he says, “ I’m a lot happier in my life.”

 

1. What’s the main purpose of the author?

       A. Warn students about the danger of drinking.

       B. Tell readers the danger of driving a car.

       C. Advise people not to drive a car after drinking.

       D. Show readers Andy’s amazing recovery experience.

2.Why does the author say Andy’s story is powerful as an 18-year-old boy?

       A. Because his family supported him and cared for him carefully.

       B. Because he is just like one of our classmates or friends.

       C. Because doctors and family never gave him up.[

       D. Because his classmates and friends are familiar with him.

3.What does the underlined sentence mean?

       A. Drunk driving will be fined a lot of money eventually.

       B. Drunk driving will eventually have a serious accident.

       C. Drunk driving is as adventurous and thrilled as gamble.

       D. Drunk driving is banned even if you are an experienced driver.

4.What happened to Andy after the accident?

       A. He made a full recovery and returned to his normal life.

       B. He recovered quite well at an unbelievable speed.

       C. He became more experienced and eager for more adventures.

       D. He shared his stories with others to warn them not to try drunk driving.

 

“It was all his own idea, ” says Pat Peters, the 38-year-old wife of Palo Alto, California high school football coach Bob Peters, 39. Bob had just drawn up a “motherhood contract” --a document stating that for 70 days this summer he would take over the care and feeding of the couple’s four children, plus all household chores. Although he didn’t even know how to make coffee when he signed, he was quite confident.(He thought the experience would make a nice book.)

     After 40 of the 70 days, he was ready to give up. “I was beaten down, pletely humbled(挫败的),”  admits Peters. Three weeks later he spoke to the local press, stating, “Not only is motherhood a difficult task, not only is it never-ending, it is an impossible job for any normal human being.”

     Bob and Pat were high school sweethearts. After they were married in 1960, she worked as a secretary to help put him through university. Since then Bob has been the football and wrestling coach at Palo Alto’s Cubberley High while Pat raised the kids. Then two years ago Pat went back to work as a secretary at Cubberley. “I had been around children so much,” she sighs, “I couldn’t talk to a grown-up.” She continued to run the household, however----until Bob signed the contract, therefore, she decided to relax and enjoy it. 

Although Peters had consulted(咨询) with his school’s home economics teachers and the head of the cafeteria, his meals were sometimes a disaster. “I tried to slip the butter I’d forgotten under the eggs after they were frying, ” he says. For the last three weeks, the family ate out a lot—sometimes having Macdonald’s hamburgers for lunch and dinner.

     As for housekeeping, a home economics teacher had told Bob that a room always looks clean if the bed is made. “I found an easier way-I shut the doors, ” he says. Soon the kids were wearing the same clothes for a week. “I made them wear their shirts inside out, and when we went to pick up Pat at work they turned them right side out so they would look clean.”

     Now that Bob has publicly admitted he was wrong, he is routinely sharing the child-raising and household tasks with Pat. The tentative(暂时的) title of his book about the summer is taken from something he shouted at the kids one day.

1.The couple signed the contract because _______.

    A. Pat plained a lot about her doing the housework all by herself

    B. Bob loved taking care of children and wanted his wife to have a good rest

    C. they agreed that husband and wife should share household tasks

    D. Bob thought it easy to take care of the family and wanted the experience for a book

2.It was agreed that if Bob failed to keep to the contract, he would have to _______.

    A. pay a certain amount of money

    B.  admit publicly he was wrong about motherhood 

 C. say sorry to his wife

    D. do all the housework for years

3.What can we learn about Pat Peters?

    A. She was hard-working and selfless.

    B. She was pretty and kind-hearted.

    C. She was tired of the child-raising and household tasks.

    D. She did not love Bob any longer.

4. Which of the following can best end the news story?

    A. “Wait till your mother gets home!”

    B. “My experience of being a mother.”

    C. “I’m proud of you all, my dear!”

    D. “Motherhood: an impossible job for anyone.”

 

When you do some minor image editing (修正) on your computer screen, you may make some mistakes, so from time to time you’d click undo (撤消).

There are things in life we cannot undo as easily and completely as we would with our computer files. A wrong turn, a hurtful word said to a loved one, a bad move — these we all commit as we walk our life’s journeys, no matter how careful we are in our steps. Once committed, we can no longer undo many of these mistakes, especially because unlike with our computer documents, each thing we do and say has vast impact as they involve not just us — the file that we are working on — but also others, the unopened files and computer programs in our system.

So I guess our life’s mistakes are not like our pencil scrawls (潦草书写) that can be effectively corrected with an eraser, or errors on our computer works that can be undone with an undo button. But there are effective and reliable tools we can use—APOLOGY and FORGIVENESS. Simply click the APOLOGY button when you have committed a mistake that has hurt a loved one and the words “I’m Sorry” will flash on the other person’s screen. But, you have to be truly sorry and you must be prepared not to commit the same mistake again for your APOLOGY to work. Sincerity is definitely a necessary part.

When someone clicks the APOLOGY button and the words “I’m sorry” flash on your screen, all you have to do is click back the FORGIVENESS (原谅) button. It means that you have wholeheartedly accepted the other person’s APOLOGY. But not only that. You also have to click it when someone has sent you back the message “It’s okay. Forget about it.”. It means that you are also forgiving yourself for your mistake; that you won’t keep feeling so bad having committed it.

And lastly, don’t forget to keep clicking the SAVE button. Going through the whole process of editing—of doing and undoing, of apologizing and forgiving — is useless if you fail to save the LESSON for future use. Let the saved file be a reminder of the healing process you once went through to make yourself better; for you not to forget the lesson; and for others to access and learn from.

 

1.Which of the following is TRUE?

A. However careful we are, we still make mistakes in life.

B. Things we do and say can affect computer programs in our system.

C. We can undo life’s mistakes if we are careful enough.

D. An eraser is an effective tool for our computer works.

2. The APOLOGY button should be clicked when ________.

A. one wants to make the computer work perfectly

B. one’s mistakes won’t influence others any more

C. one is actually saying “I’m sorry”

D. one won’t make the same mistake again

3.What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

   A. The UNDO button.                      B. The APOLOGY button.

   C. The SAVE button.                          D. The FORGIVENESS button.

4.We need to click the SAVE button in life because ________.

A. we want to go through the whole process of editing

B. we need to learn a lesson from the past mistakes

C. we want to make the healing process faster

D. we need to use the computer properly

 

That“Monday morning feeling”could be a crushing pain in the chest which leaves you sweating and gasping for breath. Recent research from Germany and Italy shows that heart attacks are more common on Monday mornings and doctors blame the stress of returning to work after the weekend break.

 The risk of having a heart attack on any given day should be one in seven, but a six-year study helped by researchers at the Free University of Berlin of more than 2, 600 Germans showed that the average person had a 20 percent higher chance of having a heart attack on a Monday than on any other day.

 Working Germans are particularly not protected against attack, with a 33 percent higher risk at the beginning of the working week. Non-workers, by comparison, appear to be no more at risk on a Monday than any other day.

 A study of 11, 000 Italians proved 8 a. m. on a Monday morning as the most stressful time for the heart, and both studies showed that Sunday is the least stressful day, with fewest heart attacks in both countries.

 The finding could lead to a better understanding of what is the immediate cause of heart attacks, according to Dr Stefan Willich of the Free University. “We know a lot about long-term risk factors such as smoking and cholesterol(胆固醇)but we don’t know what actually causes heart attacks, so we can’t give clear advice on how to prevent them, ”he said.

 Monday mornings have a double helping of stress for the working body as it makes a rapid change from sleep to activity, and from the relaxing weekend to the pressures of work.

 “When people get up, their blood pressure and heart rate go up and there are hormonal(内分泌)changes in their bodies, ”Willich explained. “All these things can have an unfavorable effect in the blood system and increase the risk of a clot(血凝块)which will cause a heart attack.”

 “When people return to work after a weekend off, the pace of their life changes. They have a higher workload, more stress, more anger and more physical activities,”said Willich.

1.Monday morning feeling, as this passage shows, ________.

A.is not as serious as people thought 

B.is the first killer in Germany and Italy

C.is created by researchers in Germany and Italy

D.is harmful to working people in developed countries

2.To protect people from a heart attack, doctors have paid much attention to ________.

A.people’s working time

B.people’s living place

C.people’s diet and lifestyle

D.people’s nationalities

3.It can be learned from this passage that the heart attack has something to do with all the following EXCEPT ________.

A.blood pressure

B.heart rate

C.hormonal changes

D.blood type

4.If the researchers give us some advice to avoid Monday morning feeling, what might it be?

A.Improve working conditions.

B.Never go to work on Mondays.

C.Stay with a doctor on Mondays.

D.Get up late on Monday mornings.

 

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