PEOPLE

NOBLE SMUGGLER

     This Thursday, Irena Sendler will be honoured for her work as a smuggler(偷运者). During World WarⅡ, the Polish social worker smuggled nearly2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto(聚居区). She gave them new identities, found them safe places with good-hearted Christians, and kept the children’s real names buried in jars in her neighbours’ gardens.(The play, Life in a Jar, based on her story, is being performed.)At 93, Sendler lives in a Warsaw nursing home and is too weak to travel to Washington D.C., to receive the 2003 Jan Karski Award for Valorand Compassion from the American Center of Polish Culture. One of the children she saved will accept the award for her.

You risked your life to save the children.

I was taught by my father that when someone is drowning, you don’t ask if they can swim,you just jump in and help. During the war, everyone was drowning, but mostly the Jewish children.

How did you persuade parents to give up their children?

I had to answer honestly that I didn’t even know if we would get past the guards.

What was the most frightening moment?

When I saw a priest(牧师)in charge of an orphan age for Jewish children in the ghetto walk with them out to be killed. The children were in then best Sunday suits. The priest was killed with them.

How did you get the children to be have as you smuggled them out?

I told the older children to act as if they were sick and sometimes gave the younger ones a sleeping pill. They were told to remember their new names. I also told the children to tell guards they had only been visiting a servant in the ghetto and were going back to their real homes outside.

Did you tell your own two children what you did?

I never told them. Only when my daughter went to Israel did she learn all about me. I thought it was only normal to do so. And it was a very painful subject. It was always on my mind that I couldn’t do more.

——Samantha Levine

1. We can learn from the passage that Irena Sendler____.

A. will go to Washington to accept the award with her daughter

B. was caught a few times while she was rescuing the Jewish children

C. told those parents that their children’s lives would be guaranteed

D. saved thousands of Jewish children at the risk of her ownlife

2. The expression “everyone was drowning” can best be replaced by“______”.

A. everyone was involved in the war

B. all the people were drowned

C. people were facing danger and death

D. Jewish children were being killed

3. Which of the following could NOT be expected when Sendler was smuggling the Jewish children?

A. Some children were told to pretend to be sick in front of the guards.

B. Some children pretended to be returning home after visiting servants in the ghetto.

C. The children were asked to remember and use new names instead of real ones.

D. The children pretended to be brothers and sisters from one big family.

4. Sendler didn’t tell her own children what she did in the war because ______.

A. she thought it was the most frightening experience

B. the topic was too painful and heart-breaking to mention

C. it was already recorded and made known to the public

D. she planned to bury the secret in her heart until her death

When I was nine , my father was ill.I can remember my mother’s words ___16___ it were yesterday: “Kerrel, Your father has AIDS.Be very ____17___ when you are around him.”
AIDS wasn’t something we talked about in my country when I was growing up.From then on, I knew that this would be a family ___18___.My parents were not together anymore, and Dad lived ___19___.For a while, he____20__ take care of himself.But when I was 12, his condition__21____.My father’s other children lived far away, so it fell to me to look after him.
We couldn’t___22____ all the necessary medication for him, and because Dad was unable to work, I had no money for ___23____ supplies and often couldn’t even buy food for dinner.I would sit in class feeling completely ___24____, the teacher’s words muffled as I tried to figure out how I was going to manage.
I did not share my ___25___ with anyone.I had seen how people ___26___ to AIDS.Kids laughed at classmates who had parents with the disease.And even adults could be ___27__.When my father was __28____to the hospital, the nurses would leave his food on the bedside table even though he was too weak to feed himself.
I had known that he was going to die, but after so many years of __29____ his condition a secret.I was completely __30____when he reached his ___31___ days.__32___  and hopeless, I __33___ a woman at the nonprofit National AIDS Support.That day, she kept me on the phone for hours.I was so __34____to find someone who cared.She saved my life.
I was 15 when my father died.He took his secret away with him, having never spoken about AIDS to___35____, even me.He didn’t want to call  attention to AIDS.I do.

【小题1】
A.asB.thoughC.as ifD.even if
【小题2】
A.dangerousB.carefulC.calmD.confident
【小题3】
A.difficultyB.shynessC.secretD.weight
【小题4】
A.unhappilyB.lonelyC.separatelyD.alone
【小题5】
A.couldB.mustC.shouldD.need
【小题6】
A.brokenB.worsenedC.damagedD.destroyed
【小题7】
A.payB.spendC.affordD.offer
【小题8】
A.familyB.everydayC.medicalD.school
【小题9】
A.lostB.nervousC.disappointedD.worried
【小题10】
A.sufferingB.burdenC.pressureD.sadness
【小题11】
A.treatedB.caredC.reactedD.feared
【小题12】
A.differentB.nervousC.sensitiveD.cruel
【小题13】
A.movedB.retreatedC.returnedD.recovered
【小题14】
A.leavingB.keepingC.stoppingD.preventing
【小题15】
A.uneasyB.unabsorbedC.unpreparedD.uncomfortable
【小题16】
A.dueB.relaxingC.profoundD.final
【小题17】
A.CuriousB.StrangeC.TerrifiedD.Sad
【小题18】
A.encounteredB.visitedC.calledD.contracted
【小题19】
A.luckyB.dramaticC.romanticD.magical
【小题20】
A.anyoneB.someoneC.nobodyD.none

My brother-in-law opened the bottom drawer of my sister’s bureau(衣橱)and picked out a wonderful skirt. “Jan bought this the first time we went to New York, at least 8 or 9 years ago .She never wore it. She was saving it for a special occasion.” Well, I guess this is the occasion.

He took the skirt from me and put it on the bed. His hands touched the soft material for a moment, then he shut the drawer and turned to me, “Don’t ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you’re alive is a special occasion.”

I’m still thinking about his words, and they’ve changed my attitude to life. I’m spending more time with my family and friends and less time in committee meetings. Whenever possible, life should be a pattern of experience to enjoy, not suffer. I’m trying to recognize these moments now and treasure them.

“Someday” and “one of these days” are being lost from my vocabulary. If it’s worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now . I’m not sure what my sister would have done if she had known she wouldn’t have tomorrow.

I think she would have called family members and a few close friends. She might have called a few former friends to apologize and mend her fences for past things. I like to think she would have gone out for a Chinese dinner, her favorite food.

If I knew that my hours were limited, those little things left undone would make me angry. Angry because I put off seeing good friends whom I was going to get in touch with someday. Angry and sorry because I didn’t tell my husband and daughter often enough how much I truly love them.

I’m trying very hard not to put off, hold back, or save anything that would add laughter to our lives. And every morning when I open my eyes, I tell myself that every day, every minute, and every breath truly, is…a gift from God.

1.What’s the best title for the passage?

A. Every day is a gift

B. My poor sister

C. Value friendship every day

D. Every day is an important occasion

2.Jan bought the wonderful skirt but didn’t wear it, because(   )

A. She wanted to wear it on special occasions

B. She kept it as a special gift for someone else

C. She saved it until she grew older

D. She wanted to keep it as a sweet memory

3.Which of the following is not the writer’s attitude to life?

A. Spending more time staying with family every day.  

B. Attending social activities as often as possible

C. Enjoying life and valuing every day.

D. Trying to get along well with friends

 

Two worlds come together

Imagine landing in a foreign country where you cannot speak the language, understand the culture and don’t know anybody. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a friend who could help you out?

John Smith, an English explorer who landed in America in 1607, found the best friend ever. She was a Native American named Pocahontas (1595-1617). And she did more than teach Smith the language: she saved his life, twice.   

Smith was captured(捕获) by members of Pocahontas’s tribe (部落) and was going to be killed. But for some reason, the Chief’s daughter, Pocahontas, felt sorry for Smith (who was probably the first white man she had ever seen) and threw her body over his to protect him. Smith returned safely to the small village he was living in.

During the winter the English settlers did not know how to get food from nature. Pocahontas often brought food for Smith and his friends.

A year later Pocahontas’s father tried to kill Smith again because the Native Americans were very scared the English would try to take over their land. Pocahontas warned him and he was able to escape.

Later she became a Christian and eventually married an Englishman named John Rolfe.

She spent the last year of her life in London.

Pocahontas has become an American legend. Her life story has been re-created in many books and films, including Disney’s 1995 film, Pocahontas.

One of the reasons she is so popular is that many Europeans look at Pocahontas as an excellent example of how a minority can adjust into the majority. Pocahontas is also respected because of her selfless love. She proved that people can be kind and loving even to people of a different race or culture. John Smith was very different from Pocahontas but she could see he was a good man and that was all that mattered. No race or country owns goodness, love and loyalty.

1. What difficulties might early European settlers meet in America EXCEPT ________?

A. the fierce conflict with Native Americans   B. bad-tempered natives who enjoyed killing

C. unfamiliarity with a foreign land          D. lack of food in winter

2. Pocahontas saved John Smith twice because ______.

A. he was the first white man she had ever seen in her life

B. she wanted to become a Christian and marry an Englishman

C. she believed in general kindness even to people of a different race

D. she was on the settlers’ side and against her cruel father

3. According to the text, Europeans think Pocahontas _____.

A. was brave to break away from her own tribe       

B. set a good example for other natives to accept the white settlers  

C. was a selfless Christian who can love her enemy

D. was open to a more advanced culture

4. What can we infer from the passage?

A. The battles between early settlers and Native Americans resulted from their fighting for land.

B. The Europeans think the early settlers should have learned to adjust to the local cultures.

C. The creation of America is based on the settlers’ victory over the Native Americans.

D. People from different cultures can never really get along well with each other.

 

 

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网