D
I shall never forget the night, a few years ago, when Marion J. Douglas was a student in one of my adult-education classes. He told us how tragedy had struck at his home, not once, but twice. The first time he had lost his five-year-old daughter. He and his wife thought they couldn’t bear that first loss; but, as he said, “Ten months later, God gave us another little girl and she died in five days.”
This double bereavement was almost too much to bear. “I couldn’t take it,” this father told us. “I couldn’t sleep, eat, rest or relax. My nerves were entirely shaken and my confidence gone.” At last he went to the doctors; one recommended sleeping pills and another recommended a trip, but neither helped. He said, “My body felt as if it was surrounded in a vice(大钳子), and the jaws of the vice were being drawn tighter and tighter.” The tension of grief(悲伤) — if you have ever been paralyzed(使瘫痪) by sorrow, you know what the meant.
“But thank God, I had one child left — a four-year-old son. He gave me the solution to the problem. One afternoon as I sat around feeling sorry for myself, he asked, ‘Daddy, will you build a boat for me?’ I was in no mood to build a boat; in fact, I was in no mood to do anything. But my son is a persistent fellow! I had to gave in. Building that toy boat took me about three hours. By the time it was finished, I realized that those three hours spent building that boat were first hours of mental relaxation and peace that I had had in months! I realized that it is difficult to worry while you are busy doing something that requires planning and thinking. In my case, building the boat had knocked worry out of the ring. So I determined to keep busy.”
“The following night, I made a list of jobs that ought to be done. Scores of items needed to be repaired. Amazingly, I had made a list of 242 items that needed attention. During the last two years I have completed most of them. I am busy now that I have no time for worry.”
No time for worry! That is exactly what Winston Churchill said when he was working eighteen hours a day at the height of the war. When he was asked if he worried about his huge responsibilities, he said, “I am too busy. I have no time for worry.”
53. The underlined word “bereavement” in the second paragraph refers to _____.

A. having lost a loved one
B. having lost a valuable article
C. having lost a profit-making business
D. having lost a well-paid job
54. Marion felt his body as if it was caught in a vice because _____.
A. he couldn’t earn enough money to support his family
B. he was suffering from sleeplessness disease
C. he couldn’t get out of mental pressure
D. he felt tired of adult-education classes
55. Marion made a list of over 200 items that needed to be repaired because _____.
A. he hadn’t been able to spare time to mend them
B. he wanted to kill his free time by repairing them
C. the items had actually been broken and needed attention
D. repairing the items helped crowd worry out of his mind
56. At the end of the passage, the author wrote about Winston Churchill in order to _____.
A. prove that he followed Churchill’s example
B. support his student’s solution to his problem
C. show that he was successful in his career
D. make it clear how his conclusion was reached

根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中的两项为多余选项。

If you do not use your arms or your legs for some time, they become weak; when you start using again, they slowly become strong again. Everybody knows this, and nobody would think of questioning the fact. ____1.____ When someone says that he has a good memory, he really means that he keeps his memory in practice by exercising it regularly, either consciously or unconsciously. When someone else says that his memory is poor, he really means that he does not give it enough opportunity to become strong. ____2.____ One of them exercises his arms and legs by playing tennis, while the other sits in a chair or a motor car all day.

         If a friend complains that his arms are weak, we know that it is his own fault. ____3.____, many of us think that his parents are to blame, or that he is just unlucky, and few of us realize that it is just as much his own fault as if it was his arms or legs that were weak. Not all of us can become extremely strong or extremely clever; but all of us can, if we have ordinary bodies and brains, improve our strength and our memory by the same means––practice.

         Have you ever noticed that people who cannot read or write usually have better memories than those who can? ____4.____ Of course, because those who cannot read or write have to remember things:they cannot write them down in a little notebook. They have to remember dates, time and prices, names, songs and stories; so their memory is the whole time being exercised.

         ____5.____, learn from the poor: practice remembering.

A. What do you think of it?

B. Yet many people do not seem to know that the memory works in the same way.

C. But if he tells us that he has a poor memory

D. So if you want a good memory

E. When someone else says that he is poor in the health

F. Why is this?

G. The position is exactly the same as that of two people.

 

 

When our son, Alex, was young, he hated to travel. We endured refusals to visit one more museum, even if it was the Louvre. We coped with a child who resisted even a taste of onion soup in Paris and who insisted he would like nothing more than ordering room service at the hotel and watching TV.

Over the years, we have come up with several hard-earned but realistic strategies to help kids cope on long-distance trips.

First, we recognize that some children have trouble adjusting to new environments, food, time zones and schedules. So, in advance of a trip to England, we gave our son a taste of the new culture by making shepherd’s pie for supper. He loved the mashed potatoes, chopped meat and brown gravy(肉汁). For Italy, we sampled homemade pesto(香蒜沙司) served over linguine(扁面条). For Amsterdam, I cooked up a pot of comforting pea soup and baked a delicious apple pancake called pannekoeken. Then, when we traveled to these places, he ate these foods and they seemed like a taste of home.

In addition to food, we always sample the culture beforehand by reading books and renting movies from the countries we will be visiting. For Italy, the book Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino and the films Johnny Stecchino, Cinema Paradiso, and Il Postino gave our son a glimpse of the Italian way of life. For Britain, we rented Mr. Bean and Billy Elliot, and enjoyed stories by J.R.R. Tolkien and E. Nesbit. For Amsterdam, he finished The Diary of Anne Frank.

Before we leave home, we also ask Alex to go through our tour books and pick out activities that appeal to him. He was excited about visiting the London Dungeon and the Imperial War Museum, and taking a ride in the London Eye. They turned out to be big hits. Because Alex’s preferences were given equal attention, he was more tolerant of his parents’ selections, such as visiting Charters Cathedral and the Van Gogh Museum.

We’ve also learned the hard way that dragging our son out of bed early in the morning ,thus making him grumpy all day. Now that he is a teenager, we let him sleep in while we sip coffee at a café, work out at the hotel gym, or take a long walk. This makes our time together much more enjoyable

1.According to the writer, parents are advised to _______.

A. cook children’s favorite food           

B. postpone traveling until the kids are in college[来源:Z_xx_k.Com]

C. allow their kids a ride in the London Eye

D. take children’s interest and preferences into account

2.Cinema Paradiso and Il Postino are mentioned as _______.

A. particular desires of children         B. an approach to interest the future possible visit

C. highly appreciated films for tourists  D. comfortable activities children could pick out

3.The underlined word “grumpy” in the last paragraph is similar in meaning to _______.

A. bad-tempered           B. tolerant           C. energetic             D. nervous

4.Which of the following might serve as a possible title for this passage?

A. Kids and Parents.                             B. Joys of Traveling.

C. Whether You Go or Not.                       D. How to motivate Kids to travel

 

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