I always experienced guilt when I passed by without giving a coin or two to a beggar.

My conscience was pricked again on a tour of Venice in 2010. I had taken refuge from the crowds in a quiet canal-side café. Outside the café was an old woman kneeling on the ancient cobbled stones, begging. Steady streams of tourists were walking past her. A lone young back-packer stood away from the crowds drinking something, but I noticed he was also observing the woman.

A tourist group glanced at the woman and walked on. Another group of tourists arrived and, again, walked past her. The backpacker watched. Then, as I prepared to leave, I stopped at the sight of the backpacker stepping forward and placing some money in the woman’s cup. He did this rather ostentatiously(炫耀地), just before the arrival of another tourist group. I watched as the leader of the group stopped and put some money in the cup. Having been shown the way, other tourists followed suit and added more coins to the woman’s cup.

The young backpacker repeated this process in front of the next tour party going past. Once again, the subtle peer (同伴)pressure worked on the tourists, who all added coins to the cup. His work done, the young man walked over to the old beggar woman, patted her shoulder and said, “I hope that helps a bit.”

I don’t know if the woman understood his English or realized what had just happened, but I did. I placed some money in the woman’s cup and continued my travels, light-hearted after witnessing such an act of caring.

1.The backpacker placed some money in the woman’s cup rather ostentatiously because______.

A. he wanted to stop the tourists by doing this

B. he wanted people to know that he was rich and kind

C. he wanted to help the woman by himself

D. he wanted the tourist group to follow him

2.The author went to a quiet canal-side cafe to_______ .

A. avoid meeting the beggar

B. get away from the crowds

C. take a rest

D. watch the woman beggar

3.We can infer from the passage that ________ .

A. tourists can be cheated by beggars

B. people usually have pity on an old beggar

C. tourists are willing to help beggars

D. people can do kind acts due to peer pressure

4.Before the backpacker dropped some money in the woman’s cup, the tourists ______ .

A. all showed pity for the woman

B. didn’t notice the woman

C. walked by without giving any money

D. gave a little money to the woman

Weekends are normally a time for shopping and last Saturday was no exception. My son Henry and I were shopping in a neighborhood market. Henry was busy weighing each new bag of vegetables I selected. I gave him a bag of potatoes and he walked over to the scale and waited in line. Suddenly, a man rushed over from behind, and stepped before him, hitting him out of the way. Henry looked shocked and scared. Seeing this I left my shopping cart and walked over to Henry, saying loudly, “Are you OK, honey? I saw what that man did to you. That was very, very wrong.”

When the man finished weighing his bag, his sudden turning around made all his onions fall to the ground. The three of us stood there, frozen for a moment. And then I bent down on my hands and knees and started collecting onions. After I handed the onions to the man, he accepted them and put them into his bag. After Henry and I picked up all the onions, the man walked away without saying anything. We didn’t discuss the event until we got back in the car.

On the way back home, Henry said through tears, “Mommy, I’ve a frustrating day. That man cut right in front of me. And we had to help him pick up his onions! Why did we do that? That didn’t make any sense!”

I took a deep breath and said, “Henry, that man seemed to have a very bad mood today. We should forgive him. I was also angry with the man for treating you rudely. I really wanted to kick him. But doing that doesn’t make any sense. If we hadn’t helped him, we might have felt good for a moment, but then I bet we would have felt really sorry for a long time. You and I have a lot of love to share. Maybe that man doesn’t have much. People who behave badly still need love.”

A cheerful smile appeared on Henry’s face. It was a smile of promise kept. It was the best smile I had ever seen. It was a good moment. It may have been my best mommy moment ever.

1.What did the man do?

A. He cut in the line.

B. He hit Henry on the head.

C. He hurried away without paying.

D. He ran into Henry suddenly.

2. What can we infer from the passage?

A. The author was not angry at all with what the man had done.

B. The man was very sorry for what he had done to Henry.

C. At last, Henry learned a very valuable life lesson from the event.

D. Henry didn’t help the author pick up the onions for the man.

3. Which of the following word can best describe the author?

A. Narrow-minded. B. Broad-minded.

C. Strong-willed. D. Bad-tempered.

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