Unit 3 The Million Pound Bank Note 知识点题库

I lost my sight when I was four years old by falling off a box car and landing on my head. Now I am twenty-two. I can vaguely(模糊地) remember the brightness of sunshine and what red color is. It would be wonderful to see again, but a calamity can do strange things to people.

It occurred to me the other day that I might not have come to love life as I do if I hadn't been blind. I believe in life now. I am not so sure that I would have believed in it so deeply, otherwise. I don't mean that I would prefer to go without my eyes. I simply mean that the loss of them made me appreciate the more what I had left.

Life, I believe, asks a continuous series of adjustments to reality. The more readily a person is able to make these adjustments, the more meaningful his own private world becomes. The adjustment is never easy, but I was lucky. My parents and my teachers saw something in me — a potential to live — which I didn't see, and they made me want to fight it out with blindness.

The hardest lesson I had to learn was to believe in myself. That was basic. If I hadn't been able to do that, I would have collapsed(倒塌) and become a chair rocker on the front porch(门廊) for the rest of my life. When I say belief in myself I am not talking about simply the kind of self-confidence that helps me down an unfamiliar staircase alone. That is part of it. But I mean something bigger than that: an assurance that I am, despite imperfections, a real, positive person； that somewhere in the sweeping, complicated pattern of people there is a special place where I can make myself fit.

It took me years to discover and strengthen this assurance. It had to start with the most elementary things. I had to learn my limitations. It was no good to try for something I knew at the start was wildly out of reach because that only invited the bitterness of failure. I would fail sometimes anyway but on the average I made progress.     

Once there was a free bird. She floated in the sky,(catch) worms for lunch and swam in the summer rain trickles(滴), like many birds. But she had a habit:some event occurred in her life, whether good or bad, the bird would pick up a stone the ground to memorize it. Every day she sorted out her stones, laughed remembering joyful events, and cried remembering the sad ones.

The bird always took the stones with her, whether she was flying in the sky or walking on earth, and she never forgot about them. Years had passed the free bird got a lot of stones, but she still kept on sorting them out, remembering the past. It was becoming more and more difficult for her to fly.

The bird was unable to move on her own，could she catch worms anymore. Only rare rain gave her the necessary energy.But the bird (brave) endured all the hardships, (guard) her precious memories. After some time the bird died of  (starve) and thirst. 

    It was a Sunday evening, and everyone was doing their own thing —whatever my sisters and I like to do during our1time. Mom told us to come to the living room. Like most children, of course, we wanted to2whatever we were doing. I don't remember3I was doing, only that I was the last one to go into the4room. Abbey was in a chair, and Elizabeth was by the wall, closest5the stairs.

    I don't remember where everyone else was sitting,6 it was one of the very few times my Dad was with us while we had7. He is usually at work or always busy with something. Mom told us that they were getting a8When she first told us, I didn't know what to think. But when Elizabeth started laughing, all my sisters and I started9, because we truly thought she was joking, or maybe we just didn't10Elizabeth to get mad at us. Looking back, I think the main11 I laughed with them was because I didn't12what to think.

    Mom insisted that she wasn't13, and that she wouldn't joke about something serious; for we wouldn't 14her if something of the sort would15happen. We all stopped laughing, and Elizabeth was the first to get16. She was angry that they were getting a divorce. She went upstairs in17, and then I also got upset. I don't really remember much18Elizabeth went upstairs, but I know that I19the living room so I could be 20.

    How I wish every person had an entire family！

    Hobbs was an orphan (孤儿). He worked in a factory and every day he got a little money. Hard work made him thin and weak. He wanted to borrow a lot of money to learn to paint pictures, but he did not think he could pay off the debts.

    One day a lawyer said to him, “One thousand dollars, and here is the money.” As Hobbs took the package of notes, he was very dumbfounded. He didn't know where the money came from and how to spend it. He said to himself, “I could go to find a hotel and live like a rich man for a few days; or I give up my work in the factory and do what I’d like to do—painting pictures. I could do that for a few weeks, but what would I do after that? I should have lost my place in the factory and have no money to live on. If it were a little less money, I would buy a new coat, or a radio, or give a dinner to my friends. If it were more, I could give up the work and pay for painting pictures. But it's too much for one and too little for the other.”

    “Here is the reading of your uncle's will (遗嘱)，” said the lawyer, “telling what is to be done with this money after his death. I must ask you to remember one point. Your uncle has said you must bring me a paper showing exactly what you did with his money, as soon as you have spent it.” “Yes, I see. I'll do that，” said the young man.

—No way. It is not my (错误).

She , which makes them very happy.

—Sorry, we don't permit here in the lab.(smoke)