When Emanuel received an email from Professor Richard English, Queen’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, encouraging him to apply for a PhD in Politics in Belfast, it was a pinch-me moment Emanuel never thought would be possible. After all, just a few short years ago, he was living on the streets couch-surfing at friends’ houses and weeding gardens to make ends meet. Now, one of the world’s leading political academics was preparing to welcome him to Queen’s University over 4,000 miles away.
Emanuel never knew who his father was and his mom was mentally ill when she gave birth to him, so the hospital took him off her and he was unofficially adopted for the first few years of his life. What followed was a childhood with uncertainty as Emanuel was passed between the adoption system and family members.
Through his high school and community college years, he moved from house to house, living with friends at times and living on the streets at others.
Determined to change all that despite his rocky start in life, Emanuel involved himself in school--doing everything he could to earn extra tuition (学费) money in his spare time. But getting accepted into university was scarcely possible because a person like him couldn’t get a regular student loan.
Fortunately, the government backed him, having created a policy allowing disadvantaged persons to access funding for higher education. He graduated from the University of the West Indies with a 1st Class Honors degree and went on to do his Masters.
Emanuel knows that his story could have been very different.
“I discovered Professor Richard English online and sent him an email honestly, not thinking he would reply and to my surprise, he did. I applied for the highly competitive Commonwealth Shared Scholarship Scheme in order to fund my research at Queen’s. When I was told I was successful, my whole world changed.”
【小题1】What does the underlined word “pinch-me” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Expected. | B．Unbelievable. |
| C．Awkward. | D．Anxious. |
| A．His father was dead. | B．He lived on the streets. |
| C．He was once adopted. | D．He lived with his friends. |
| A．By receiving a regular student loan. |
| B．By earning the tuition all by himself. |
| C．By borrowing the money from friends. |
| D．By getting support from the government. |
| A．Well begun is half done. | B．It’s never too old to learn. |
| C．You are the master of your life. | D．Lost time is never found again. |
