Amy, a day old, was abandoned at a police station in Seoul. Her birth parents couldn’t afford to give Amy the appropriate healthcare then. She spent her first three months in an orphanage before she was adopted. “I always thought, why should I be more thankful to my adoptive parents than the next person?” she says.
In 2011, Amy reconnected with her birth mother in South Korea, her adoptive mum by her side. “My Korean mother took my American mother’s hands in hers and said with tears, ‘Thank you.’ After that, my whole world changed,” Amy says. At the time, she was working in the e-commerce sector and struggling with anxiety, depression and an eating disorder. Reconnecting with her birth family, however made her feel like the luckiest person in the world and she wanted to actively share her good fortune. That year, she quit her job and co-founded the Global Gratitude Alliance, which partners with grassroots organizations to create community-led solutions or social and economic change.
Since then, a reflexive sense of thankfulness has become Amy’s frame of reference for work, relationships and daily life in general. She tried to rethink her world view, appreciate the little things and make connections with others. For Amy, the attitude shift helped her overcome health issues—she didn’t need the drugs any more after she returned from Korea.
Those positive effects inspired Amy to share the experience with others. Through a partnership with a home for orphaned children in Nepal, the Global Gratitude Alliance provided teachers with workshops that concluded with a ceremony of giving thanks. The participants used those techniques to help their students and community after the destructive earthquake of 2015. Children from the school recently visited a local seniors’ home to build relationships with the residents there. “Gratitude creates a cycle of giving and receiving,” Amy says.
【小题1】What can we know from the passage?| A．Amy was raised by an American couple. |
| B．Amy received proper treatment as an infant. |
| C．Amy was more thankful to her birth mother. |
| D．Amy was orphaned three months after her birth. |
| A．Her job quitting | B．The reunion with her birth mother. |
| C．The struggle against her disease. | D．The connections with volunteers. |
| A．They hosted ceremonies in workshops. |
| B．They sought partners for orphaned children. |
| C．They built relations with adoptive parents. |
| D．They contributed to post-disaster service. |
| A．Good fortune inspires people a lot. | B．Reflection helps build frame of life. |
| C．Family reunion gets positive effects. | D．Gratitude needs to be widely spread. |
