Sometimes I really doubt whether there is love between my parents. They don’t act in the romantic ways that I read in books or I see on TV. In their opinion, “I love you” is too luxurious (奢侈的) for them to say. Sending flowers to each other on Valentine’s Day is even more out of the question. And my father has a bad temper (脾气).
One day, my mother was sewing a quilt (被子). I silently sat down beside her and looked at her.
“Is there love between you and Dad?” I asked her in a very low voice.
My mother stopped her work and raised her head with surprise in her eyes. She didn’t answer immediately.
I was very worried because I thought I had hurt her. But at last I heard my mother say the following words.
“Lily,” she said, “look at this thread (线). Sometimes it appears, but most of it disappears in the quilt. The thread really makes the quilt strong and durable (耐用的). If life is a quilt, then love should be a thread. It can hardly be seen anywhere or anytime, but it’s really there. Love is inside.”
I listened carefully but I couldn’t understand her until the next spring. At that time, my father suddenly got sick seriously. My mother had to stay with him in the hospital for a month. When they returned from the hospital, they both looked very pale.
After they were back, every day in the morning and dusk (黄昏), my mother helped my father walk slowly on the country road. My father had never been so gentle. It seemed that it was their most harmonious (和谐的) period. The sun gently glistened (闪耀) among the leaves. All of these made up the most beautiful picture in the world.
The doctor had said my father would recover (恢复) in two months. But after two months he still couldn’t walk by himself. All of us were worried about him.
“Dad, how are you feeling now?” I asked him one day.
“Lily, don’t worry about me,” he said gently. “To tell you the truth, I just like walking with your mum.” Reading his eyes, I know he loves my mother deeply.
Once I thought love meant flowers, gifts and sweet kisses. But from this experience, I understand that love is just a thread in the quilt of our life. Love is inside, making life strong and warm.
【小题1】Why does Lily sometimes doubt that there is no real love between her parents?| A．Because they are very busy earning money. |
| B．Because they don’t have enough money for love. |
| C．Because her father is easy to lose his temper to her mother. |
| D．Because she doesn’t see the thread in the quilt. |
| A．Possible. | B．Impossible. | C．Necessary. | D．Unnecessary. |
| A．The quilt story from her mother. | B．One-month stay in the hospital. |
| C．The beautiful scenery of the country road. | D．The sickness her father suddenly got. |
| A．We should understand our parents however old they are. |
| B．Love is hidden in the life, but it really influences our life. |
| C．We really need love because it makes our life harmonious. |
| D．Love is so important to everyone that we must love everyone. |
Tyler Skiuzacek’s father, Patrick, could not sleep through the night. It was 2007, and Patrick had just returned from a year in Iraq, where he served in the U. S. Army. Patrick Skluzacek was energetic and happy when he left for Iraq, Tyler says. But when he returned, he was unhappy and drinking alcohol too much. It turned out Patrick was suffering from sleep panic attacks. Patrick would wake up every night. His heart would beat too fast. He would sweat. The nighttime panic attacks prevented Patrick from feeling good the next day, because he was so tired.
Almost 10 years later, Tyler was in a position to help his father. He thought he could make a computer program that might help his father. So he entered a competition in Washington, D. C, trying to solve the problem Tyler’s father and other U. S. war veterans (老兵), were having. People called them”night terrors. ”The students had 36 hours to come up with a program. They called it myBivy—That name comes from bivouac, a military term for a safe place to sleep.
The application uses a smart watch and a smart phone together. The watch tracks the wearer’s heartbeat. It sends the data to the program on the smart phone. Research shows that a person’s heart rate will increase right before a night terror. So if the wearer’s heartbeat started to rise, myBivy would respond. The smart watch would vibrate and gently wake up the sleeping person. That was enough to prevent a night terror from happening.
Patrick wore the watch for two weeks to get used to it. Then, Tyler turned on the application. On the first night, the vibrations from the watch prevented 10 nightmares. Patrick said he had not slept that well in many years. Tyler and his team won the contest in Washington, D. C. The prize was $1,500. Then the group tried to raise more money from investors, and they were surprised when they took in over$25,000. By the spring of 2016, Tyler and his team were testing the app with volunteers, and hoped to make it available to the public soon.
【小题1】What might be the cause of Patrick’s problem?| A．His experience in the war. | B．His drinking habit. |
| C．His family troubles. | D．His sleeping disorder. |
| A．the US government tries to help war veterans |
| B．people look down upon the night terrors |
| C．many other veterans suffer similar problems |
| D．myBivy was named after a great soldier |
| A．How effective the app is. | B．How to download the app. |
| C．How to design the app. | D．How the app works. |
| A．Valueless. | B．Promising. |
| C．Tough. | D．Controversial. |
The washing machine had leaked on my brand-new linoleum. If only my husband had just taken the time to fix it the night before when I asked him instead of playing checkers with Jonathan.
It was days like this that made me want to quit. I just wanted to drive up to the mountains, hide in a cave, and never come out.
Somehow I spent most of the day washing and drying clothes and thinking how love had disappeared from my life. As I finished hanging up the last of my husband’s shirts, I looked at the clock. 2:30. I was late. Jonathan’s class let out at 2:15 and I hurriedly drove to the school.
I was out of breath by the time I knocked on the teacher’s door and peered through the glass. She rustled through the door and took me aside. “I want to talk to you about Jonathan,” she said.
I prepared myself for the worst. Nothing would have surprised me. “Did you know Jonathan brought flowers to school today?” she asked. I nodded, thinking about my favorite bush and trying to hide the hurt in my eyes. “Let me tell you about yesterday,” the teacher insisted. “See that little girl?” I watched the bright-eyed child laugh and point to a colorful picture taped to the wall. I nodded.
“Well, yesterday she was almost hysterical. Her mother and father are going through a nasty divorce. She told me she didn’t want to live, she wished she could die. I watched that little girl bury her face in her hands and say loud enough for the class to hear, ‘Nobody loves me.’ I did all I could to comfort her, but it only seemed to make matters worse.” “I thought you wanted to talk to me about Jonathan,” I said.
“I do,” she said, touching the sleeve of my blouse. “Today your son walked straight over to that child. I watched him hand her some pretty pink flowers and whisper, ‘I love you.’“
I felt my heart swell with pride for what my son had done. I smiled at the teacher. “Thank you,” I said, reaching for Jonathan’s hand, “you’ve made my day.”
Later that evening, I began pulling weeds from around my azalea bush. As my mind wandered back to the love Jonathan showed the little girl, a biblical verse came to me: “...these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” While my son had put love into practice, I had only felt anger.
I heard the familiar squeak of my husband’s brakes as he pulled into the drive. I snapped a small limb bristling with hot pink azaleas off the bush. I felt the seed of love that God planted in my family beginning to bloom once again in me. My husband’s eyes widened in surprise as I handed him the flowers. “I love you,” I said.
【小题1】Why did the woman cry when seeing her son had broken the azalea bush?
| A．Because she could not tolerate the harm to it. |
| B．Because it made her bad mood even worse. |
| C．Because her son did not ask her for permission. |
| D．Because she wanted to hand it to her husband. |
| A．feeling fed up with her endless daily housework |
| B．her husband’s failing to fix the machine in time |
| C．boring daily routine with a feeling of lack of love |
| D．her hoping to seek happiness in a brand new place |
| A．she was inspired by her son that love was supposed to be felt and practiced |
| B．she felt guilty that she misunderstood her husband and wanted to apologize |
| C．she felt it necessary to have a complete family for the happiness of herself |
| D．she wanted to prove her love and expected the same words from her husband |
I was born disabled．A difficult birth, feet first, my head stuck．By my first birthday, I couldn't stand or walk．
When I was three, the doctor told dad I had cerebral palsy （脑瘫）．A loss of oxygen to my brain had destroyed brain signals to the right side of my body．
But no son of my dad' s was going to be disabled．Every morning before breakfast and every evening before bed, my dad placed me on the bedroom floor to exercise my right leg．The muscles were shrunk and twisted together．Back and forth up and down, my dad pushed and pulled the muscles into shape．
But my dad' s exercise of passion didn't stop there．For my 13th birthday, he threw me a special party．When everybody was gone, he brought me to open a large box, it was a-set of boxing gloves．We put them on．My dad kept on beating me mercilessly．Each time I tried to get up, leather kissed my nose, eyes and jaw．I "begged him to stop. He said he beat me to get me ready for the tough world.
That same year, I was the only kid in my neighborhood that wasn't picked for Little League. Two weeks later．Dad started the Shedd Park Minor League, and every kid played．Dad coached us and made me a pitcher （棒球投手）．
The power of my dad' s love guaranteed I walked and more．In high school, I became a football star．
In 1997, a brain surgeon in San Jose told me I didn’t t have cerebral palsy after all．He explained how and where the doctor' s forceps （镊子） at birth had damaged my brain.
My dad never knew the whole truth since he passed away years ago．But all that counts is the bottom line．After all his madness, on this Father' s Day, like every Father' s Day, I' m no longer disabled．
【小题1】What caused the author' s disability?
| A．A failed operation． |
| B．The doctor's forceps． |
| C．An accident in a game． |
| D．Shrunken and twisted muscles． |
| A．The author has a talent for boxing． |
| B．The author achieved a lot thanks to his father' s love． |
| C．The author became a baseball star with the help of his father． |
| D．The author doesn't think his father should be so strict with him． |
| A．wouldn't give up hope easily |
| B．believed his son was a normal child |
| C．blamed the doctors for his son' s disability |
| D．couldn't accept the truth that his son was disabled |
| A．remember his father |
| B．encourage disabled children |
| C．show the difficulty the disabled face |
| D．give advice to the parents of disabled children |
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