Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a longhandled brush. He stopped by the fence in front of the house where he lived with his aunt Polly. He looked at it, and all joy left him. The fence was long and high. He put the brush into the whitewash and moved it along the top of the fence. He repeated the operation. He felt he could not continue and sat down.
He knew that his friends would arrive soon with all kinds of interesting plans for the day.
They would walk past him and laugh. They would make jokes about his having to work on a beautiful summer Saturday. The thought burned him like fire.
He put his hand into his pockets and took out all that he owned. Perhaps he could find some way to pay someone to do the whitewashing for him. But there was nothing of value in his pockets—nothing that could buy even half an hour of freedom. So he put the bits of toys back into his pockets and gave up the idea.
At this dark and hopeless moment, a wonderful idea came to him. It filled his mind with a great, bright light. Calmly he picked up the brush and started again to whitewash.
While Tom was working, Ben Rogers appeared. Ben was eating an apple as he walked along the street. As he walked along it, he was making noises like the sound of a riverboat. First he shouted loudly, like a boat captain. Then he said “Ding－Dong－Dong”， “Ding－Dong－Dong” again and again, like the bell of a riverboat. And he made other strange noises. When he came close to Tom, he stopped.
Tom went on whitewashing. He did not look at Ben. Ben stared a moment and then said: “Hello! I'm going swimming, but you can't go, can you？”
No answer. Tom moved his brush carefully along the fence and looked at the result with the eye of an artist. Ben came nearer. Tom's mouth watered for the apple, but he kept on working.
Ben said, “Hello, old fellow, you've got to work, hey？”
Tom turned suddenly and said, “Why, it's you, Ben! I wasn't noticing.”
“Say—I'm going swimming. Don't you wish you could? But of course you'd rather work—wouldn't you? Of course you would.”
Tom looked at the boy a bit, and said, “What do you call work？”
“Why, isn't that work？”
Tom went back to his whitewashing, and answered carelessly.
“Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. All I know is, it suits Tom Sawyer.”
“Oh come, now, you don't mean to say that you like it？”
The brush continued to move.
“Like it? Well, I don't see why I shouldn't like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day？”
Ben stopped eating his apple. Tom moved his brush back and forth, stepped back to look at the result, added a touch here and there, and stepped back again. Ben watched every move and got more and more interested. Soon he said，“Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.”
Tom thought for a moment, and was about to agree, but he changed his mind.
“No—no—it won't do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly wants this fence to be perfect. It has got to be done very carefully. I don't think there is one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it well enough.”
“No—is that so? Oh come, now—let me just try. Only just a little.”
“Ben, I'd like to, but if it isn't done right, I'm afraid Aunt Polly … ”
“Oh, I'll be careful. Now let me try. Say—I'll give you the core of my apple.”
“Well, here—No, Ben, now don't. I'm afraid …”
“I'll give you all of it.”
Tom gave up the brush with unwillingness on his face, but joy in his heart. And while Ben worked at the fence in the hot sun, Tom sat under a tree, eating the apple, and planning how to get more help. There were enough boys. Each one came to laugh, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was tired, Tom sold the next chance to Billy for a kite; and when Billy was tired, Johnny bought it for a dead rat—and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, Tom had won many treasures.
And he had not worked. He had had a nice idle time all the time, with plenty of company, and the fence had been whitewashed three times. If he hadn't run out of whitewash, Tom would have owned everything belonging to his friends.
He had discovered a great law of human action, namely, that in order to make a man or a boy want a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to get.
【小题1】How many characters are mentioned in this story?| A．4 | B．5 |
| C．6 | D．7 |
| A．Because he was tired and wanted to play with his toys |
| B．Because he wanted to throw his toys away |
| C．Because he wanted to know if he could buy help with his toys |
| D．Because he wanted to give his toys to his friends |
| A．Tom wanted to do the whitewashing by himself |
| B．Tom planned to make Ben give up his apple first |
| C．Tom was unwilling to let Ben do the whitewashing |
| D．Tom was afraid Ben would do the whitewashing better |
| A．Tom was interested in whitewashing the fence |
| B．Tom had a lot of friends who are ready to help others |
| C．Tom was unwilling to whitewash the fence, but he managed to let other boys do it for him |
| D．Tom was good at whitewashing the fence, so he looked at the result of work with the eye of an artist |
| A．His warm heart and kindness to friends. |
| B．His curiosity about Tom's brushing job. |
| C．Tom's threat. |
| D．Aunt Polly's idea. |
| A．The Happy Whitewasher |
| B．Tom And His Fellows |
| C．Whitewashing A Fence |
| D．How To Make The Things Difficult To Get |
Ways to increase the quality of your life
Everyone at some time feels that their life is at a fast pace and going nowhere. Do you think that your life is unchanged? Have you reached a plateau where things are OK, but not very exciting? Do you feel that OK is not good enough?
Take up a hobby.
Learning a new skill is one of the most satisfying things you can do. You will feel a sense of achievement that will boost your self-image. A great way to learn a skill is to join a class. Not only will you learn, but you will make new friends. Whether it’s learning a foreign language or playing a musical instrument, there will be a class near your home.
Bring on the humor.
Laughing is very good for you.
Grow a positive thinking habit.
Are you prone to negative thoughts? Do you assume the worst will happen in any situation? Being negative damages your quality of life. Stop being a defeatist and start being an optimist.
Life is good. You are lucky to be alive. Make the most of the years you have on Earth, enjoy them, and don’t waste them being negative. Follow the advice above and you will surely increase the quality of your life.
| A．It will take work, but can bring greater happiness and make your quality of life considerably better. |
| B．If so, it is time to do something to increase the quality of your life. |
| C．When you lead a hum-drum life, it is great to have something to think about that takes you into another world. |
| D．Exercise a bit. |
| E．It will lower your stress and put you in a good mood. |
| F．It is the most excellent way of boosting your mood and improving your quality of life. |
| G．Learn a skill. |
Listening to happy music at work can help you complete tasks more quickly, especially if you’re doing something repetitive such as checking e-mail or filing documents.
Music decreases levels of the stress hormone cortisol just as well as massage therapy does, according to a small 2010 study. Scientists randomly assigned anxious patients to listen to music either during massage therapy or while lying in a dim room.
People come up with more creative solutions when they listen to happy, upbeat music than when they sit in silence, according to researchers from the Netherlands and Australia. It may be because music improves your brain’s flexibility or because it relaxes you enough for the creative juices to flow.
Whether you’re running, biking, or walking, you’ll go farther if you pump up the jams, studies have found.
Maybe you’ve heard about Alzheimer’s patients coming alive when they hear a song from their past. Studies show that music helps them retrieve memories, communicate more effectively, and remember who they are.
| A．After three months those who just listened to music experienced the same drop in anxiety as those also got massages |
| B．One study showed that the accuracy and efficiency of surgeons improved when they worked with the music of their choice in the background |
| C．Music has been used to heal for centuries, and now we’re learning why it works |
| D．Music distracts you from your discomfort and motivates you to stay with the beat |
| E．But don’t play the music too loudly |
| F．Listening to music before surgery has been shown to ease anxiety and limit the need for sedatives(镇静剂) |
| G．Time does fly when you’re listening to music |
Many people spend weekends doing meaningless things, which is a complete waste of our life. However, successful people make the best use of their weekends differently. Here are some things they may choose to do.
●
Successful people don't go into the weekend with no plan.
●Get up early.
Of course, it feels good to sleep in. However, it's actually quite refreshing (使人精力充沛的) to get up and move early on days when you don't have to get up early.
●Put the phone aside.
In today's busy world, most of us never truly leave work. Our phones are likely connected to our emails and Twitter accounts, meaning we may deal with a work-related task even after 5 p. m.
●Follow hobbies.
| A．Make a plan. |
| B．Prepare for the week carefully. |
| C．But successful people need time to let work go. |
| D．The weekend is the perfect time to make up for it. |
| E．They plan their day out just as they would on any other day. |
| F．Successful people start their Saturday off by hitting the gym or reading a book. |
| G．Successful people use every minute of their free time to do something they love. |
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