It was a Sunday and the heavy storm had lasted all night. The morning after the storm, though, was beautiful: blue skies, warm air and a calm, inviting sea touching the shore gently.
My father realized it was a good day for fishing and invited my sister and me to go with him. I was only 14 and fishing had never been my thing, but I decided to go all the same. I’m so glad I did.
On the road to the harbor we could see the terrible destruction on the coast, but the harbor itself was in fairly good shape. After all, it was protected by the arms of a bay that had only one tiny channel to the sea. As we got on board, we noticed two big humps (脊背) in the distance.
On approaching them, we saw it was a mother whale with her baby. We couldn’t believe it — there aren’t any whales along the coast here. The storm must have driven them across the ocean into the bay, in which the still water was so badly polluted that nothing could survive.
The little baby whale — actually as big as our boat — was obviously stuck and could not move. The mother dived under the water and came up suddenly, making big whirlpools(漩涡) and waves. “She’s trying to help her baby, but on the wrong side,” my father said. At this point, my father moved our boat in a semicircle to the other side and, heading the boat towards the baby whale, pushed it gently. With our several gentle pushes the big hump turned over and disappeared under water. Then it swam up right beside its mum. They struggled in their desperate attempts to escape but missed the exit and started heading in the wrong direction. We hurried up to the whales and tried to lead them towards the bay channel. Slowly, they let us lead them, some-times rising from the water right beside us to breathe — and to give us a trusting look with those huge eyes. Once they hit their first part of clean water flowing straight from the sea, the mum gave us a wave with her tail and off they swam into the distance.
In the excitement it had felt like only a few minutes, but we had been with those wonderful animals for almost an hour and a half. That was the simple and lasting beauty of the day. Nearly four decades later, I still look back fondly to that golden day at sea.
【小题1】The author says “I’m so glad I did.” (in Para.2) because __________.A.he spent the weekend with his family |
B.be witnessed the whole process of fishing |
C.he enjoyed the beauty of the calm sea |
D.he experienced the rescue of the whales |
A.the long coast line | B.the shape of the harbor |
C.the arms of the bay | D.the still water in the channel |
A.the waves pushed her baby in the wrong direction |
B.she had stayed in the polluted water for too long |
C.the whirlpools she had made were not big enough |
D.she had no other whales around to turn to for help |
A.It’s vital to protect the environment |
B.Saving lives brings people a sense of happiness |
C.Fishing provides excitement for children |
D.It’s necessary to live in harmony with animals |
It was eight o’ clock on Christmas morning, and Uncle Tom said he wanted to listen to the news. My 11-year-old self was wondering why grown-ups would be interested in the news when there were important things to be done, such as handing out presents. However, while I was only half-listening to the radio broadcast, I was confused that I had heard that report earlier.
My older brother, Colin, figured out what was happening. “Pete, it’s a tape recorder! We’ve got our tape recorder!” This was one of those rare moments when my inside gave an involuntary lurch (倾斜). Colin and I had both been blind from birth. In the late 1950s, tape recorders were definitely the top choice for blind kids, especially with the rise of rock ‘n’ roll.
But it wasn’t the first time I had been attracted to a tape recorder. I vividly remember walking into a room when I was four and hearing a child’s beautiful singing. It turned out that my dad had borrowed a tape recorder for preparing his projects. And for the first time, in the same way that a sighted child might react to seeing themselves in a mirror or a photograph, I got the sense of myself as a separate person who existed outside my head and was experienced by other people.
Then I became a broadcaster at school. I would wander around the school with my microphone, recording my thoughts in the style of the voices I heard on the radio. But the biggest challenge was not finding things to do with the tape recorder but taking it away from Colin. His generosity on the first day we got it did not extend to handing it over to his brother at school. “You’ll break it,” he would say.
But ten years later, I drew on the confidence gained from those early explorations of the sound and walked into a radio station, in the hopes of selling myself as a broadcast journalist. Eight years later, I presented my first report for BBC’s Six O’Clock News. I never thought that a Christmas present had changed my life.
【小题1】Why did Uncle Tom probably listen to the news on Christmas morning?A.To keep up with the times. |
B.To carry on the holiday tradition. |
C.To create a happy festival mood. |
D.To surprise Colin and the author. |
A.His interest in music. |
B.His love of broadcasting. |
C.The real existence of himself. |
D.An understanding of his father. |
A.Learning the voice style of radio hosts. |
B.Getting the tape recorder from Colin. |
C.Balancing broadcasting and study. |
D.Finding fun things to record. |
A.His experiences of exploring the sound. |
B.His talent for recording. |
C.His father’s encouragement. |
D.His rich broadcasting knowledge. |
My husband is not a big fan of kids, especially those without manners and those who misbehave.
One of our neighbours has 3 children and the oldest is Jacob. He was 5 at the time. For some reason, he took a liking to my husband. Every time he saw him, Jacob would wave, dash across the street and come to visit. Jacob would always ask so many questions. They would ride bikes together. They really seemed to get along well.
My husband had a sick cat that died at that time. It literally broke his heart and he grieved deeply for so long that even I was getting worried about him. He had no energy, cried and even quit his bike riding.
Five-year-old Jacob immediately noticed and asked me what was wrong. I told him about the loss of our cat and how my husband didn’t want to ride, or visit his friends. Jacob listened carefully without a word and ran back home.
The next day, the door bell rang. There was Jacob and his mum with a huge plate of homemade chocolate cookies. On top of that, Jacob had a huge paper card in his hand. Jacob’s mum explained, “Jacob came home yesterday and told me about your husband’s situation. He wanted to do something immediately to cheer him up and asked me to help him make chocolate cookies with the material left at home.” Jacob also asked his mum to write down a message on a piece of paper so he could copy it in his own handwriting. He drew a picture of my husband and the cat on the card and signed his name.
I gave him a hug before he ran off to find his friend and present his gift. After they left, I noticed tears in my husband’s eyes. Five-year-old Jacob’s thoughtfulness left a great impression on him.
【小题1】According to the passage, Jacob _____________.A.is five years old now | B.liked cats very much |
C.was a curious child | D.didn’t have many friends |
A.Because he didn’t want to ride with a child. |
B.Because he spent too much time taking care of his cat. |
C.Because he got hurt physically. |
D.Because he was in a very sad mood. |
A.An image of a cat. | B.A message. |
C.An image of the writer. | D.An image of the writer’s husband. |
A.Disappointed. | B.Excited. | C.Annoyed. | D.Moved. |
组卷网是一个信息分享及获取的平台,不能确保所有知识产权权属清晰,如您发现相关试题侵犯您的合法权益,请联系组卷网