In a country where many girls are still discouraged from going to school, Sushma Verma is having anything but a typical childhood.
The 13-year-old girl from a poor family in north India has enrolled in (入学登记) a master’s degree in microbiology, after her father sold his land to pay for some of his daughter’s tuition to help her to be part of India’s growing middle class.
Verma finished high school at 7 and earned an undergraduate degree at age 13 with the encouragement of her uneducated and poor parents. “They allowed me to do what I wanted to do,” Verma said, “I hope that other parents don’t make their children accept their choices.”
Sushma lives with her family in a crowded single-room apartment in Lucknow. Their only income is her father’s daily wage of up to 200 rupees (less than $3. 50) for laboring on construction sites. Their most precious possessions include a study table and a second-hand computer. It is not a great atmosphere for studying, she admitted. But having no television and little else at home has advantages, she said. “There is nothing to do but study.”
Her first choice was to become a doctor, but she cannot take the test to qualify for medical school until she is 18. “So I chose the master’s of science and then I will do a doctor’s degree,” she said.
In another family, Sushma might not have been able to receive higher education. Millions of Indian children are still not enrolled in grade school, and many of them are girls whose parents choose to hold them back in favour of advancing their sons. Some from conservative (守旧的) village cultures are expected only to get married. “The girl is an inspiration for students who are born with everything”, said Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak of Sulabh International, who decided to help after seeing a local television program on Sushma. She is also receiving financial aid from well-wishing civilians and other charities.
【小题1】Which word can best describe Sushma Verma’s father?| A．Strict. | B．Educated. |
| C．Understanding. | D．Supportive. |
| A．To show her family enjoy a simple life. |
| B．To show her family live a very poor life. |
| C．To tell us her room is poorly furnished. |
| D．To tell us her room is a great place to study in. |
| A．Her age. | B．Her choice. |
| C．Her interest. | D．Her poverty. |
| A．Indian parents treat their sons and daughters equally. |
| B．Indian parents spend much of their income on education. |
| C．Indian boys have more chances to receive higher education. |
| D．Indian girls in the countryside get married when they leave primary school. |
In 1954, Eleanor - my grandma - in great need of income, walked into the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. There she convinced some of the greatest scientists that she was the perfect person for their ant collection.
As a teenager, Eleanor spent hours wandering around the halls of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, flipping through gift shop books about insect mounting (固定于载片上). But that was all her experience in the field.
During her job interview at Harvard, when Philip Darlington, an influential zoologist at that time, asked Eleanor about her specialty, she replied, “Oh, I like everything.”
“He probably realized right then that I have nothing special,” she says. She once worked in a hardware store in New York, and she had no typing skills to be a secretary. She had dropped out of the Tyler School of Fine Arts to marry. But that artistic background was a selling point for the Harvard Job, and she was hired on the spot.
Now artistic background are common for researchers. At that time, however, hiring a woman who had dropped out of art school was certainly a risk. It paid off, Eleanor’s job as a technician required the same quality that art school had demanded. She began each day at the museum mixing glue (胶水). Then she pulled the dead ants from the containers and set them out to dry. Some ants were small-barely 3 millimeters long-requiring patience and a careful hand. Eleanor needed to fix the ant bodies with a spot of glue and write a label for each of them.
The job required her to work quickly, yet correctly. “The average person never really hears about the expertise and the effort that goes into it.” said Wilson, an expert at the Museum. Rushing would risk ruining a rare specimen (标本), but Eleanor could process ants as quickly and many as 200 a day. Wilson said that she was the best technician who ever worked for him.
【小题1】Why was Eleanor hired?| A．She once studied at an art school. |
| B．She’s married and in need of money. |
| C．She was interested in mounting insects. |
| D．She was experienced in the Museum career. |
| A．Eleanor’s payment. |
| B．Eleanor’s effort. |
| C．Eleanor’s artistic background. |
| D．Eleanor’s being hired. |
| A．To prove how painful Eleanor’s job is. |
| B．To highlight Eleanor’s outstanding ability. |
| C．To praise Eleanor’s bravery and creativity. |
| D．To provide evidence of Eleanor’s work process. |
| A．Ambitious. | B．Emotional. | C．Creative. | D．Skillful. |
Sonny opened his eyes wide, “Do you mean next time when I’m entering for the 60-metre race I should wish that Billy, Tony and Sandy would all fall asleep halfway?”
I was shocked, “But the tortoise didn’t wish that the hare would fall asleep!”
“He must have wished that,” Sonny said, “Otherwise how could he be so foolish as to race with the hare? He knew very well the hare ran a hundred times faster than he himself did.”
“He didn’t have such a wish,” I insisted. “He won the race by perseverance (坚忍不拔), by pushing on steadily.”
Sonny thought a while. “That’s a lie,” he said. “He won it because he was lucky. If the hare hadn’t happened to fall asleep, the tortoise would never have won the race. He could be as steady as you like, or a hundred times steadier, but he’d never have won the race. That’s for sure.”
I gave up. Today’s children are not like what we used to be. They’re just hopeless.
【小题1】The writer argued with his son because ___________.
| A．he liked tortoises while his son liked hares. |
| B．they disagreed about whether the tortoise was foolish. |
| C．he liked the story of the hare and the tortoise while his son didn’t. |
| D．he tried to teach his son a lesson but the son had different opinion. |
| A．in fact did win the race luckily. |
| B．took a chance by agreeing to run a race. |
| C．was not given a fair chance in the race. |
| D．won the race by his own hard working. |
| A．boys who were unknown to Sonny’s father |
| B．boys who Sonny has run races with before |
| C．boys who Sonny has never raced with before |
| D．boys who Sonny did not expect to race with again |
| A．The tortoise | B．Sonny |
| C．Sonny’s father | D．The hare |
Mitchell lost his battle with Marfan syndrome at 26. The rare genetic disorder affects the body’s connective tissue, which is used to hold together organs, cells and tissue.
Ashley Whisenhunt, 22, cared for her husband until his death but said she was astonished when she discovered the 30 letters he left for her, their 18-month-old daughter Brynleigh and the community.
The little girl will grow up with a letter every year from her second to 18th birthday from a man she didn’t get to spend much time with but who left no doubt that he loved her unconditionally. “Through his testimony,there is so much she is going to learn,” Ashley told ABC News.
One letter was also addressed to their Longview, Texas, community, thanking them for their support.
“It just blows my mind,” Ashley said of her husband’s secret gesture. “He thought about everybody else instead of himself.”
Ashley said she would respect her husband’s wishes and open each letter as he planned, however there was one special surprise left for her that she said hit her the hardest.
In a spiral notebook that Ashley used before she dropped out of college to care for her husband, he wrote a letter to her asking that she publish a book of poetry he had written.
Mitchell Whisenhunt even planned his own funeral, and the funeral director said he couldn’t tell Ashley because it was Mitchell’s plan and secret. Ashley said she couldn’t help but wonder what other surprises her husband had in store. “There are ones we still don’t know about it,” she said.
【小题1】How many letters will Ashley Whisenhunt receive from her husband?
| A．30. | B．22. | C．12. | D．13. |
| A．books | B．poems | C．notebooks | D．surprises |
| A．Love from Heaven | B．Fight against Diseases |
| C．Respect for Father | D．Secrets in Store |
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