I lost my sight when I was four years old when falling off a train to Atlantic City. But I was . My parents and my teachers saw something in me -a potential to live, you might call it -which I didn't see, and they encouraged me to blindness.
The hardest lesson I had to was to believe in myself. If I hadn't been able to do that, I would have walked with a stick for the rest of my life. When I say belief in myself I am not _ talking about the kind of self-confidence that helps me down an staircase alone. That is part of it. But I mean something bigger than that. Although imperfect in some aspect, I am a real, positive person. There is a special place where I can make myself fit.
It took me years to discover and this self-confidence. It had to start with the most basic things. Once a man gave me an indoor baseball. I thought he was making fun of me and I was .
"I can't use this," I responded.
"Take it with you," he urged me, "and roll it around. "
The words stuck in my head. "Roll it around! " By rolling the ball I could where it went. This gave me an how to achieve a goal I had thought impossible: playing baseball. At Philadelphia's Overbrook School for the Blind I invented a new kind of baseball. We called it ground ball.
All my life I have set ahead of me a series of goals and then tried to them one by one. I also knew my limitations. It was no good trying something that I knew at the start was wildly out of reach because that only the bitterness of failure. I would fail sometimes anyway but on the average I made .
A．unfortunate B．disappointed C．lucky D．ashamed
A．share with B．play with C．toy with D．fight with
A．meet B．learn C．avoid D．prepare
A．simply B．slightly C．frequently D．directly
A．unusual B．unfair C．unfamiliar D．uncomfortable
A．lengthen B．strengthen C．deepen D．widen
A．hurt B．amused C．greeted D．praised
A．find B．see C．smell D．hear
A．event B．offer C．idea D．excuse
A．receive B．achieve C．classify D．follow
A．refused B．removed C．caused D．replaced
A．sense B．mistakes C．friends D．progress
阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A, B, C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
My wife and I moved into our home two years ago. We had a yard with a lot of . Very often when we have flowers, Denise or I would plant some between the rocks, just to add some to the area.
Last summer, I found a tiny little in the yard that I could not immediately identify. I knew I didn’t plant it and Denise said she didn’t either. We decided to let it growing until we could find out what it was.
Weeks passed and as I made my way back to the plant, it appeared to be a sunflower. I decided to the weeds around it. As I pulled rocks from the area to get to the weeds, I noticed something . The sunflower had not where I saw it begin. It actually had begun under a big and grown under and around it to reach the .
That’s when I that if a tiny little sunflower didn’t let a big rock stand in its of developing, we too have the ability of doing the same thing. If we ourselves like that little sunflower, we can reach where we to go and get what we need for growth.
We need to believe in ourselves knowing we have the to achieve our goals. Like the , it knew it had the ability to get over the rocks because it had in itself that it would succeed. Stand tall like the sunflower and be of who and what we are, then the environment will begin to us. We will find a way to go under or any “rocks” in order to reach our goals.
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My kids and I were heading into the supermarket over the weekend. On the way ,we spotted a man holding a piece of paper that said, “ _____ my job. Family to Feed.”
At this store, a _____ like this is not normal. My 10-year-old noticed him and make a ______ on how bad it must be to have to stand _______ in the cold wind.
In the store, I asked each of my kids to _____ something they thought our “friend” there would ______. They got apples, a sandwich and a bottle of juice. Then my 17-year-old suggested giving him a _______. I thought about it. We were _____ on cash ourselves, but… well, sometimes _____ from our need instead of our abundance is _____ what we need to do! All the kids ______ something they could do away with for the week.
When we handed him the bag of ____, he lit up and thanked us with _____ eyes. When I handed him the gift card, saying he could use it for ______his family might need, he burst into tears.
This has been a wonderful _____ for our family. For days the kids have been looking for others we can _____! Things would have played out so ______ if I had simply said, “No, we really don’t have _____ to give more.” Stepping out not only helped a brother in _____, it also gave my kids the ______ taste of helping others. It’ll go a long way with them.
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Once upon a time there lived an old man in a nice cottage with a large garden. The old man was seen his flowers all the time. They were so well-tended(照顾得好) that every passer-by could not but for a glance.
One day a young man went by the garden. He gazed at the splendid garden, in admiration（赞美） at the beauty of these sceneries. Then, suddenly he the old gardener was blind. , the young man asked, "Why are you busy tending these flowers every day which you can't in fact?" The old man smiled and answered that "I can tell you reasons. First I was a when I was young, and I really like this job. Second, although I can't see these flowers, yet I can them. Third, I can smell sweetness of them. As to the last one, that's ."
"Me? But you don't know me," responded the young man .
"Yeah, it's that I don't know you. But I know everyone knows flowers and would never them down. I know the beauty of my garden will get many people into a good . In the meantime, it also a chance to me to have a word with you here and to enjoy the happiness these flowers have brought us."
The old man's astonished me. The blind man grows flowers and them as a link of minds（心灵的连接） so as to make enjoy the sunshine in spring. Isn't it one kind of happiness?
I believe every flower has with which they can see the kindness of the man's heart. The blind man grows flowers in his heart. Though to see the beauty of blossoming（繁花盛开）, he surely can hear the voice of it, I suppose.
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My father was a self-taught mandolin（曼陀林琴）player. He could not read, but if he heard a tune several times, he could play it. Occasionally, he ______ play for the local radio station.
Dad loved playing the mandolin for his family. He knew we enjoyed his playing. If he could give _____ to others, he would, especially for his family. He was always _____ his time and efforts to making sure his family had enough in their life.
Later, I matured into a man and had my own children. Whenever coming home, I would ask Dad to play the mandolin, for nobody played the mandolin like him. He could _____ your soul with tunes coming out of that old mandolin. He seemed to ______ when playing, taking pride in his ability to play so well.
Unfortunately, in 1977. Dad was _____ in an accident, leaving his third finger of his left hand wounded seriously. _____ he didn’t lose enough of the finger where it would stop him picking up anything, it did affect his ______ to play the mandolin. After the accident, he was ______ to play and felt unable to play as well as before. Every time we asked him to play, he would make excuses. _____, we could persuade him and he would say “Okay. But I can’t hold down on the strings and play as well as before.” For the family it made no ______. When he played the old mandolin, it would carry us back to a cheerful, happier time.
In August 1993, Dad was ______ with serious disease. He chose not to receive any chemotherapy（化疗）treatments ______ he could live out his rest life in dignity(尊严). A week before his death, we asked Dad if he would play the mandolin for his family. First he made the usual ______ again but later said “Okay.”, ______ it was likely to be the last chance for us to hear him playing. He tuned up the old mandolin and played. ______, I found everyone in the family ______. We saw before us a quiet humble man with an inner ______ that lives with him in his life.
Dad would never play the mandolin for us again, but we still _____ the most valuable gift we gained from him, ____ he had done all his life, giving.
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When I stopped by to get a newspaper,a tall,sincere man came over to me asking for help with directions. With a printout of Google maps, he was looking for a on the main street, but just couldn’t find it. After checking out his written directions, I mapped it my phone and showed him where he needed to go.
He, in , mentioned that he had tried going there, but there was no such street number and he just couldn't locate his hotel．I it again for him．He thanked me with a big smile, shook my hand, and ．I got into my car and he got into his, and we ways．As I drove to the next grocery store and went in, I sensed wrong about the directions－so I Googled the address again and that he was looking for the right address but in a city half an hour away!
it had been several minutes, the chances of finding him miles away－where he was surely still looking around－were ．But I thought I'd give it a(an) and set off in that direction． I'd noticed what his car looked like, and was just about to give up．I parked my car as I considered what else I could do－ , like magic, he drove right by and pulled over into a nearby parking spot, still about where the hotel was．
When I next to him, he couldn't believe it: " did you find me?!" he asked．"I'm not sure, but I that you are in the wrong city!" I showed him the right directions, and after more and a handshake, we .Likely that we'll never meet again, and that makes it much more sweet.
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