My mother was a household servant. Through her work, she observed that successful people spent a lot more time reading than they did watching television. She announced that my brother and I could only watch two to three pre-selected TV programs during the week. With our free time, we had to read two books each from the Detroit Public Library and write book reports. She would mark them up with check marks. Years later we realized her marks were a
ruse. My mother had only received a third-grade education. Although we had no money, between the covers of those books, I could go anywhere, do anything and be anybody.
When I entered high school, I was an A-student, but not for long. I wanted the fancy clothes. I wanted to hang out with the guys. I went form being an A- student to a B- student to a C-student, but I didn’t care.
One night my mother came home and I complained about not having enough shirts. She said, “Okay, I’ll give you all the money I make this week cleaning floors and bathrooms, and you can buy the family food and pay the bills. With everything left over, you can have all the shirts you want.”
I was very pleased with that arrangement but once I got through allocating(分配) money, there was nothing left. I realized my mother was a financial genius to be able to keep a roof over our heads and any kind of food on the table, much less buy clothes.
I also realized that immediate satisfaction wasn’t going to get me anywhere. Success required intellectual(理智的) preparation. I went back to my studies and became an A-student again. I dreamed of becoming a doctor when I was just a kid. And now I have achieved my dream.
Over the years my mother’s changeless faith in God has inspired me, particularly when I found myself faced with my own medical illness. A few years ago I discovered I had a very serious cancer; I was told it might have spread to my spine(脊柱). My mother believed in God very much. She never worried. She said that God would never throw me away forever; there was no way that
this was going to be a major problem. The abnormality in spine turned out to be not bad; I was able to have surgery and am cured.
My story is really my mother’s story －a woman little formal education or worldly goods who used her position as a parent to change the lives of her children.
小題1: The underlined word “ruse” in the first paragraph probably means
.
| A．discovery | B．success | C．trick | D．pleasure |
小題2:When the author asked his mother to buy him shirts, she
.
| A．a(chǎn)dvised him to earn money by himself |
| B．a(chǎn)sked him to try to manage their money |
| C．persuaded him not to buy them patiently |
| D．a(chǎn)greed to buy them for him immediately |
小題3: What do we learn about the author?
| A．He now works as a doctor. |
| B．He disliked watching TV as a kid. |
| C．He received little formal education. |
| D．He often did housework when young. |
小題4:The underlined word “this” in the last but one paragraph refers to
.
| A．God’s throwing me away |
| B．my own medical illness |
| C．the operation on my spine |
| D．my mother’s changeless faith in God |
小題5:In writing the passage, the author mainly shows us
.
| A．the happy relationships in his family |
| B．the benefits of reading for young children |
| C．the importance of formal education for adults |
| D．his mother’s great influence on his development |
