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高中英语课文阅读材料 Furthermore...
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The gossiper
(Key words: gossip, spread, rumour, sage, feather, drop, impossible)
A woman repeated a bit of gossip (1) about a neighbour. Within a few days the whole community (2) knew the story. The person it concerned was deeply hurt and offended (3). Later, the woman responsible for spreading the rumour (4) learned that the story was completely untrue.
She felt very sorry and went to a wise old sage (5) to find out what she could do to repair the damage (6).
"Go to the market place," he said, "and purchase a chicken, and have it killed. Then on your way home, pluck its feathers and drop them one by one along the road."
Although surprised by this advice, the woman did what she was told to.
The next day the wise man said, "Now, go and collect all those feathers you dropped on the way yesterday and bring them back to me."
The woman followed the same road, but to her dismay (7) the wind had blown all the feathers away. After searching for hours, she returned with only three in her hand.
"You see," said the old sage, "it's easy to drop them, but it's impossible to get them back. So it is with gossip. It doesn't take much to spread a rumour, but once you do, you can never completely undo the wrong."
Question: Why is it impossible to repair the damage of a rumour?
Notes: 1. (n.) 闲话 2. (n.) 社区 3. (v.) 冒犯 4. (n.) 谣言 5. (n.) 圣贤 6. (n.) 损失 7. (n.) 沮丧(For Students' Book 1B)
I am home
(Key words: childhood, ranch, garden, country, west, city, success, happiness, home)
You know how some people say that they never realized how much they loved their childhood until after they grew up? Well, I always knew that I was having a great childhood while it was happening. It wasn't until later on, when things weren't going so well, that I clung to the memories of that happiness and used them to find a way back home.
I grew up on a farm with a huge family. There was lots of love, lots of space and lots to do. From gardening to cutting hay, from working the horses to doing household chores (1) , the word "bored" never found its way into my vocabulary--I loved it all and none of it seemed like work to me. Peer (2) pressure was nonexistent (3) , since the only "gang" I ran around with was the gang of animals on the ranch.
My family and I were very close, and living so far out in the country kept us all at home most nights. After supper, my brothers and sisters and I would play games or tell stories, laughing and having fun until it was time to go to bed. Falling asleep was never a problem for me. I just listened to crickets and dreamed of another day on the farm. This was my life, and I knew I was lucky.
At the age of 12, something tragic happened that would change my life forever. My father suffered from a severe (4) heart attack and underwent a triple bypass. The doctors informed my father that he would need to drastically change his lifestyle, which meant no more horse training, no more tractor driving…no more ranch life.
We were forced to sell our home and move west, leaving behind the only life that I knew.
The dry Arizona air was healing for my father, and I was adjusting to a new school, new friends and a new way of living. The little girl from the farm was disappearing and being replaced by the grown-up woman in the big city.
I truly loved my job and my success was more than I could hope for on the farm. And yet…something was missing.
Happiness wasn't back until we purchased another suburban (5) house with a garden full of vegetables and small animals running. I knew I was home again.
Question: How do you think your childhood life influences your view of happiness?
Notes:
1. (n.) 杂活 2. (n.) 年纪能力相近的人 3. (adj.) 不存在 4. (adj.) 严重的 5. (adj.) 郊区的(For Students' Book 3B)
Sparky
(Key words: work out, proud, convinced of, cartoon, autobiography)
For Sparky, school was all but impossible. He failed every subject in the eighth grade. He flunked (1) physics in high school, getting a grade of zero. Sparky also flunked Latin, algebra and English. He didn't do much better in sports. Although he did manage to make the school's golf team, he promptly (2) lost the only important match of the season. There was a consolation (3) match; he lost that, too.
Throughout his youth Sparky was awkward (4) socially. He was not actually disliked by the other students; no one cared that much. He was astonished if a classmate ever said hello to him outside of school hours.
Sparky was a loser. Everyone knew it. So he rolled with it. Sparky had made up his mind early in life that if things were meant to work out, they would. Otherwise he would content himself with what appeared to be his inevitable (5) mediocrity (6).
However, one thing was important to Sparky-drawing. He was proud of his artwork. Of course, no one else appreciated it. In his senior year of high school, he submitted some cartoons to the editors of the yearbook. They were turned down. Despite this particular rejection, Sparky was convinced of (7) his ability and decided to become a professional artist.
After completing high school, he applied to Walt Disney Studios. He was told to send some samples of his artwork, and he spent a great deal of time on this. Finally, the reply came. He had been rejected once again.
So Sparky decided to write his own autobiography (8) in cartoons. He described his childhood self-a little boy loser and chronic underachiever. The cartoon character soon became famous worldwide. For Sparky, the boy who had such lack of success in school and whose work was rejected again and again, was Charles Schultz. He created the "Peanuts" comic strip and the little cartoon character whose kite would never fly and who never succeeded in kicking a football, Charlie Brown.
Question
What do you think is the most important factor that brought the final success of Sparky?
Notes: 1. (V.)不及格 2. (ad.)迅速地 3. (n.)安慰 4. (adj.)笨拙的 5. (adj.)不可避免的 6. (n.)平庸 7. (n.)自传(For Students' Book 2B)
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