I lost my sight when I was four years old by falling off a box car in a freight yard in Atlantic City and landing on my head. Now I am thirty two. I can vaguely remember the brightness of sunshine and what color red is. It would be wonderful to see again, but a calamity can do strange things to people. It occurred to me the other day that I might not have come to love life as I do if I hadn't been blind. I believe in life now. I am not so sure that I would have believed in it so deeply, otherwise. I don't mean that I would prefer to go without my eyes. I simply mean that the loss of them made me appreciate the more what I had left.
$ G; C: _/ X0 p K4 X Life, I believe, asks a continuous series of adjustments to reality. The more readily a person is able to make these adjustments, the more meaningful his own private world becomes. The adjustment is never easy. I was bewildered and afraid. But I was lucky. My parents and my teachers saw something in me--a potential to live, you might call it--which I didn't see, and they made me want to fight it out with blindness.
" S9 U4 M; c0 I; W$ w The hardest lesson I had to learn was to believe in myself. That was basic. If I hadn't been able to do that, I would have collapsed and become a chair rocker on the front porch for the rest of my life. When I say belief in myself I am not talking about simply the kind of self confidence that helps me down an unfamiliar staircase alone. That is part of it. But I mean something bigger than that: an assurance that I am, despite imperfections, a real, positive person; that somewhere in the sweeping, intricate pattern of people there is a special place where I can make myself fit.
$ G8 S7 i$ V6 d' a _9 U$ O( z, [ It took me years to discover and strengthen this assurance. It had to start with the most elementary things. Once a man gave me an indoor baseball. I thought he was mocking me and I was hurt. "I can't use this." I said. "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 hear where it went. This gave me an idea how to achieve a goal I had thought impossible: playing baseball. At Philadelphia's Overbrook School for the Blind I invented a successful variation of baseball. We called it ground ball.! M2 Y# t4 u7 M& o e$ N% r
All my life I have set ahead of me a series of goals and then tried to reach them, one at a time. I had to learn my limitations. It was no good to try for something I knew at the start was wildly out of reach because that only invited the bitterness of failure. I would fail sometimes anyway but on the average I made progress.
z- J; T; I. \% ^1 e! r% V5 M9 w* G 1. We can learn from the beginning of the passage that. f( f5 h# T; P- m: _
A. the author lost his sight because of a car crash./ M4 j/ _8 `( _) Y
B. the author wouldn't love life if the disaster didn't happen.
0 w7 G9 f4 x x- |& W$ E; O* o C. the disaster made the author appreciate what he had.
: U/ x0 x* {" c% A$ Y3 M D. the disaster strengthened the author's desire to see.
2 W$ [+ i4 j F. [ 2. What's the most difficult thing for the author?
1 T% @/ Q# y* j0 [9 t, v7 s A. How to adjust himself to reality.# k# }: c( ]* g4 r. ?
B. Building up assurance that he can find his place in life.; R* b9 x9 l& F/ s' `. D
C. Learning to manage his life alone.7 e: B7 S* @2 h( s" p4 j* s. H
D. To find a special work that suits the author.2 C3 ]+ J) c) F& y4 U6 v* b
3. According to the context, "a chair rocker on the front porch" in paragraph 3 means that the author
& Z/ n; ]3 ~* k A. would sit in a rocking chair and enjoy his life.7 \& Z6 H) b- K) k9 n6 I& N
B. was paralyzed and stayed in a rocking chair. C% G! j# t& G/ A2 ?- \
C. would lose his will to struggle against difficulties.) g$ h+ J7 T# q# C& Z5 w- I
D. would sit in a chair and stay at home.4 l+ N: X! ]% x( N
4. According to the passage, the baseball and encouragement offered by the man. R' J% M o$ L+ r" N
A. hurt the author's feeling.$ U; }. R' @ {0 U$ M/ V- B
B. gave the author a deep impression.
! U: n2 d; } ]: D! G/ ?" i: {+ m C. directly led to the invention of ground ball.( a" y( ~! c; a% W7 _6 r
D. inspired the author.5 h/ g1 `5 S6 b# W
5. According to the passage, which of the following is CORRECT?# C( J1 d. c/ x4 Z
A. The author set goals for himself but only invited failure most of the time.! H" H" ?. u& r+ R) Q% o
B. The author suggested not trying something beyond one's ability at the beginning.
# J; e8 m* S! Z; X. ?* T) e
" s# _4 N. F' p3 R9 [ C. The bitterness of failure prevented the author from trying something out of reach. |