When I was
growing up, I had an old neighbor named Dr. Gibbs. He didn’t look like any
doctor I’d ever known. He never yelled at us for playing in his yard. I
remember him as someone who was a lot nicer than most of the adults in our
community.
When Dr.
Gibbs wasn’t saving lives, he was planting trees. His house sat on ten acres,
and his life’s goal was to make it a forest.
The good
doctor had some interesting theories concerning plant care and growth. He never
watered his new trees, which flew in the face of conventional wisdom. Once I
asked why. He said that watering plants spoiled them so that each successive
tree generation would grow weaker and weaker. So you have to make things rough
for them and weed out(淘汰) the
weaker trees early on. He talked about how watering trees made for shallow
roots, and how trees that weren’t watered had to grow deep roots in search of
moisture. I took him to mean that deep roots were to be treasured.
So he
never watered his trees. He planted an oak and, instead of watering it every
morning, he beat it with a rolled-up newspaper. Smack! Slap! Pow! I asked him
why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree’s attention.
Dr. Gibbs
passed away a couple of years after I left home. Every now and again, I walked
by his house and looked at the trees that I’d watched him plant some
twenty-five years ago. They’re extremely tall, big and robust since they have
deep roots now. However, the trees in my garden trembled in a cold wind
although I had watered them for several years.
It seems
that adversity(逆境) and
suffering benefit these trees in ways comfort and ease never could. I stood
there deep in thought.
Every
night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I stand over them and watch
their little bodies, the rising and falling of life within. I often pray for
them. Mostly I pray that their lives will be easy. But I think that it’s time
to change my prayer(禱詞) because
now I know my children are going to encounter hardship.
1.According
to Dr. Gibbs’ theories, trees will become weaker if they _________.
A. are
lack of care B. are
watered C. are weeded out D. are beaten
2.According
to Para.3 and Para.4, we can infer that Dr. Gibbs’ motto(座右銘) may
be .
A. “Seeing
is believing” B.
“Put everything in proper use”
C.
“Practice makes perfect” D.
“No pain, no gain”
3.The
underlined word robust in Para.5 most probably means _________.
A. strong B.
strange C.
deep
D. old
4.Which of
the following may be the author’s best prayer for his two sons now?
A. I wish
them strong wings, with which they can fly higher and touch the sky.
B. I wish
them nice fortune so that they can meet people like Dr. Gibbs in the future.
C. I wish
them deep roots into the earth since the rains fall and the winds blow often.
D. I wish
them great shades under the tree since the sunlight is always sharp and bitter.
5.Which of
the following can be the best title of this passage?
A.
A Nice Doctor B. The Deep Roots C. Adversity and
Suffering D. My Childhood Memory