修改时间：2021-05-20 浏览次数：311 类型：高考模拟
I had the meanest mother in the whole world. While other kidsate candy for breakfast, I had to have cereal, eggs or toast. When others hadcokes and candy for lunch, I had to eat a sandwich. As you can guess, my supperwas different from the other kids' also. But at least, I wasn't alone in mysufferings. My sister and two brothers had the same mean mother as I did.
My mother insisted upon knowing where we were at all times.You'd think we were on a chain gang. She had to know who our friends were andwhere we were going. She insisted if we said we'd be gone an hour, that we begone one hour or less — not one hour and one minute.
We had to wear clean clothes and take a bath everyday. The otherkids always wore their clothes for days. We reached the height of insultsbecause she made our clothes herself, just to save money.
The worst is yet to come. We had to be in bed by nine each nightand up at eight the next morning. We couldn't sleep till noon like our friends.So while they slept — my mother actually had the nerve to break the ChildLabor Law. She made us work. We had to wash dishes, make beds, learn to cookand all sorts of cruel things. I believe she laid awake at night thinking upmean things to do to us.
Through the years, things didn't improve a bit. We could not liein bed, "sick" like our friends did, and miss school. Our marks inschool had to be up to par. Our friends' report cards had beautiful colors onthem, black for passing, red for failing. My mother, being as different as shewas, would settle for nothing less than ugly black marks.
As the years rolled by, first one and then the other of us wasput to shame. We were graduated from high school. With our mother behind us,talking, hitting and demanding respect, none of us was allowed the pleasure ofbeing a drop-out.
My mother was a complete failure as a mother. Out of fourchildren, a couple of us attained some higher education. None of us have everbeen arrested or divorced. Each of my brothers served his time in the serviceof this country. She forced us to grow up into God-fearing, educated, honestadults. Using this as a background, I am now trying to raise my three children.I am filled with pride when my children call me mean. Why? Because now I thankGod every day for giving me the meanest mother in the whole world.
Every evening, 15-year-old Rashida returns home from school,changes out of her uniform, and rushes to a neighboring farm to help her motherharvest vegetables. Her father is disabled, so the modest profit the two ofthem earn must cover food, clothing and other necessities for all sevenchildren and their parents. Despite having precious little time to study,Rashida is one of the top students at her junior secondary school. But with somuch responsibility on her small shoulders, she admits that it is sometimeshard for her to imagine a more promising future.
Last year, Rashida was invited to join 155 other girls at CamfedGhana's first Girls' Career Camp, a program designed to inspire girls growingup in the country's Northern Region to dream big, and to support them to pursuethose dreams. “We organized this camp because we wanted to let girls know thateven if they are struggling with poverty, their lives will not be defined bylimitations,” says Dolores Dickson, Camfed Ghana's Executive Director.
Over the course of five days, the camp led the junior andsecondary school students through a range of experiences and career opportunities that were entirely new to them. Dr. Agnes Apusiga, a lecturer from the University of DevelopmentStudies, ran the workshop on goal-setting and career choices, describing theuniversities and training colleges in Ghana that could help them achieve theirdreams. Participants then visited the University for Development Studies, wherethey toured the medical school and science labs. Another highlight was aworkshop at the computer lab at Tamale Secondary School. Many of the girls hadstudied information technology from a book but had never before seen acomputer.
“When the girls arrived at camp, they were not ambitious,because they didn't have any idea what the world held for them,” says EugeniaAyagiba, Project Officer with Camfed Ghana. “Many had scarcely traveled beyondtheir own villages.”
“I think the most important thing that happened at the camp isthat we opened a window of hope for a group of girls coming from backgrounds ofpoverty,” says Eugenia. For Rashida, who has been laughed at in the past by herschoolmates because of her father's disability, the experience was important.“She told one of the camp mentors(辅导员) that whenshe is at school, she often feels like a misfit, and she prefers to keep toherself,” says Eugenia. “But at the camp, it was different. She made friendswith girls who have similar struggles. She took part in every single activity,every single game. On the last day, she said to her mentor, ‘The camp haschallenged me to study hard. Now I see that there is light at the end of thetunnel.'
“The first and best of victories for a man is to conquerhimself; to be conquered by himself is, of all things, the most shameful,” saysPlato. Self-control is at the root of all the advantages. Let a man give in tohis impulses (冲动) andfeelings, and from that moment he gives up his moral freedom.
A single angry word has lost many friends. When Socrates foundin himself any temper or anger, he would check it by speaking low in order tocontrol himself. If you are conscious of being angry, keep your mouth shut sothat you can hold back rising anger. Many a person has dropped dead in greatanger. Fits of anger bring fits of disease. “Whoever the gods would destroy,they first make them mad.” “Keep cool,” says Webster, “anger is notargument.” “Be calm in arguing,” says George Herbert, “for fierceness (狂怒) makes error a fault.”
To be angry with a weak man is to prove that you are not strongyourself. “Anger,” says Pythagoras, “begins with foolishness and ends withregret.” You must measure the strength of a man by the power of the feelings heconquers, not by the power of those which conquer him.
Self-control is man's last and greatest victory.
If a man lacks self-control he seems to lack everything. Withoutit he can have no patience, no power to govern himself; he can have noself-confidence, for he will always be controlled by his strongest feeling. Ifhe lacks self-control, the very backbone and nerve of character are lackingtoo.
Kong Zi , also called Confucius (551-479 B.C) , and Socrates(469-399 B. C) lived only a hundred years apart , and during their lifetimesthere was no contact between China and Greece, but it is interesting to look athow the world that each of these great philosophers came from shaped theirideas , and how these ideas in turn ,shaped their societies.
Neither philosopher lived in times of peace, though there weremore wars in Greece than in China. The Chinese states were very large andfeudal, while the Greek city-states were small and urban. The urban environmentin which Socrates lived allowed him to be more radical than Confucius. UnlikeConfucius, Socrates was not asked by rules how to govern effectively. Thus,Socrates was able to be more idealistic, focusing on issues like freedom, andknowledge for its own sake. Confucius, on the other hand, advised those ingovernment service, and many of his students went out to government service.
Confucius suggested the Golden Rule as a principle for theconduct of life:” Do not do to others what you would not want others to do toyou.” He assumed that all men were equal at birth, though some had morepotential than others, and that it was knowledge that set men apart. Socratesfocused on the individual, and thought that the greatest purpose of man was toseek wisdom. He believed that the superior class should rule the inferior(下层的)classes.
For Socrates, the family was of no importance, and the communityof little concern. For Confucius, however, the family was the center of thesociety, with family relations considered much more important than politicalrelations.
Both men are respected much more today than they were in theirlifetimes.
Recently some American scientists have given a useful piece of advice to people in industrialized nations．They say people should eat more of the same kind of food eaten by humans living more than 10,000 years ago．
The scientists say that the human life has changed greatly．Our bodies have not been able to deal with these changes in life style and this had led to new kinds of sicknesses． So they are called "diseases of civilization"．Many cancersand diseases of the blood system are examples of such diseases.
Scientists noted that people in both the Old Stone Age and the New Stone Age enjoyed very little alcohol or tobacco, probably none． However, a change in food is one of the maindifferences between life in ancient times and that of today.
Stone Age people hunted wild animals for their meat, which hadmuch less fat than domestic ones．They ate a lotof fresh wild vegetables and fruits．They did nothave milk or any other dairy products, and they made very little use of grains． We eat six times more salt than our ancestors．We eat moresugar．We eat twice as much fat but only one third as much protein andmuch less vitamin C.
But scientists say that we would be much healthier if weeat much the same way the ancient people did, cutting the amount of fatty,salty and sweet food.
A．Stone Agepeople lived a simple life.
B．But today, weenjoy eating a lot of these.
C．In that case,they would live much healthier.
D．Ancient people also got lots of physical exercise.
E．These new sicknesses were not known in ancient times.
F．People today probably don't want to live like our ancestors.
G．Modern people used to suffer from "diseases of civilization".
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