阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从1—20各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

    I was required to read one of Bernie Siegel's books in college and was hooked on his positivity from that moment on．The stories of his unconventional1 and the exceptional patients he wrote about were so2 to me and had such a big3 on how I saw life from then on．

    Who knew that so many years later I would look to Dr．Bernie and his CDs again to4 my own Cancer experience ？

    I'm an ambitious5 , and when I started going through chemo( 化疗 )，even though I'm a very6 person, I lost my drive to write．I was just too tired and not in the7 ．One day, while waiting to go in for 8, I had one of Dr．Bernie's books in hand．Another patient 9 what I was reading and struck up a conversation with me10 he had one of his books with me as well．It11that among other things, he was an eighty-year-old writer．He was12a published author, and he was currently13on a new book．

    We would see each other at various times and14friends．Sometimes he wore a duck hat, and I would  tell myself, he was definitely a ( n ) 15 of Dr．Berline．He really put a16 on my face．He unfortunately17last year due to his cancer,18 he left a deep impression on me and gave me the19 to pick up my pen again．I20 to myself, “If he can do it, then so can I．”

    My sister called the other day and told me how sad she was feeling about Mother's Day this year. 1, I was taken by surprise because May feels so far away. I felt instantly 2 because I hadn't thought about my mother in a while. And that's 3 when it occurred to me that our 4 doesn't always follow a calendar.

    After our mother died, I spent a good deal of time 5 her in front of her photo. It enabled me to 6 conversations with her that were 7 to me. I remember desiring to be picked up the phone on many occasions to 8 some good news or get her advice, only to be 9. Now, I simply talk to her in my head. Her photo has become a 10 of her spirit and I'm glad she's there.

    My sister, Ellen, said that this is a 11 difficult year for her and she is trying to 12 why. She sounded impatient with herself, 13 13 years should be enough time to "get past" being sad on Mother's Day.

    The truth is, that for me, every year is 14. At times, when the TV commercials. advertisements and local stores absolutely bomb us with fairy tales of flowers and chocolate and jewelry, I get angry: 15 these same reminders leave me feeling 16 for my wonderful mom, recalling (回忆) her generosity and serious style. She was always a trooper. And sometimes I don't 17 any of it at all.

    As Ellen and I talked, she seemed to come to a certain 18. She was going to be out of the country on business on Mother's Day, without her husband or any family around Without the presence of this 19, she worried about being 20. But she decided that it would be OK. Deep in our heart, Mum has always been with us.

    My father was born in a small town in the US. He wasn't sure what he wanted from1, but something told him to 2 and begin a new adventure.

    He began that adventure traveling to cities in the US before going on to Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. He took my mother and us three daughters with him and went wherever the road 3 him.

    It's easy to feel 4 when you're on the road. We made lots of new friends on our trip — most of them are mechanics, since we often 5 hours in repair shops. But that was a way much 6 than sitting by the roadside while waiting for the engine to 7 when it was 40℃ outside.

    Getting along well sometimes seemed 8. There were always a lot of 9, especially among us back-seat passengers about who had to 10 in the middle. But even if it was hard, we learned a lot about 11. When we were traveling in the Philippines, we drove to Quezon City one day. It should have been an hour's drive but was nearly three thanks to bad roads and 12 traffic. "Did you put our suitcases in the car?" my father asked my mother as we arrived there. From the back seat, we saw her 13 turn toward my father. "No," she said. "I thought you did." That was how a seven-hour car trip turned into a 16-hour one, which was mostly spent in 14.

    On occasions like that, we had to learn to let go of our anger because we were 15 in a rolling box with the same people for the rest of the 16. Even if I sometimes felt like opening the car door and 17 one of my sisters out, I kept my feelings to myself.

    This is why road trips were like 18 universities to us. We 19 our PHDs(博士学位) in how to get along with other people just by traveling in our old car.

    If we were 20 given a second chance at life, we would do it all over again. Only this time would I put the suitcases in the car myself.

    During my second year at the city college, I was told that the education department was offering a "free" course, called Thinking Chess, for three credits.

    I 1 the idea of taking the class because, after all, who doesn't want to 2 a few dollars? More than that, I'd always wanted to learn chess. And, even if I weren't 3 enough about free credits, news about our 4 was appealing enough to me. He was an international grandmaster, which 5 I would be learning from one of the game's 6. I could hardly wait to 7 him.

    Maurice Ashley was kind and smart, a former graduate returning to teach, and this 8was no game for him; he meant business. In his introduction, he made it 9 that our credits would be hard-earned. In order to 10 the class, among other criteria, we had to write a paper on how we plan to 11 what we would learn in class to our future professions and, 12, to our lives. I managed to get an A in that 13 and learned life lessons that have served me well beyond the 14.

    Ten years after my chess class with Ashley, I'm still putting to use what he 15 me: "The absolute most important 16 that you learn when you play chess is how to make good 17. On every single move you have to 18 a situation, process what your opponent (对手) is doing and 19 the best move from among all your options." These words still ring true today in my 20 as a journalist.

If you ask 100 people what subjects they wish they had been taught in school, there is a chance that the vast majority of them will complain about the lack of personal finance education. In my case, I did learn a bit about financing while in school — just not in the classroom. One of my earliest lessons on the basics of budgeting came from an unlikely source: the cafeteria.

My lunch budget was a set amount each week. Without a plan, it would be all too easy to blow through the budget long before meeting all expenses. Therefore, my very first budgeting lesson was to make a budget well. A bit of simple arithmetic (算术) helped me determine exactly how much money I could spend each day if I wanted to actually have lunch all week. 

Besides, my school had relatively diverse lunch offerings. You could not only get the common hot school lunch but also find many other foods of varying attractions. As far as I was concerned, what attracted me most was the ice cream. Unfortunately, I couldn't blow my daily lunch budget on ice cream. And I'd already figured out that splurging early in the week made for a rough time for the rest of the week. Hence, I learned my second important budgeting lesson: save for a goal. Because of this lesson, when Friday rolled around, I would have just enough left over for a wonderful lunch and the highly desirable ice cream. 

Nowadays, my budget is a bit more complicated than the lunch budget in the past. Although I no longer have to save my pennies for a frozen treat, budgeting my money today uses the exact same skills I learned all those years ago. Actually, whether you're budgeting for school lunches or credit card bills, the basics remain the same. And it's never too early — or too late — to learn how to make a proper budget.

Fourteen-year-old Harini Logan won the Scripps National Spelling Bee last Thursday, defeating 12-year-old Vikram Raju in a tie-breaker. It's the first time the con test has ever been decided by a tie-breaking round of spelling.

A spelling bee is a contest where players take turns spelling words. Players who spell a word wrong are out of the contest. As the con test goes on, the words get more difficult. Normally, the contest ends when there's only one player left who hasn't made a mistake. Though the bee is mainly about spelling, since 2021 it has changed slightly to also focus on the meaning of the words. During parts of the contest, students were asked to choose the correct meaning of a word.

That caused trouble for Harini. She was asked about the meaning of the word "pullulation". She said the word described the nesting of birds. The con test organizers had expected the answer the "swarming of bees". Harini was removed from the contest. But soon she was back in—the judges double checked and learned that Harini's definition was also correct. One by one, the other students spelled a word wrong and got out. Finally, only Harini and Vikram were left.

The Scripps bee has been running for over 90 years. Many times it ended in a tie. As a result, the contest organizers changed the rules. They added a "spell-off" to the contest to make future ties much less likely. In the spell-off, Vikram and Harini each took turns trying to spell the words they were asked, but both made mistakes. At one point, Harini could have won by spelling the word "drimys"（a kind of plant）correctly. But she missed It.

That put the two into a super tie-breaking event, where they were each given 10 second s to correctly spell as many words as they could. In 90 seconds, Vikram had spelled 13 words correctly. Harini had 21 correct spellings, making her the new winner.