When my grandmother was raising me in Stamps, Arkansas, she had a particular routine(惯例)when people who were known to be whiners entered her store. My grandmother would ask the customer, “How are you doing today, Thomas?”
The person would reply, “Not so good today, Henderson. You see, it’s this summer heat. I just hate it. It just makes me tired. It’s almost killing me.’ Then my grandmother would stand calml
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y, her arms folded, and say, “Uh-huh, uh-huh.”
As soon as the complainer was out of the store, my grandmother would call me to stand in front of her. Then she would say the same thing she had said at least a thousand times, it seemed to me. “Jane, did you hear what so-and-so complained about?” And I would nod. Grandmother would continue, “Jane, there are people who went to sleep
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all over the world last night, poor and rich and black and white, but they will never wake again. Those dead people would give anything, anything at all for just five minutes of this weather that person was complaining about. So you watch yourself about complaining, Jane. What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain.”
I have learned a lot from my gra
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ndmother. Her opinions always hit the nail on the head. Whining is not only impolite, but can be dangerous.
小题1:
The underlined word “whiners” in paragraph 1 refers to those people who ________.
A.think little of themselves | B.enter a store regularly |
C.are afraid of hot weather | D.complain often |
小题2:
From what the author’s grandmother said, we can infer that ________.
A.she tried to comfort the wh iners | B.she was impolite to the whiners |
C.she was against whining | D.she shared the whiners’ opinions |
小题3:
The author’s grandmother told her to ________.
A.be sympathetic(同情) to the dead | B.treasure(珍惜)every moment of her life |
C.keep away from the whiners | D.get used to things she disliked |
小题4:
What is the purpose of the author in writing the passage?
A.To show that complaining is not only rude but harmful. |
B.To tell us a story about her grandmother. |
C.To show how to live one’s life to the fullest. |
D.To tell us people’s different attitudes towards complaining. |