1193800011239500Topic 1: Kindness Men at their birth are naturally good. Their natures are much the same; their habits become wildly different. 人之初，性本善；性相近，习相远。 Pre-reading 1. Have you ever done any good deeds? What's your feeling when you do something kind? 2.Do you think it easy to be kind? In which ways can we show our kindness? Reading It's harder to be kind than clever As a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents on their farm in Texas. My grandparents belonged to a caravan club and every few summers, we'd join the caravan. I loved my grandparents and I really looked forward to these trips. On one particular trip, I was about 10 years old. I was playing in the big bench seat in the back of the trailer. My grandfather was driving. And my grandmother had the passenger seat. She smoked throughout these trips, and I hated the smell. I'd heard that every puff of a cigarette takes some number of minutes off of your life. I thought it might have been two minutes per puff. I decided to do the math for my grandmother. I estimated the number of cigarettes per day, estimated the number of puffs per cigarette and so on. When I was satisfied that I'd come up with a correct number, I tapped my grandmother on the shoulder, and proudly said, “At two minutes per puff, you've taken nine years off your life!” I have a vivid memory of what happened, and it was not what I expected. I expected to be praised for my cleverness. “Jeff, you're so smart. You had to have made some difficult estimates, figure out the number of minutes in a year and do some division. " That's not what happened. Instead, my grandmother burst into tears. I sat in the backseat and did not know what to do. While my grandmother was crying, my grandfather, who had been driving in silence, parked the trailer onto the shoulder of the highway. He got out of the car and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow. Was I in trouble. My grandfather was a highly intelligent, quiet man. He had never said an unkind word to me, and maybe this was to be the first time. Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car and say sorry to my grandmother. I had no experience in this situation with my grandparents and no way to judge what might happen. We stopped beside the trailer. My grandfather looked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently said, “Jeff, one day you'll understand that it's harder to be kind than clever.” Comprehending I. Read the passage carefully and choose the right answer for each sentence. 1. Why did the writer do the math for his grandmother? A. He wanted to show how clever he was. B. He wanted to tell his grandmother smoking was bad for her health. C. His grandmother smoke all the way and he hated the smell. D. He wanted to estimate how long a life his grandmother would live. 2. What happened after the writer came up with the number and told his grandparents? A. He was highly praised by his grandfather. B. His grandmother turned a deaf ear t ... ...
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