2015届高考考前热身专练：人生百味类阅读1.docVIP

2015届高考考前热身专练：人生百味类阅读 1. (2014届浙江省宁波市十校高三3月联考英语试卷） A letter of reply is sometimes a most treasured thing． Here is a story that tells about this common and natural human sentiment． The busiest woman in Labrador during one bitter cold Christmas not very long ago, was an Australian nurse by the naI11e of Kate Austen． But Nurse Austen was not too busy to acknowledge with a long, friendly letter every gift of food or clothing received for distribution to the natives in that cold and poor district of the north． Among the gifts was a box of knittings for children, knitted（编织）and sent by a woman in Toronto． Nurse Austen was busy, exhausted and not feeling too well that winter．She could have written just ordinary routine notes of acknowledgement． But that was not her way． She sat down and wrote the woman in Toronto a real letter telling all about the village, and the names of the children who were wearing the knitted gloves and caps, and what they said -when they got them, and how they looked when they wore them．She wanted the woman who had knitted and sent all those lovely knittings to see how much happiness and warmth she had created． Not long after, she received the following answer from Canada． Dear Miss Austen: Your letter made me happy． I did not expect such a full return． I am eighty years old, and I am blind． There is little I can do except knit, and that is why I knit so many caps and sweaters and scarves．Of course I cannot write this, so my daughter-in-law is doing it for me．She also sewed the seams and made the buttonholes for the knitted things． I know something of the work you are doing． At the age of nineteen I married a man who was going to China to be a missionary(传教士）． For forty years, with an occasional year at home in America, we Worked in China, and during that time our two sons and a daughter were born to us, of whom only one son survives．\After forty years, my husbands health began to fail． We returned to the States where he took charge