I lost my sight when I was four years old by falling off a box car in a freight yard in City and landing on my head. Now I am thirty two. I can slightly remember the brightness of sunshine and what color red is .It would be wonderful to see again , but a calamity (灾难)can do strange things to people .It occurred to me the other day that I might not have e to love life as I do if I hadn’t been blind . I believe in life now.I am not so sure that I would have believed in it so deeply , otherwise. I don’t mean that would prefer to go without my eyes . I simply mean that Atlantic the loss of them made me appreciate the more what I had left .
Life, I believe, asks a continuous series of adjustments to reality. The more readily a person is able to make these adjustments, the more meaningful his own private world bees. The adjustment is never easy. I was totally confused and afraid. But I was lucky. My parents and my teachers saw something in me--a potential to live, you might call it--which I didn't see, and they made me want to fight it out with blindness.
The hardest lesson I had to learn was to believe in myself. That was basic. If I hadn't been able to do that, I would have collapsed and bee a chair rocker on the front porch for the rest of my life. When I say belief in myself I am not talking about simply the kind of self confidence that helps me down an unfamiliar staircase alone. That is part of it. But I mean something bigger than that: an assurance that I am, despite imperfections, a real, positive person; that somewhere in the sweeping, intricate（错综复杂的） pattern of people there is a special place where I can make myself fit.
It took me years to discover and strengthen this assurance. It had to start with the simplest things. Once a man gave me an indoor baseball. I thought he was making fun of me and I was hurt. I can't use this. I said. Take it with you, he urged me, and roll it around. The words stuck in my head. Roll it around! By rolling the ball I could hear where it went. This gave me an idea how to achieve a goal I had thought impossible: playing baseball. At Philadelphia's Overbrook School for the Blind I invented a successful variation of baseball. We called it ground ball.
All my life I have set ahead of me a series of goals and then tried to reach them, one at a time. I had to learn my limitations. It was no good trying for something that I knew at the start was wildly out of reach because that only invited the bitterness of failure. I would fail sometimes anyway but on the average I made progress.
【小题1】We can learn from the beginning of the passage that A．the author lost his sight because of a car crash.B．the author wouldn't love life if the disaster didn't happen.C．the disaster made the author appreciate what he had.D．the disaster strengthened the author's desire to see.【小题2】What's the most difficult thing for the author?A．How to adjust himself to reality.B．Building up assurance that he can find his place in life.C．Learning to manage his life alone.D．How to invent a successful variation of baseball.【小题3】According to the context, “a chair rocker on the front porch” in paragraph 3 means that the author A．would sit in a rocking chair and enjoy his life.B．would be unable to move and stay in a rocking chair.C．would lose his will to struggle against difficulties.D．would sit in a chair and stay at home.【小题4】According to the passage, the baseball and encouragement offered by the man A．hurt the author's feeling.B．gave the author a deep impression.C．directly led to the invention of ground ball.D．inspired the author.【小题5】What is the best title for the passage?A．A Miserable LifeB．Struggle Against DifficultiesC．A Disaster Makes a Strong PersonD．An Unforgettable ExperienceC
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(答案→)C
解析：本文讲述了灾难挫折是如何成就一个人的。作者在年幼时失明，在经历了多年的彷徨无助之后，终于在亲人朋友的帮助下，找回了自信，学会了如何面对困难，并且在纷杂的社会中找到了自己的一席之地，实现了自己一个又一个的梦想。
【小题1】C细节理解题。 文章第一段It occurred to me the other day that I might not have e to love life as I do if I hadn’t been blind .那天我突然想到如果我没有失明的话我可能不会像现在这样爱上生活，由此判断C选项正确。
【小题2】B细节理解题。从文章第三段 The hardest lesson I had to learn was to believe in myself. 可知作者需要学会的是自信，而且下文从that somewhere in the sweeping, intricatepattern of people there is a special place where I can make myself fit.也可知道对作者来说在纷杂的社会找的适合自己的位置是最难的，故B选项正确。
【小题3】C词意猜测题。从上文可知作者是因为意外而失明，所以下文的collapsed是指精神的崩溃，意志的消沉，从而失去面对困难挫折的勇气。故判断C选项正确。
【小题4】D 推理判断题。从文章倒数第二行This gave me an idea how to achieve a goal I had thought impossible: playing baseball.可知，作者在滚动球的时候想到了如何去实现一个自己认为是不可能的事情，所以他是受到了启发，由此判断D选项正确。
【小题5】C主旨大意题。文章开头讲述了自己的遭遇，提出a calamity can do strange things to people .然后叙述自己是如何找到自信，如何克服困难一步一步取得成功的。这些都说明了一个道理：只要意志坚强，逆境挫折不会击垮一个人，相反会成就一个人，所以C选择正确。