Elizabeth Sherrill is a long-time writer. For 70 years, her stories about faith, her experiences of traveling the world and dealing with depression have been a beacon of light for many people. Check out some of her articles and let her words warm your heart.
A Letter on Depression
My struggle with depression hasn't totally disappeared. That gray mist still surrounds me from time to time, blocking light and making it hard to smile, impossible to get the smile down inside. But the grayness no longer terrifies me, because I keep telling myself to be positive.
An Angel Named Maria
"A baby was born here and no one knows what to do," the doctor said into the telephone. He went on to explain that the mother had disappeared from the hospital after seeing the disabled baby. "She will not live long," the doctor continued. "Meanwhile, there is the problem of care..." "Bring us the baby," answered Sister Marie Patrice at the other end of the line, who ran a day nursery.
Lessons from Abraham Lincoln
When I turned to leave, the picture over the door stopped me. It was a black-and-white photo: a tall, thin man with his hand on a table and with the saddest, most pain-filled face I'd ever seen. The letters on the frame said "Abraham Lincoln". He won every wrestling match and told funny stories that crowds would gather to enjoy. Over time, that picture made him more important to me than ever.
A Lesson while Moving
I stood looking out of the kitchen window wondering how John and I could ever leave this house. We'd lived here for 50 years. Under the maple tree was the garden where we grew tomatoes that never ripened. There was the stump（树桩） of the cedar（雪松） we cut down to make room for our daughter's wedding reception.
The wind roils the Midwest plains as if it is searching for someone or something to carry away. Dust and chaff funnel into blinding clouds. The clatter of storms overhead makes it impossible to hear, and herds of bison（野牛） grow restless. The Omaha tribe has wandered these plains for generations, and now, it seems that the winds have brought back one of their own. Susan La Flesche has returned to the village where she was born. Not as a visitor, but as the region's only doctor.
When Susan was 8 years old, she waited at the bedside of an elderly woman writhing in pain. A doctor was called for. They waited. A messenger was sent. The doctor still didn't come. Susan provided what comfort she could through the night, but by sunrise, the elderly woman had died. The episode both haunted and motivated Susan. She threw herself into her studies and earned her way to what is now Hampton University in Virginia—a historically Black college with a program for native American students. And she finished second in her class.
Susan would never forget the childhood she enjoyed, full of powwows, buffalo hunts and the people she loved. But there was further to go. She enrolled in the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, a tedious train ride away from the world she knew. It was 1886, and the Victorian age held stiff against the progress of women. In her graduation speech from Hampton, she told the East Coast audience, "Give us a chance." Three years later, she became a doctor.
Returning to the plains to serve her people was a difficult task. She opened an office in the government boarding school and began seeing patients. The lines were long, old and young seeking reprieve（缓解） from cholera and tuberculosis（肺结核） as well as a slew of other diseases. Susan worked long hours at her office but also braved the wind and snow, walking miles to make house calls. Her work was more than as a physician. She often acted as lawyer, accountant, priest, political liaison and counselor as she helped the Omahas navigate the new world. And Dr. Susan La Flesche was determined to spend her entire life helping her people navigate the storms.
The Carter Center said recently that only 13 human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported worldwide last year. That is a major drop from 3.5 million cases of infected people in 1986, in which year the Atlanta-based Carter Center joined the World Health Organization( WHO) in the fight against Guinea worm disease. The center said the remaining infection occurred in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Six human cases were reported in Chad, five in South Sudan, one in Ethiopia and one in the Central African Republic. And the Central African Republic case remains under investigation.
Guinea worm disease is a disease that affects poor communities in distant parts of Africa and Asia where people do not have safe water to drink. People who drink unclean water can get parasites（寄生虫） that can grow up to 1 meter. The worm grows in people for up to a year before painfully coming out, often through the feet or other sensitive parts of the body.
The WHO says there is neither a drug treatment for Guinea worm disease nor a vaccine to prevent it. But it can be prevented by training people to filter（过滤） and drink clean water.
Guinea worm disease could be the second human disease to be ended after smallpox, according to the Carter Center. Adam Weiss, a director of a program to fight against the disease, says that eradicating the disease finally could be difficult, for the populations where Guinea worm disease still exists often face insecurity, including conflict, which can prevent workers and volunteers from going house to house to offer support.
Weiss warns, "If support for these communities slows or stops, there's no question that you're going to see a sudden increase in Guinea worm." However, he adds, "We're continuing to make progress—even if it is not as fast as we all want it to be, that progress continues."
Two languages worldwide are lost every week. Cherokee is a highly endangered Native American language. Currently, there are fewer than 2,000 speakers of the language remaining in the world, and the number is declining every year. Keeping a language alive can strengthen people's sense of identity and most importantly, lead to the preservation of a whole culture. The creation of an album of original songs performed in the Cherokee language is one of the most original methods.
Cherokee and non-Cherokee music artists decided to create a music album in the Cherokee language. This is part of a project to preserve this ancient, fading language. The album features a dozen Cherokee artists and includes a real variety of genres（类型） ranging from folk, country, and heavy metal to hip hop.
There are different ways to keep a language alive, and the album intends to bring a modern approach to the revitalization （复兴） of the Cherokee language. One promising strategy is to introduce it to young people, and what better route than to use the language of contemporary music to achieve such a meaningful goal.
"Wherever our kids are, our language needs to be there, too," the executive director of the Cherokee Nation Language Department, Howard Paden, explained. "Our belief is very simple. The Cherokee language is so powerful that people can enjoy using it very easily and are unable to stop using it. If we can get the language around to people and make the language enter their hearts at a very young age, then they will always be connected with who we are as a people."
Multilingualism（多语种主义） is very powerful since it provides a different way of understanding and perceiving the world. This can result in technological and scientific advancement for humankind. So preserving endangered languages like Cherokee is not only about helping specific communities affected but also about recognizing and celebrating diversity as one of humankind's greatest strengths.
Do you like writing a few paragraphs every day about your experiences, hopes, memories or feelings? If you don't, it's time to make a change now. Because write a few paragraphs every day about your experiences, hopes, memories, you will immediately begin to experience benefits to your personal growth and potential.
When you write daily, you can always be amazed at how quickly your writing skills improve. However, when you become lazy with words, you find it is more difficult to describe feelings, share experiences and make yourself understood.
You will remember things long forgotten. As you write about memories, it is like opening an old photo album.You suddenly remember people you would like to contact again. Writing is an activity that avoids distraction（使人分心的事物） long enough for you to explore those wonderful moments of the past. Sometimes they are wonderful and almost always they are helpful. Writing about daily experiences and feelings provides a recorded history that will influence how you make future decisions. There's a reason that the greatest leaders in history were students of history. Your history is important. Don't let it be forgotten.
Writing reminds you of your dreams and keeps you moving toward them. It is a means of keeping track of your purpose and the goals that will lead you to achieve them. It shows when you have been distracted and may need to give all your attention again to your writing.
Writing a little every day could provide the material that someday becomes a published book. When I wrote about depression and my four-year-old granddaughter who got lost in the mountains, I never dreamed it would be in a book.
A. Sometimes they are frightening.
B. They learned from what had happened before.
C. You will gradually become better at expressing yourself.
D. Writing keeps you energetic and full of imagination all the time.
E. Sooner or later, you are surely to become a great professional writer.
F. Reviewing what you have written is a perfect way to see your progress.
G. Your pen begins to explore feelings and details you have forgotten and dreams you have left behind.
On the choppy waters of the Bay of Bengal, a ship 1 with migrant workers returned to Andhra Pradesh. One of the workers 2 out at the waves and had a dream about the 2-year-old son he hadn't seen since birth. The dream was filled with colors and promise.
When he 3 to his village, the man requested a meeting with the elders. 4 , the elders agreed, and the young son, Sam, became the only child in the village chosen to go to school.
"Even though many in my village hated me, and I often felt 5 , I kept going," says Sam, who continued his schooling even when his father died,6 the family to fend（照顾） for themselves for survival.
When Sam finished public school, he was accepted to an American university. It 7 he would have to leave his mother and brother living at the lowest level of 8 in the village. He wouldn't see them for two years. But his soul was good, and he was patient, even as his 9 hurt.
In university, his soul lit up, and he reveled in learning all he could 10 . From there, it was on to Washington, D. C. for a doctoral degree and a 11 in the Education Department.
Finally, Sam could fulfill the dream his father had for him: to bring 12 to the village. He sent most of his money back to the village to build a 13 school and pay for teachers. A brick building 14 on the dirt lot. Computers arrived, along with electricity and the internet. Sam returned every summer to work with the minister of education and invited every child to school.
"I have much," he says. "So I give much."
His father would be 15 .
What is culture? Culture is the shared characteristics and knowledge of a group of people, (include) their language, religion, food, social habits, music and arts. The word "culture" has its root from the Latin "culture", which (relate) to the meaning of "growth".
A number of historical events have helped shape Western culture in the past 2,500 years. The fall of Rome cleared the way for the (establish) of a series of states in Europe. The Black Death of the 1300s cut the population of Europe by one-third, remade the society. Then the trade between East and West allowed Europeans ( explore) North and South America.
Eastern culture generally (refer) to the traditions in Asian countries. Like the West, Eastern culture was heavily affected by religion during its early development, but later it was influenced by the agricultural development (significant).
culture differs from area to area, one thing is for certain: Cultures change. "Culture plays an important role our interconnected world, " De Rossi said. "But it is no longer (fix). Culture is constantly moving and essentially fluid. "
Police chief Matthew Bruce's son, Adam, came late into his lives, so he always spoiled him and never said no to him for anything. As Adam grew older, he began to take his parents' love and concern for granted, as if it were permission for him to do whatever he pleased. There were certainly times when he was criticized for bad grades or sneaking out of the house, but that was limited to only minor blame. Adam thought that if he pretended to be an "ideal" son, he would have to face absolutely no blame from his parents. So he began to act like a good son in front of them while engaging in all sorts of wrongdoing behind their backs, such as breaking the law. However, Adam always got away with it.
One day, Adam was driving back from a party with his friend Freddie when he began over-speeding. Freddie warned him to slow down, but Adam didn't listen. Adam's driving worried Freddie. He asked Adam to slow down again, and when Adam didn't, he grabbed the steering wheel himself, causing the car to slide off the road and ran into a tree on the side. Then they heard the alarm of a police car behind them. The car came to a stop in front of them, and a police officer approached them.
"I've been following your car for a while now, and I'm afraid I'll have to take you to the station for speeding. May I have your driver's license first?" the police officer said.
Freddie was scared. "Here's my driver's license, sir," he said, offering it to the officer. Adam tried to explain that he was the police chief's son, but the police officer turned a deaf ear to him. They drove him to the station, and when Adam stepped inside, he was surprised to see his father there. He had been called to the station for an urgent case.
注意：
1.续写词数应为 150 左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Adam felt no worries and thought he was out of trouble.
He told Adam he would need to earn money himself to pay for the fine.
