Like many new graduates, I left university full of hope for the future but with no real idea of what I wanted to do. My degree, with honors, in English literature had not really prepared me for anything practical. I knew I wanted to make a difference in the world somehow, but I had no idea how to do that. That’s when I learned about the Lighthouse Project.

I started my journey as a Lighthouse Project volunteer by reading as much as I could about the experiences of previous volunteers. I knew it would be a lot of hard work, and that I would be away from my family and friends for a very long time. In short, I did not take my decision to apply for the Lighthouse Project lightly. Neither did my family.

Eventually, however, I won the support of my family, and I sent in all the paperwork needed for the application. After countless interviews and presentations, I managed to stand out among the candidates and survive the test alone. Several months later, I finally received a call asking me to report for the duty. I would be going to a small village near Abuja, Nigeria. Where? What? Nigeria? I had no idea. But I was about to find out.

After completing my training, I was sent to the village that was small and desperately in need of proper accommodation. Though the local villagers were poor, they offered their homes, hearts, and food as if I were their own family. I was asked to lead a small team of local people in building a new schoolhouse. For the next year or so, I taught in that same schoolhouse. But I sometimes think I learned more from my students than they did from me.

Sometime during that period, I realized that all those things that had seemed so strange or unusual to me no longer did, though I did not get anywhere with the local language, and I returned to the United States a different man. The Lighthouse Project had changed my life forever.

1.According to the Paragraph 2, it is most likely that the author

A. discussed his decision with his family.

B. asked previous volunteers about voluntary work

C. attended special training to perform difficult tasks

D. felt sad about having to leave his family and friends

2.In his application for the volunteer job, the author

A. participated in many discussions

B. went through challenging survival tests

C. wrote quite a few papers on voluntary work

D. faced strong competition from other candidates

3.On arrival at the village, the author was

A. asked to lead a farming team

B. sent to teach in a schoolhouse

C. received warmly by local villagers

D. arranged to live in a separate house.

練習(xí)冊(cè)系列答案
相關(guān)習(xí)題

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2014-2015學(xué)年高陜西西安臨潼區(qū)華清中學(xué)三一模考英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：單項(xiàng)填空

He wrote a long letter ______ he explained what had happened in the accident．

A． what B． which C． where D． how

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2015-2016學(xué)年青海西寧十四中學(xué)高二上學(xué)期期中英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：書(shū)面表達(dá)

書(shū)面表達(dá)

假如你是李華，最近你從報(bào)紙上看到一家涉外酒店招聘暑期兼職工的廣告，請(qǐng)你根據(jù)下列要點(diǎn)提示寫(xiě)一封應(yīng)聘信。

1.李華，女，18歲，身體健康。

2.擅長(zhǎng)英語(yǔ)，口語(yǔ)流利。

3.性格外向，交際能力強(qiáng)。

注意：

1.詞數(shù)120左右。

2.書(shū)信格式已經(jīng)給出，不計(jì)入總詞數(shù)。

3.可以適當(dāng)拓展。

Dear Sir or Madame,

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

Yours，

Li Hua

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2015-2016學(xué)年四川成都七中高二10月月考英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

Lie in bed, by an open window, and listen…

“No air conditioning? How can you sleep?” a friend asks, horrified. I tell her my family has decided to shut the air conditioner off and reduce our electric bill.

On this first night of our cost-cutting adventure, it's only 85 degrees. We're not going to suffer, but the three kids complain anyway.

They've grown up in 72-degree comfort, protected from the world outside.

“How do you open these windows?” my husband asks. Shaking the metal ribs(插銷(xiāo)), he finally releases one. Bug bodies decorate the window shelf. As we spring the windows one by one, the night noises howl outside---and in.

“It's too hot to sleep,” my 13-year-old daughter complains. “I’m about to die from this heat,” her brother complains down the hall. “Just try it tonight,” I tell them. In truth I'm too tired to argue for long. My face is sweaty, but I lie quietly listening to the cricket choirs(合唱) outside that remind me of childhood.

The neighbor's dog howls. Probably a passing squirrel. It's been years since I've taken the time to really listen to the night.

I think about Grandma, who lived to 92 and still helped with my Mom's gardening until just a few weeks before she died. And then, I'm back there at her house in the summer heat of my childhood. I move my pillow to the foot of Grandma's bed and angle my face toward the open window. I turn the pillow, hunting for the cooler side.

Grandma sees me turn over and over. “If you'll just watch for the breeze(清風(fēng)),” she says,“you'll cool off and fall asleep.” She cranks up the Venetian blinds(百葉窗). I stare at the filmy white curtain, willing it to move. Lying still, waiting, I suddenly notice the life outside the window. The bug chorus. Neighbors, porch-sitting late, speak in unclear words that calm me.“Mom, did you hear that?” my seven-year-old son cries. “I think it was an owl family.” “Probably,” I tell him. “Just keep listening…”

Without the working air conditioner, the house is oddly peaceful, and the unfiltered(未過(guò)濾的) night noises seem close enough to touch. I hope I'm awake tonight when the first breeze sneaks in.

1.What is the point the writer wants to make in the passage?

A. We should learn to save electricity.

B. A peaceful mind is important in modern life.

C. We should care about the outside world rather than one’s inner world.

D. Modern men live too comfortable a life.

2.The author talks about her grandmother and her childhood to show that _____

A. people used to live a hard life.

B. people at that time were hardworking.

C. she has learned a great deal from her grandma

D. it’s OK for people to live a simple life.

3.In the writer’s eyes, her children are _________________.

A. independent from parents’ protection

B. reliable because of parents’ love

C. lacking in real test of hardships in life

D. full of complaints against life

4.Which of the following title best suits the passage?

A. Waiting for the Breeze

B. An interesting Experience

C. Life at Present and Life in the Past

D. Different Times, Different Children

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2016屆山東實(shí)驗(yàn)中學(xué)高三上學(xué)期第三次診斷英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：七選五

根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容,從短文后的選項(xiàng)中選出能填入空白處的最佳選項(xiàng)。選項(xiàng)中有兩項(xiàng)為多余選項(xiàng)。

As the old saying goes, laughter is the best medicine. 1. . However, doctors have begun to look into laughter and the effects is has on the human body. They have found that laughter really can improve people’s health.

2. . People watched funny films while doctors checked their heart, blood pressure, breathing and muscles. It was found that laughter has similar effects to physical exercise. It increases blood pressure, makes the heart beat quicker and makes people breathe deeper; it also works several groups of muscles in the face, the stomach, and even the feet. 3. .

Other tests have shown that laughter appears to be able to reduce the effect of pain on the body. In one experiment doctors produced pain in groups of students who listened to different radio programs. 4. . The reason why laughter can reduce pain seems to be that it helps to produce a kind of chemical in the brain which diminishes both stress and pain.

5. . They try to improve their patients’ condition by encouraging them to laugh. They have found that even if their patients do not really feel like laughing, making them smile is enough to produce beneficial effects similar to those caused by laughter.

A. Tests were carried out to study the effects of laughter on the body.

B. Until recently, few people took the saying seriously.

C. Therefore, people are taught to laugh.

D. The group that tolerated (忍耐) the pain for the longest time was the group which listened to a funny program.

E. As a result, some doctors in the United States now hold laughter clinics.

F. Laughter is closely related to good health.

G. If laughter exercises the body, it must be beneficial.

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2015-2016學(xué)年重慶第一中學(xué)高二上學(xué)期期末英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, after its shocking disappearance, has caught the attention of millions around the world as the search for the airplane and its passengers and crew continues. What happened to the flight’s 239 passengers and crew after the plane left Kuala Lumpur on Saturday? It is becoming an increasingly desperate question as the days pass.

But it’s hardly the first mystery of its kind. Here are some half-solved and unsolved airline mysteries that kept investigators clueless for years.

Air France Flight 447: An Airbus A330 flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing all 228 passengers and crew on board. But it took a full five days for search and rescue teams to find the wreckage（殘�。゛nd another three years for investigators to report that ice crystals had caused the autopilot (自動(dòng)駕駛儀) to disconnect. The bodies of 74 passengers remain unrecovered.

Amelia Earhart: Top pilot Amelia Earhart disappeared in her twin-engine monoplane Electra over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in an attempt to travel around the globe. No sign of her plane was ever found even after a multi-million dollar search effort, and Earhart was officially declared dead in 1939.

Flying Tiger Line Flight 739: A U.S. military flight left Guam in 1962 with more 90 personnel headed for the Philippines, but it never arrived. The pilots never issued a distress call, and 1,300 people involved in the U.S. military search never found any sign of wreckage.

British South American Airways: It took more than 50 years to find any trace of the 11 people aboard a 1947 flight that disappeared in the Andes Mountains. A pair of Argentineans rock climbers discovered engine wreckage in the Andes in 1998, and an army expedition later found human remains as well.

Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571: A flight headed to Santiago, Chile carrying 45 passengers and crew crashed into the Andes Mountains in poor weather in 1972, killing twelve people. In the meantime, eight were killed in an avalanche (雪崩) that hit the plane’s wreckage where they were taking shelter, and the rest stayed alive by eating the flesh of the dead before they were finally found more than two months after disappearing out of the sky.

1.The underlined word “plunged” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to _____.

A. jumped B. broke C. dived D. flew

2.What can we learn from Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571? _____.

A. 12 people were lost until now.

B. 25 people were rescued immediately.

C. The rest who stayed alive killed 8 people.

D. 8 were killed by a fall of a large mass of snow down a mountainside.

3.From the passage, what could have led to British South American Airways crash?

A. The bad weather. B. Not mentioned.

C. The ice crystals. D. The lightning.

4.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage? _____.

A. Earhart was declared dead by the local government two years later.

B. The bodies of Flight 447 had all been found after three years.

C. Two Argentineans rock climbers discovered the dead in the Andes.

D. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was regarded as the largest air crash.

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2015-2016學(xué)年廣東惠州一中高二10月月考英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

Technology today has stolen away our voices and robbed our children of memories. I’ve been keeping count of how often people sing around the house these days. The fact is, they don’t.

My earliest memories are of my mother crooning lullabies(催眠曲) in a gentle low voice as she rocked each infant in turn. She said she “didn’t have a singing voice,” but her low, wavering alto will always mean comfort to me. Every time I have sat through the night with a feverish body or held a pre – schooler through a nightmare, the melodies returned, words appearing and disappearing like fragments of a dream but held together by the hum (低聲吟唱)of love.

Today, young mothers are routinely presented with lullaby tapes at the baby shower. When baby cries, the idea goes, they will be able to switch on the high-tech audio system and the little one will drift off with the voices of strangers in his ears, perfectly on pitch. If I had my way, new parents would learn the songs themselves, throw out their stereos, and give their child the gift of their own sleepy voices through the midnight hours.

These days, when we go on a trip, my daughters take along tiny personal stereos and headphones. They are lost in their private worlds, and I can’t help wishing that at least here, in the car my girls would be forced to listen to their mother’s voice again, sure I’m out－of－tune songs that they might then pass down to another generation. Those sophisticated earphones have robbed them of something I think every kid should carry from childhood car trips into adulthood.

I drove away from that party humming, and all the way home the good old songs kept tumbling out. Damm it (該死), I thought, why did I ever stop singing in the car and start turning on the radio ? Why don’t I sing anymore while I’m doing the dishes? I’m going to pull those stereo wires right out of the wall when I get home. We’re going to sing grace before meals, sing carols around the piano, sing in the shower instead of switching on that waterproof radio that stole away our voices and our souls.

1.The author hates today’s technology because .

A．driving a car requires high concentration

B．children are learning pop songs from tapes

C．children have lost touch with good old songs

D．high – tech systems do not record the voices of aged people

2.The underlined sentence “the little one will drift off” in Paragraph 3 means that “ ”.

A．the play of the high – tech system is of little use

B．the high – tech system will play on and on

C．the low voice will delight the baby

D．the baby will slowly go to sleep

3.To the author, the voices of strangers .

A．a(chǎn)re not familiar to the baby

B．lack the motherly love the baby needs

C．work better to stop the baby’s cry

D．surely sound more pleasant

4.What the author wishes to make her girls do is to .

A．help memorize the words while she is singing

B．take off their well – designed earphones

C．listen and learn the old songs from her

D．remember their childhood car trips

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2016年北京市朝陽(yáng)區(qū)高三上學(xué)期期末考試英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

閱讀下列短文，從每題所給的A、B、C、D四個(gè)選項(xiàng)中，選出最佳選項(xiàng)，并在答題卡上將該項(xiàng)涂黑。

A Special Appointment

Years ago I moved to Woodland Hills to take a job in a small hospital’s emergency department．No one wanted to work on Christmas Eve, so the shift (輪班) went to me．I kissed my family goodbye and went off to spend the night in the hospital．It was a thankless job．

At 9 pm, the ambulance brought in a man in his 60s who was having a heart attack．His face was pale, and he was frightened． The whole night I did my best to save his life．Before I left in the morning to spend Christmas with my family, I stopped by to see how he was doing．It was still tough, but he had survived the night and was sleeping．

The following year I got Christmas Eve duty again．At 9 pm sharp, the ward clerk told me there was a couple who wanted to speak with me．When I approached them, the man introduced himself as Mr．Lee and said, “You probably don’t remember me, but last Christmas Eve you saved my life．Thank you for the year you gave me．” He and his wife hugged me, handed me a small gift, and left．

The following year a new doctor had joined the group, but I wanted to see if Mr．a(chǎn)nd Mrs．Lee would return．This time, I volunteered for the shift．I kept an eye on the door．Once again, at exactly 9 pm, the Lees appeared, carrying a warmly wrapped bundle．It was their new grandchild． Mr．Lee, his family and I spent 13 Christmas Eves together．In the later years the staff all knew about the story and would work to give me time with him in the break room, where we spent a half-hour each Christmas Eve．

The last year I saw him, he brought me a gift．I carefully opened the package and found a crystal (水晶) bell inside．It was engraved (鐫刻) with a single word: Friendship．Now, my family, friends and I ring that bell every Christmas Eve at exactly 9 pm and offer our best wishes to the man who we won’t forget．

1.Working on Christmas Eve was considered “a thankless job” because ______．

A． most patients were seriously ill

B． patients refused to express thanks

C． doctors had nothing to do on that day

D． doctors couldn’t get praise for the hard job

2.When the author left the hospital the next morning, Mr．Lee ______．

A． was really angry with her

B． was still in a state of danger

C． got ready to leave the hospital

D． recovered from his heart attack

3.According to the passage, the author formed a habit of ______．

A． celebrating Christmas Eve with her family

B． giving Christmas gifts to the hospital staff

C． spending Christmas Eve with Mr．Lee in hospital

D． ringing the bell for patients in the emergency department

4.Why does the author ring the bell on Christmas Eve?

A． To honor her working experience．

B． To tell kids the traditional custom．

C． To show the beginning of the holiday．

D． To remember an old friend of hers．

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2014-2015學(xué)年北京市高三上學(xué)期第一次質(zhì)量檢測(cè)英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：單項(xiàng)填空

All of us are pleased to see the problem ______ so quickly．

A． solve B． solving

C． to solve D． solved

查看答案和解析>>

同步練習(xí)冊(cè)答案