第一大题：Read Text B of Unit 5 within 10 minutes and finish doing the Reading Comprehension Exercise. Four Steps by Hal Manwaring 第1段： They say a cat has nine lives, and I am inclined to think that possible since I am now living my third life and I'm not even a cat. 第2段： My first life began on a clear, cold day in November, 1904, when I arrived as the sixth of eight children of a farming family. My father died when I was 15, and we had a hard struggle to make a living. I had to wait until the early years of my marriage before I really began to enjoy my first life. But then I was very happy, in excellent health, and quite a good athlete. My wife and I became the parents of two lovely girls. I had a good job in San Jose and a beautiful home in San Carlos. 第3段：Life was a pleasant dream. 第4段：Then the dream ended and became one of those horrible nightmares that cause you to wake in a cold sweat in the middle of night. I began to suffer from a slowly progressive disease of the motor nerves(运动神经元)， affecting first my right arm and leg, and then my other side. 第5段：Thus began my second life... 第6段：In spite of my disease I still drove to and from work each day, with the aid of special equipment installed (安装) in my car. And I managed to keep healthy and optimistic, to a degree, because of 14 steps. 第7段：Crazy? Not at all. 第8段：Our home was a split-level affair (复式结构错层式的房子) with 14 steps leading up from the garage to the kitchen door. Those steps were my yardstick(量尺)， my challenge to continue living. (1) I felt that if the day arrived when I was unable to lift one foot up one step and then drag the other painfully after it —— repeating the process 14 times until, utterly(完全地) spent, I would be through —— I could then admit defeat and lie down and die. 第9段：So I kept on working, kept on climbing those steps. And time passed. The girls went to college and were happily married, and my wife and I were alone in our beautiful home with the 14 steps. 第10段： You might think that here walked a man of courage and strength. Not so. Here hobbled(一瘸一拐地走) a bitterly disillusioned cripple (幻想的残疾人), a man who held on to his sanity (神志清醒，心智健全) and his wife and his home and his job because of 14 miserable steps leading up to the back door from his garage. 第11段：As I became older, I became more disillusioned and frustrated. I'm sure that my wife and friends had some unhappy times when I chose to talk about my philosophy of life. (2) I believed that in this whole world I alone had been chosen to suffer. I had carried my cross now for nine years and probably would bear it for as long as I could climb those 14 steps. 第12段： Then, On a dark night in August, 1971, I began my third life. It was raining when I started home that night, beating down hard on the car as I drove slowly down one of the less-traveled roads. Suddenly the steering wheel jumped in my hands as one of the tires(轮胎) burst with a bang. I fought the car to a stop and sat there as the terrible nature of the situation swept over me. It was impossible for me to change that tire! Utterly impossible. 第13段： A thought that a passing motorist (开车的人) might stop was dismissed【打消(念头或想法)】 at once. Why should any one? I knew I wouldn't! Then I remembered that a short distance up a little side road was a house. I started the engine and drove slowly along until I came to the house. Lighted windows welcomed me as I pulled into the driveway and honked the horn(按喇叭). 第14段： The door opened and a little girl stood there, peering at me. I rolled down the window and called out that I had a flat(轮胎爆了) and needed someone to change it for me because I had crutch(拐杖) and couldn't do it myself. 第15段：She went into the house and a moment later came out bundled(捆住的；裹住的) in a raincoat and hat, followed by a man who called a cheerful greeting. 第16段： I sat there comfortable and dry, and felt a bit sorry for the man and the little girl working so hard in the storm. Well, I would pay them for it. The rain seemed to be easing a bit now, and I rolled down the window to watch. It seemed to me that they were awfully slow and I was beginning to become impatient. I heard the little girl's voice from the back of the car. "Here's the Jack-handle(千斤顶)，Grandpa." She was answered by the murmur of the man's lower voice and the slow tilting(倾斜) of the car as it was jacked up. 第17 段： There followed a long interval of noises and low conversation from the back of the car, but finally it was done. I felt the car bump as the jack was removed, and I heard the slam of the trunk lid(行李箱盖), and then they were standing at my car window. 第18段： He was an old man, bent and slightly built. The little girl was about eight or ten, I judged, with a merry face and a wide smile as she looked up at me. 第19段： He said, "This is a bad night for car trouble, but you're all set now." 第20段： “Thanks,”I said, "thanks. How much do I owe you?" 第21段： He shook his head. "Nothing. Cynthia told me you were on crutches. Glad to be of help. I know you'd do the same for me. There's no charge, friend." 第22段： I held out a five-dollar bill. "No! I like to pay my way." 第23段： He made no effort to take it and the little girl stepped closer to the window and said quitely, "Grandpa can't see it." 第24段：(3) In the next few frozen seconds the shame and horror of that moment penetrated, and I was sick with an intensity I had never felt before. A blind man and a child! Feeling with cold, wet fingers for bolts(螺栓) and tools in the dark —— a darkness that for him would probably never end until death. 第25段：They changed a tire for me —— changed it in the rain and wind, with me sitting in comfort in the car with my crutch. I don't remember how long I sat there after they said good night and left me, but it was long enough for me to search deep within myself and find some disturbing traits(品行；个性特征) . 第26段： (4) I realized that I was filled to overflowing with self-pity, selfishness, and indifference to the needs of others. 第27段：I sat there and said a prayer. I prayed for strength , for a greater understanding, for keener awareness of my shortcomings. 第28段： I prayed for blessings upon the blind man and his granddaughter. Finally I drove away, shaken in mind, humbled(感到卑微的) in spirit. 第29段： I am trying now not only to climb 14 steps each day, but in my small way to help others. Someday perhaps, I'll help a blind man in equal difficulties —— someone as blind as I had been. The writer's first life was________.