A
It’s eight o’clock on Christmas morning,and Uncle Tom says he wants to listen to the news.I am wondering why on earth grown-ups would be interested in the news when there are important things to be done,such as handing out presents.And then,while I am only half-listening to the radio broadcast,something surprising happens:The boring newsreader begins talking about a Christmas message from the Vatican.Hadn’t we heard that report earlier?My older brother,Colin,figures out what’s happening.“Pete,Pete,it’s a tape recorder! We’ve got our tape recorder!”
Colin and I had both been blind from birth.At the special boarding school in Worcester in western England that Colin and I attended,a tape recorder of your own was the height of aspiration.However,Colin—better informed and more realistic about family finances than I was—had no real expectations of getting one.I realized,much later,that the tape recorder my father had bought us would have cost more than four times his weekly wage.
The new toy,the size of a small suitcase,dominated the rest of the Christmas holidays.I took my first steps down the path to my career as a broadcaster when I returned to school after the holidays.I would wander round the school with my microphone,recording my thoughts in the style of the voices I heard on the radio.But ten years later,after I had started and abandoned a university law course,I drew on the confidence and walked into a BBC radio station,in the hope of selling myself as a broadcast journalist.A producer at the radio station who was putting together a weekly program for blind people had seen me.He later phoned me and informed I was admitted.
Twenty-five years later,I presented my first report for BBC TV’s SixO’ClockNews,a program my father had never missed.Although by then he’d been dead for more than a decade,I like to think he’d have realized that his inspiring Christmas present had changed my life.
1.Why was the author surprised at the radio report according to paragraph 1?
A.Because he was handing out presents.
B.Because the information was familiar.
C.Because it broadcast the latest news.
D.Because it was reading a boring message.
2.What did Colin think of a tape recorder?
A.It was inexpensive.
B.It was unnecessary.
C.It was unaffordable.
D.It was unexceptional.
3.What effect did the present have on the author?
A.He recorded his personal life every day.
B.He majored in broadcasting at university.
C.He got addicted and abandoned his study.
D.He decided to work in broadcast journalism.
4.What’s the best title for this text?
A.Unusual Gift,United Family
B.Warm Christmas,Wise Uncle
C.Silent Love,Sound Influence
D.Prepared Mind,Promising Job
