首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Not long ago, Ted Gup opened a battered old suitcase from his mother s attic and discovered a family secret. Inside was a thick
Not long ago, Ted Gup opened a battered old suitcase from his mother s attic and discovered a family secret. Inside was a thick
admin
2015-08-29
37
问题
Not long ago, Ted Gup opened a battered old suitcase from his mother s attic and discovered a family secret. Inside was a thick sheaf of letters addressed to "B. Virdot," all dated December 1933, all asking for help. Also inside: 150 canceled checks signed by the mysterious Virdot.
Gup, a journalism professor at Boston’s Emerson College, quickly got to the bottom of the story: His grandfather Samuel Stone had used the pseudonym to slip money to impoverished people. "At the time, he caused quite a stir," says Gup, who chronicles the story in A Secret Gift: How One Man’s Kindness And A Trove of Letters Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression.
Stone wasn’t a mogul, but as the owner of a chain of clothing stores, he was fairly well off. Just before Christmas, 1933, he placed an ad. in his local Canton, Ohio, newspaper, offering money to 75 people who wrote to "B. Virdot" explaining their need. The letters poured in and were so heartrending that he ended up giving 150 people $5 close to $84 in today’s money. "I read all the letters multiple times," says Gup, who was astonished by the raw anguish of the Depression. Then he tracked down the recipients’ descendants. "Most people I contacted wept when they learned about the letters," Gup says. "When they read the letters, they sobbed, and I had to give them room to collect themselves. It brought home what their parents and grandparents had endured" no money for food, shoes, rent, let alone anything to give their kids for Christmas. "There were instances in which the calamity of the Depression was so great that $5 barely made a dent," Gup says. "But there were others for whom it really did make a difference. It provided Christmas dinner, a few presents under the tree...and at least as important, it signaled that somebody cared. In 1933, the New Deal was a glint in FDR’s(Franklin Delano Roosevelt)eye: it was just beginning. There was no net to catch people when they were free-falling."
Some whom Gup contacted finally understood why their parents had been able to serve a fancy meal for just that one holiday: others learned harsh truths. "The children of several letter writers were unaware that their parents had gone to jail," driven by desperation to steal to put food on the table. "That did not diminish their respect or love for their parents," he says, "but it enhanced their understanding."
Gup found out that his grandfather had his own dark past. He’d been born in Romania, not—as he’d claimed—Pittsburgh: his birth certificate was phony, and he’d invented his biography. Gup speculates that, having escaped a childhood of poverty, hunger, and religious persecution(he was Jewish), his grandfather lied to escape bias against immigrants.
That Stone wasn’t a saint, that he’d done whatever it took to escape adversity, helped explain his motives: He understood despair, Gup says, and that "nothing was more precious than a second chance."
On November 5, the descendants of the people Stone helped are scheduled to gather at the Canton Palace Theatre in Canton to share stories and read the original letters. As for Gup, he views the legacy of the Depression as "a real appreciation of family, of collaboration and sacrifice, of respect what we tend to think of as American virtues. The hard times were brutal, but they did create an awareness that saw us through the Second World War and helped usher in a period of prosperity, an awareness I fear was being lost in materialism and self absorption prior to the recent great recession. "No one in his right mind would welcome such times," Gup says. "My family and neighbors have felt the sting of this recession. But our identity as individuals and as a nation is the product not just of good times but also of bad times. They give us our spine, our strength, our gumption, our grit, all those things we take such pride in."I think B. Virdot’s gift is a reminder that we should all be emboldened to make an effort, no matter how modest, to extend ourselves. That’s what makes the difference in all our lives."
The author’s main purpose of writing this article is to claim that
选项
A、everybody has his dark side.
B、being helpful is a valuable virtue.
C、economical crisis is terrible.
D、adversity teaches people a lot.
答案
D
解析
主旨题。通读本文.可以发现作者在文章的末尾点出本义的主旨,作者要表明的意图是:艰苦的岁月能锻炼人坚忍的意志,克服困难的勇气,坚持不懈的进取心,我们要为此自豪,因此[D]正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/8ZOO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Nooneknowswhostartedit,butthemythofcollegefreshmengaining15poundsormorehasbeenthoroughlydebunkedthroughsci
TheLostGenerationreferstotheyoungpeople______.
A、hehassomementalproblemsB、heistoooldtoknowwhatheisdoingC、hewantstohaveagoodChristmasD、hehasgotintothe
SomeProblemsFacingLearnersofEnglishAlthoughmanyEnglishlearnershavegothighscoresinanEnglishtestsuchasIELTSor
Thebalanceofnatureisaveryelaborateandverydelicatesystemofchecksandcounterchecks.Itiscontinuallybeingaltered
Ican’tpreserveanydifferencebetweenthesetwopictures.
Anidealcollegeshouldbeacommunity,aplaceofclose,natural,intimateassociation,notonlyoftheyoungmenwhoareitsp
Thereiswidespreadconsensusamongscholarsthatsecondlanguageacquisition(MB1SLA)emergedasadistinctfieldofresearchfro
A、awesternEuropeancountryB、withanareasmallerthanGermanyC、ItbordersonFranceD、ItisnowconsistingofthreepartsD英
JourneyinCatastrophes:ThreeFormsofViolentStormsI.WindsandstormsA.Winds’movinginviolentstorms—bringingabout
随机试题
A.睾丸鞘膜积液B.精索鞘膜积液C.交通性鞘膜积液D.腹股沟斜疝阴囊囊性肿块,站立位时阴囊肿大,透光试验阳性,卧位时肿块缩小或消失,睾丸可触及
国家鼓励境内外组织和个人通过
经代谢转变生成牛磺酸的氨基酸是
可能造成轻度环境影响的,应当编制(),对产生的环境影响进行分析或者专项评价。
当事人双方在合同中约定解决争议的方法只能为调解。当纠纷发生后,若一方坚持不同意调解,此时争议解决方式为()。
火把节是彝族最盛大的传统节日,各地节期不一,一般在农历()。
设某商品需求量Q对价格P的函数关系为求需求Q对于价格P的弹性函数.
请根据如图5所示的网络结构回答下列问题。(1)填写路由器RG的路由表项【1】~【5】。(2)如果该网内服务器群的IP地址为59.67.57.11~59.67.57.25,并且采用一种设置能够对服务器群提供如下保护措施:发送到服务器群的数据包将被进行
下列关于世界上第一台电子计算机ENIAC的叙述中,错误的是()。
Whatisthespeakergoingtodo?
最新回复
(
0
)