Question

People like to tell me rubbish. Not just friends, but strangers ,too.

Once, at the airport, my husband stepped off an escalator(自動扶梯) before me. When he realized I wasn’t with him, he looked back and saw me hugging ( 擁抱) a stranger.

I’d asked the man behind me: “Did you have fun in Vegas?”

His answer broke me heart. After 50 years away, I’d come to say goodbye to the lover of his life, who was dying of cancer.

“I should have married her 50 years ago,” he said. I hugged him, and then he was gone.

Moments later, my husband said: “He told you all that on the escalator?” I nodded.

“Maybe he just needed to tell somebody, And I happened to ask.”

When someone wants to talk, you just need to ask a question. The words don’t matter. It’s the tone (語調) in your voice and the look in your eyes and the caring in your heart that count.

Sometimes I think the whole world is crying out to be heard.

And yet, we don’t ask the question or say the things we need to say to those who matter most to us while there is still time, and a chance, to do so.

Recently I heard from a reader who shared with me the eulogy(悼詞) she’d written after losing her mother.

I wish her mother could have read it. I can only hope her mother knew all the things her daughter wrote about her—that she was known so well and loved so much.

I like to think people will say a few nice things about me when I’m gone. But given a choice, I would rather hear those things before I go. Wouldn’t we all?

That started me thinking. I need to tell my children I am proud of them. They know it, but it can’t hurt to say it again.

I need to tell my sister I will forever in her debt(欠她的情). I was the one who left. She was the one who stayed, who’s “been there” for our family—for our mother, our dad, our brothers and me.

And to my husband, I need to say, well, he puts up with a lot.

In fact, I need to say a lot of things to whole lot of people. Maybe you do, too. You can tell me, if you want. But maybe you should tell them first.

1.What happened to the writer at the airport in Los Vegas?

A. She developed a friendship with a stranger.

B. She helped a stranger with cancer on the escalator.

C. She listened to a stranger’s story and hugged him.

D. She told a stranger the story of her stay in Los Vegas

2.According to the writer, what matters least when someone wants to talk?

A. The question you ask.

B. The way you speak.

C. The way you look at someone.

D. the caring in your heart.

3.What does the underlined word “who” stand for in the article?

A. A woman the stranger loved very much but failed to marry.

B. A woman the stranger married 50 years ago and left for some reason.

C. A woman the stranger loved very much and succeeded in marrying.

D. The writer’s sister whose debt the writer will be forever in.

4.What does the writer want to tell us with the article?

A. It’s never too late to express your love.

B. It’s better to say what you need to say before it’s too late.

C. We should care about strangers to make the world better.

D. We should be careful about what we say to our beloved ones.

Answer 1