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The Pillow
At the age of sixteen, I joined a volunteer group with my dad. I went on my First volunteer project in
West Virginia. On the night we arrived, we discovcrcd that "our family" was living in a trailer (拖车) that
was in poor condition. A crew had been working on it for two weeks, but every time they finished one
problem, another surfaced.
We decided the only reasonable solution was to build a new house-something unusual but necessary
under these circumstances. The family was overjoyed with their new house that was twenty by thirty feet
with three bedrooms, a bath and a kitchen.
On Tuesday of that week, while we ate lunch together, I asked the family's three boys, Josh, Eric and
Ryan, "What do you want for your new room?" Expecting toys and other gadgets that children usually ask
for, we were astonished when Josh respondcd, "I just want a bed."
The boys had never slept in a bed! They were accustomed to plastic mats. That night we had a meeting
and decided that beds would be the perfect gift. On Thursday night.a few adults in our group drove to the
nearest city and bought beds and new bedding.
When we saw the delivery truck coming, we told the family about the surprise. We could hardly contain
ourselves. It was like watching excited children on Christmas morning.
That afternoon, as we fitted the frames of the beds together, Eric ran into the house to watch us. Too
dirty to enter his room, he observed with wide-eyed enthusiasm from the doorway.
As my father slipped a pillowcase onto one of the pillows, Eric asked, "What is that?"
"A pillow," he replied.
"What do you do with it?" Eric continued to ask. "When you go to sleep, you put your head on it, "I
answered softly. Tears came to my eyes as my father handed Eric the pillow.
"Oh-that's soft," he said, hugging it tightly.
Now, when my sister or I start to ask for something that seems urgent, my dad gently asks, "Do you
have a pillow?" We know exactly what he means.
1. The writer's first volunteer project was _____. [ ]
A. working on a poor trailer
B. helping a poor family
C. donating beds and bedding
D. dealing with a housing problem
2. On hearing Josh's answer, the writer was shocked because _____. [ ]
A. the family lived in a trailer
B. he expected to get some toys
C. he didn't know what a bed was
D.the boys had no bed to sleep in
3. From the passage, we can learn that Eric had never seen _____ before. [ ]
A. a trailer
B. a truck
C. a pillow
D. a house
4. By saying "Do you have a pillow?", the writer's father means that _____. [ ]
A. what they want to get may be unnecessary
B. they should not waste money on small things
C. they should do more volunteer work for the poor
D. what he will buy is not what they want but a pillow
