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
2015-01-09
38
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. "
According to the passage, Ted Gup
选项
A、is a journalist working for a college.
B、read a story entitled A Secret Gift.
C、found out some of the letter writers.
D、is a descendant of Jewish.
答案
D
解析
细节题。通读全文,第五段末句中的“…(he was Jewish),his grandfather lied to escape…”说明Gup的外祖父对外隐瞒了自己的犹太人身份,所以Gup是犹太人的后裔,[D]正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/yAsYFFFM
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Accordingtoarecentreport,manyyoungemployeesandcollegegraduates,whomanagedtofleethebigcitiesincludingBeijing,
Researcherssaylightexercisemayhelpto
______istheoldestwrittenconstitutionintheworld.
A语言学基本知识。题目考查semantictriangle(语义三角)的构成,应该是Reference(概念,也可称为Thought),Symbol(语言成分如单词和短语,Bp.Form)和Referent(概念的所指,即感官世界中的真实物体)。
UltimoVargashadbeeninHatch,NewMexico,onlysixmonths,sinceMarch,andalreadyheownedhisownbusinesstocompetewith
EvenmanyearlyleadersoftheUnitedStateshaveprovidednamesfortowns,onlyGeorgeWashingtonisrememberedinthenameof
ThomasJeffersonwasthethirdPresidentoftheUnitedStates(1801-1809)andtheprincipalauthorof
TheHispanicsmainlyrefertotheethnicpeopleimmigratingtotheU.S.from______.
徐霞客一生周游考察了16个省,足迹几乎遍及全国。他在考察的过程中,从来不盲目迷信书本上的结论。他发现前人研究地理的记载有许多不是很可靠的地方。为了进行真实细致的考察,他很少乘车坐船,几乎全靠双脚翻山越岭,长途跋涉;为了弄清大自然的真相,他总是挑选道路艰险的
Educationalphilosophyhaschangedagreatdealinthe50yearssinceIwasinschool.Backthen,forexample,Ihadthehighe
随机试题
健康信念模式认为可导致健康相关行为改变的心理活动,涉及到以下因素,除了
制定调剂室“特殊药品管理制度”的目的是切实落实特殊药品在调剂室的
下列分部分项工程中,必须编制专项施工方案并进行专家论证、审查的有()。
2013年12月1日,甲公司与乙公司签订了一项不可撤销的销售合同,约定甲公司于2014年1月12日以每吨2万元的价格(不合增值税)向乙公司销售K产品200吨。2013年12月31日,甲公司库存该产品300吨,单位成本为1.8万元,单位市场销售价格为1.5万
利用平衡计分卡构建企业的绩效管理体系,正确的做法是()。
按照监督主体的不同,公安执法监督可以分为()。
遗产是指公民死亡时遗留下来的()。
提出宇宙大爆炸模型的是:
如果当前记录指针指在表的第一条记录上,则BOF()的返回值为
(1)在考生文件夹下新建一个名为“图书管理”的项目文件。(2)在项目中新建一个名为“图书”的数据库。(3)将考生文件夹下的所有自由表添加到“图书”数据库中。(4)在项目中建立查询book_qu,其功能是查询价格大于等于10的图
最新回复
(
0
)