Year of Giving
Yesterday I started the Year of Giving, my first day of a year-long journey into exploring the act of giving and the meaning of charity. I chose December 15 as the starting date, which marked three years since my mother died from heart disease. She was one of the most generous people that I have ever known. She always thought of others first and certainly serves as an inspiration to me.
I had a rather busy day yesterday, ironic (具有讽刺意义的) for someone who is unemployed right now. In the morning I went to the gym, and unsuccessfully got the phone call from the unemployment office for some job searching. Before I knew it, it was noon. I grabbed a quick lunch and rushed down to a meeting. On my way to Connecticut, I wondered if I would see someone that I would feel forced to give my first $ 10 to. I was running late and decided to do it afterwards.
After the meeting I had about half an hour to find the first person of my Year of Giving! I decided to check out DuPont Circle. I had met a guy there named Jerry once and thought he would willingly accept my $ 10. He wasn’t there, but I did see a man sitting by himself who looked really lonely, so I approached him. Now I had to figure out what I was going to say, I think I said something like, “Hi, can I sit down here?” “I would like to know if I could give you $ 10?” He asked me to repeat what I had said, I did, then he looked at me funny, got up and left.
I then started walking south where I spotted a man standing by the bus stop on Connecticut Ave. He appeared to be in his 60s. I don’t know what drew me to him, but I thought I would make my second attempt. I was a bit nervous and asked him which bus came by that stop. Then I explained that I was starting a year-long project to give $ 10 to someone every day and that I wanted to give my $ 10 for today to him. The gentleman, I later found out that his name was Ed, responded without hesitation that he could not accept my offer and that there were many people more deserving the money than him. This was exactly one of the things that I hoped would happen. People would think of others before themselves.
21. The author set the starting date on December 15 to ____.
A. help the charity B. remember his mother
C. make an explosion D. fulfill a wish of his mum
22. In the author’s first attempt to give away the money, ____.
A. he was considered ridiculous B. he hesitated for a long time
C. he was forced to donate the money D. he had no time to take action
23. In the author’s second attempt, the gentleman refused his offer because ____.
A. he didn’t need other’s help B. he thought more for others
C. he didn’t care about money D. he wanted to get more money
24. We can infer that the author was inspired by ____.
A. true friendship B. his own kindness
C. generous donations D. human’s good nature