Question

This Thursday, Irena Sendler will be honored for her work as a smuggler (偷運者). During World War II, the Polish social worker smuggled nearly 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto (聚居區). She gave them new identities （身份）, found them safe places with good-hearted Christians, and kept the children's real names buried in jars in her neighbors' gardens.(The play, Life in a Jar, based on her story, is being performed. ) At 93, Sendler lives in a Warsaw nursing home and was too weak to travel to Washington D.C. to receive the 2003 Jan Karski Award for Valor and Compassion from the American Center of Polish Culture. One of the children she had saved accepted the award for her.

You risked your life to save the children?

I was taught by my father that when someone is drowning, you don't ask if they can swim, you just jump in and help. During the war, everyone was drowning, but mostly the Jewish children.

How did you persuade parents to give their children?

I had to answer honestly that I didn't even know if we would get past the guards.

What was the most frightening moment?

When I saw a priest (牧師)in charge of an orphanage for Jewish children in the ghetto walk with them out to be killed. The children were in their best Sunday suits. The priest was killed with them.

How did you get the children to behave as you smuggled them out?

I told the older children to act as if they were sick and sometimes gave the younger ones a sleeping pill. They were told to remember their new names. I also told the children to tell guards they had only been visiting a servant in the ghetto and were going back to their real homes outside.

Did you tell your own two children what you did?

I never told them. Only when my daughter went to Israel (以色列)did she learn all about me. I thought it was only normal to do so. And it was a very painful subject. It was always on my mind that I couldn't do more.

75. We can learn from the passage that Irena Sendler ________ .

A. would not accept the award

B. was caught a few times while she was rescuing the Jewish children

C. told those parents that their children's lives would be guaranteed (保證)

D. saved thousands of Jewish children at the risk of her own life.

76. The expression "everyone was drowning" can be best replaced by " _______ ."

A. everyone was involved （卷入）in the war

B. all the people were drowned

C. people were facing danger and death

D. Jewish children were being killed

77. Which of the following is NOT true when Sendler was smuggling the Jewish children?

A. Some children were told to pretend to be sick in front of the guards.

B. Some children pretended to be returning home after visiting servants in the ghetto.

C. The children were asked to remember and use new names instead of their real names.

D. The children pretended to be brothers and sisters from one big family.

78. Sendler didn't tell her own children what she did in the war because _______ .

A. she thought it was the most frightening experience

B. the topic was too painful and heartbreaking to mention

C. it was already recorded and made known to the public

D. she planned to bury the secret in her heart until her death

Answer 1

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