A
I once taught in a small private school. Each morning at nine o’clock all the students, ranging in age from three to seven years old, gathered in the Great Room for a warm-up in preparation for the day.
One morning the headmistress made an announcement to all the children gathered,“Today we begin a great experiment of the mind.” She held up two ivy(常春藤) plants, each potted in an identical container. She continued, “Do they look the same?”
All the children nodded. So did I, for, in this way, I was also a child.
“We will give the plants the same amount of light, the same amount of water, but not the same amount of attention,” She said. “Together we are going to see what will happen when we put one plant in the kitchen away from our attention and the other plant right here in this room. Each day for the next month, we shall sing to our plant in the Great Room and tell it how much we love it, and how beautiful it is. We will use our good minds to think good thoughts about it.”
Four weeks later my eyes were as wide and disbelieving as the children’s. The kitchen plant was leggy and sick-looking, and it hadn’t grown at all. But the Great Room plant, which had been sung to and surrounded by positive thoughts and words, had increased threefold in size with dark leaves that were filled with energy.
In order to prove the experiment, the kitchen ivy was brought to the Great Room to join the other ivy. Within three weeks, the second plant had caught up with the first ivy. Within four weeks, they could not be distinguished, one from the other.
I took this lesson to heart and made it my own.
21. Why did the headmistress do the experiment?
A. She wanted to teach me a lesson.
B. She expected the students to learn to grow plants.
C. She meant to prove the impact of good minds on growth.
D. She intended to show students how to save a sick-looking plant.
22. What happened to the ivy in the kitchen at last?
A. It stopped growing and died.
B. It was leggy and sick with dark leaves.
C. It looked almost the same as the other one.
D. It grew better than the one in the Great Room.
23. What can be a suitable title for the passage?
A. Life Means Growth
B. Things Grow with Love
C. Equality Makes a Difference
D. Positive Thoughts Really Count
