When Mom said we had to give away Sam, I didn’t say a word. I just picked up Sam and walked out to the shed (棚) that used to be Dad’s workshop. What Mom said to me wasn’t a surprise. I saw it would come.
My name is Nathan. Sam was my cat. Not long before Dad died, he found Sam behind his store. No one wanted a little cat, so Dad brought him home. Sam was black, with wise eyes and big ears. But what most people noticed was his big white feet.
“Meow?” Sam knew I was upset. I wondered if I could explain to Sam about Anna. She’s my younger stepsister (继妹), and if it weren’t for her, I could keep Sam. But I didn’t explain, and Sam couldn’t understand his situation. He liked to run up and down in the shed’s dusty sunlight.
No one used the shed now except our elder neighbors, Mr. Sims and Mr. Irvin. They made wind chimes (风铃) to sell at the market. Dad used to help them. I grew up loving the sounds that filled our shed. Mom said people loved those chimes because their music was mixed with laughter.
I wondered how things were going to change now that I had a stepsister. Last week we had to take Anna to the hospital quickly. She couldn’t breathe. Mom thought it was because Sam slept in her room. Anna was allergic (过敏的) to cats. Mom told me that Sam had to be sent away. She asked me who was more important, Sam or Anna. I couldn’t answer.
“Isn’t there anything else we can do?” I asked. I looked at Sam. Sam was playing with things left over from the wind chimes. When he hit metal against metal, it rang loudly. Sam was happy. But I wasn’t.
Then, I remembered Anna on the way to the hospital and her face frightened and pale.
In the end, our neighbors Mr. Sims and Mr. Irvin took in Sam, so Sam got two homes.
According to Oxford Dictionaries, morality means: “Principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.” Though morality is a rather subjective subject, there are some principles that are universal across all cultures found by an Oxford University study: "help your family, help your group, return favors, be brave, obey superiors, divide resources fairly, and respect others, property”. The fact that these morals are found across 60 cultures from around the world demonstrates that morality, though subjective, is the cornerstone of keeping our societies together. Here are some reasons to be moral: without morality, a social life is almost impossible to maintain; having a good reputation and having a clear conscience is psychologically healthy; and most philosophies regard unselfish and principled behavior as important.
There is no doubt that without morals, a society cannot function effectively. A confused situation would appear. According to the Society of Morality, “We are social animals, and the actions we take - the things we do and the things we don’t do - have consequences on our environments and on the others around us. As a result, we need to be able to govern our behavior in the near term so as not to injure ourselves or our community in the long term. This system of controlling our actions and our thoughts in order to operate in a community is what we often refer to as morality”. Therefore, we need a set of morals in order to operate within a social circle and a social environment. Acting immoral usually results in being excluded from social activities or being avoided by a society based on laws and cultural standards.
Besides acting moral having a sociological need, it also has a psychological basis. Most people are concerned to some extent about their reputation. According to PsyPost, “A lot of economic models of human behavior assume that people are only rational (理性的)when they narrowly pursue their own self-interest, but history shows us that people are also tremendously concerned with being and appearing moral”. So, the fear of one’s reputation being damaged is often a strong motivator to be moral. And if someone has been immoral, most people go out of their way to make sure no one finds out, or to correct the behavior in order to not be caught. This goes in line with conscience as well. People generally feel in a better psychological state if they feel that their conscience is clean. A dirty conscience can result in a lack of sleep, anxiety, internal stress, and even illness.
On the side of philosophy, the study of ethics (伦理)comes into play. Most philosophers agree that one should rationally choose a set of standards of behavior in order to function. Though there is moral relativism, there are universal anthropological (人类学的)morals, as mentioned in the introduction. By the nature of our societies and cultures, we choose what we believe is right and wrong. But surprising, this rational behavior comes to a general agreement on morals. So, there is a fine line between moral relativism and moral absolutism. But the main thing to take away from this discussion is that philosophers generally believe that each individual has the right to rationally come up with a set of ethics to live by, and that it is healthy to do so.
1．The author discusses morality in the first paragraph in order to_________.| A．explain the relationship between morality and culture |
| B．describe the moral rules found all around the world |
| C．contrast the distinction between right and wrong |
| D．introduce the definition, principles and reasons of morality |
| A．acting moral allows us to fit into groups better |
| B．morality brings the system of controlling behaviors |
| C．acting immoral weakens laws and cultural standards |
| D．Our controlled behaviors establish sets of morals |
| A．Pursuit of self-interest. | B．A clean conscience. |
| C．The concern about reputation. | D．A dirty conscience. |
| A．To reach a general agreement on morals based on ethics. |
| B．To carve one’s own sense of ethics to operate in this world. |
| C．To choose between moral relativism and moral absolutism. |
| D．To exclude philosophers’ beliefs and solutions as well. |
Achievement Expo of China Aerospace
How are you doing these days?
Yours,
Li Hua
Larry had butterflies in his stomach. Today was the day for him to meet his girlfriend Kate’s parents. He was planning to leave them a good impression, so he was in his finest suit. On the way, he secretly recited a few jokes he picked up online the previous night. His weird behavior caught Kate’s attention.
“What are you doing, honey?” she asked. Blushing, Larry told her what he was doing. She, on the other hand, actually found his eagerness to please her family quite cute. “Well, let’s hear your jokes.” she said teasingly.
They were so immersed in their chatter and laughter that before they knew it, they had arrived at the house of Kate’s parents, who gave them a warm welcome. As an orphan, that night, Larry felt the love and warmth he had always longed for since childhood.
The next day, they drove downtown to pick their engagement ring. Everything was working out just perfectly. However, on their way home, a truck driven by a drunk driver smashed into their car, sending it flying off the roadside down a steep hill before it got stuck between several trees.
Larry struggled out of his seat to save the then unconscious Kate. As he made every effort to wake her up, the car began to slip down again. With only seconds to act, he hastily removed her seat belt and pushed her out of the car before it fell downhill again with him trapped inside.
A rescue team finally arrived and drove them to a nearby hospital. Under the doctors’ treatment, Kate woke up the next day. She was only slightly injured, but Larry remained unconscious due to severe damage done to his brain caused by the heavy impact.
How to Improve Students Mental Health
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