1 A few people are born resilient and Elizabeth Murray is one of them.

A woman
who overcame tremendous odds to go from “homeless to Harvard” has turned her life
story into an American bestseller. Her parents were cocaine addicts who spent most
of the family’s money on feeding their habits. Liz explains that as a result, she and her
sister were neglected. The girls often lacked food and warm clothes. By age 15, Liz was
homeless, eating out of dumpsters in the streets of New York. 5

Her mother had died of AIDS, and her family was forced to live on the street.
Liz made a vow to herself after her mother’s death that her life would be different. She
refused to end up like her mom and decided that the best way to avoid that fate was to 10
2 go back to school.

She adhered steadfastly to her plan. She excelled in her high school courses in
an accelerated two-year programme, won a highly competitive New York Times
3 scholarship for needy students, and gained acceptance to Harvard University.

Liz describes her childhood apartment as a dismal and dirty place. Drugs were
ever present. "It would be common for me to go into my kitchen and see my parents 15
shooting drugs into their veins," she says. "When they were done, there was blood
4 spots all along the walls from where they had missed veins." Her parents were so
desperate for a fix they would sell anything they could for a few extra dollars. Liz once
woke up and found that her mother had sold her sister’s winter jacket.

When Liz was 10 she was told her mother had AIDS. In the years that followed, as her
mother struggled with full-blown AIDS and tuberculosis, Liz helped care for her. 20
When her mother died, she was buried in a donated wooden box. Liz says the impact
5 of that loss became a turning point in her life. Something in her shifted, and she
figured out what she needed to do. "I connected the lifestyles that I had witnessed
every day with how my mother ended up," she says. "And if there was anything that I
could do about it, that would not happen to me. So I wanted to get back into school. 25
But, mind you, I was homeless."

Despite dismal grades, Liz was accepted at Humanities Preparatory Academy,

a public high school. The school did not know she was homeless. She plunged into her
30
studies and took a double load of courses. Despite the fact that she had no home and
studied in a stairwell of a subway. Liz thrived in school. The experience was everything
she hoped it would be. She loved learning.

6
Liz Murray applied for a New York Times scholarship offered to needy local 35
students. She had never read the paper, but the scholarship seemed perfect. The Times
was looking to make a difference by helping kids who had overcome obstacles. Her
story apparently came through loud and clear. Then it was announced in the paper
that she had won the scholarship and would receive $12,000 for each year of college.
7 Liz used her scholarship money to study at Harvard University. She says when 40
she visited the campus with her high school, she decided that attending Harvard was
a goal within her reach. Harvard agreed that Liz Murray belonged at the university
and accepted her as a student. Her reaction to the acceptance letter was to scream with
delight. "I felt like I had wings. I felt like I could do anything,” she says.

When she looks back on where she has come from and the burdens her parents
8 gave her, Liz says that she is neither bitter nor angry. Despite all their deficiencies, she 45
says she felt her parents made her feel loved. She understood, from an early age, that
they had a disease that prevented them from giving her more than they did. She misses
having her family together. Her father also developed AIDS and he died a few years
later. Her experiences strengthened Murray’s qualities of compassion and love. Liz
says that all she had been through have stayed with her and are part of everything 50
about who she is. She has learned from her experiences and makes use of the lessons.

26 Which one word in paragraph 1 tells us that Elizabeth and her sister were not given
proper care by her parents?

27 (a) From paragraphs 2, what made Elizabeth change her life?

27 (b) From paragraph 3, why do you think Elizabeth accepted to study at Harvard
University?

(c) From paragraph 5, what could probably the cause of her mother’s death?

28 (a) From paragraph 6, what kind of criteria is considered for the New York Times’
scholarship?

(b) from paragraphs 7, what made Liz decide to study at Harvard University?

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