Before I even started school, people felt that I was not going to amount to much. At the age of four, I started speech lessons because even I could not speak well enough to be understood.
First grade was a struggle. I not only had difficulty speaking, but I was expected to learn to read and I just couldn't do it. My parents grew more and more frustrated. They bought books and offered great rewards if I could read one of them from start to finish to them. Well, with my speech problems and now my reading problems, I did not like to do reading and so refused to do it whenever possible.
Second grade was not much better. It was in the second grade that the teacher decided that I needed special education. I remember the days of taking the physical exams. However, after all that, they decided that I did not qualify for special education.
It was in third grade that a new school was built close to where I lived. I remember going there with my parents and helping to get the school ready so that we could transfer(转学). It was a happy day that we started school at Vandalia. However, things did not get better as my parent expected.
It was now time for fifth grade. Mrs. Wakefield was my teacher, and if ever there was a teacher that deserved a gold star, it was her. She did not make me feel upset. Instead, she helped me in so many ways and built my self-confidence so that I actually did believe that I could do something special. And that is just what I did.
For the past 22 years, I have been a fifth grade teacher. Because of Mrs. Wakefield's influence in my life, I am now encouraging students who have had difficulties in their lives to believe that they can overcome and become someone. I have won a large number of awards but I know that all of them belong to one fifth grade teacher who believed in me and challenged me to be all that I could be.
I still have a class picture of her with her fifth grade class hanging on the wall of my office, encouraging other teachers to reach out to their students.
【小题1】 What does the underlined phrase “amount to much” mean in Paragraph l?

To learn a foreign language well, you need to spend a lot of time on it. The ___46___ time you spend on the language, the faster you will learn. This does not ___47___ sitting in class looking out of the window, nor listening to other students who do not speak well. This means spending time enjoyably on the ___48___ you are learning.

Listen to the language you are learning on your MP3 player. Read ___49___ you are listening to. Listen to and read things that you like, things that you can mostly ___50___, or even partly understand. One hour of listening or reading is more effective（有效率）than many hours of class time. If you ___51___ listening and reading, you will improve yourself.

Build up your vocabulary lists, which you’ll need lots of. Start to notice words and how they come ___52___ as phrases. Learn these words and phrases ___53___ listening and reading. Read online, using online dictionaries, and make your own vocabulary lists. Do not ___54___ for someone else to show you the language, nor to tell you what to do, and you should discover the language by yourself, like a child growing up. Talk when you feel like it. ___55___ when you feel like. You are learning and improving. The language will become clearer in your mind. Just make sure you spend enough time on the language.