A few years ago, when I was still in high school, I met a wonderful and warm teacher. At that time in my life, there were many changes to adjust to, apart from the usual teenage troubles. My parents had divorced, so my elder brother and I had chosen to stay with my dad. Due to the fact that he was keeping the house, we didn’t have to move.

During this time, my teacher took a special interest in me. Being my English teacher, she encouraged my mind to travel to creativity I had long given up. She brought me out of the shell I built.

She became my mother, my older sister, my friend and my teacher. The one thing she couldn’t do though was to make me more girly as growing up with only my dad and brother made me a real tomboy.

Sometimes, I would be really immature（不成熟的）, especially if she was scoring me less than others on purpose. She knew I could do better than what I was handing in and so pushed me to extend further than limits.

When I finished school and then after college I was about to leave my hometowns she gifted me a watch that every second, with my pulse, should remind me of the one person who will forever wait and love me without reservation.

Time has passed and our friendship is distant, but in my heart, soul and mind, she is the closest I ever got.

The writer and her elder brother chose to live with their father simply because _________.

A. their mother was expecting to have another baby

    B. they didn’t have to move out of their house

    C. they hated their mother remarried

    D. they had a closer relationship with their father

How did the writer get along with her studies before she met her English teacher?

    A. She was hopeless and had given up her studies.

    B. She was getting along well with her studies.

    C. She had some trouble with her studies.

    D. She lacked interest in creativity.

The writer behaved herself like a boy because ________.

    A. she needed the love of mother

    B. she wanted to learn from her father and brother

    C. she lived with only men all the time

    D. her English teacher didn’t care about her

What was the writer’s attitude to the watch given by the teacher?

    A. She considered it to be very useful.

    B. She valued it very much.

    C. She kept it very well.

D. She wanted to do something later in return for it.

Even Intelligent People Can Fail

_________

The unusual things about the innovators (创新者) who succeeded in making our modern world is how often they failed. Turn on a light, take a photograph, watch TV, search the web, jet across the Pacific Ocean, talk on a cell-phone. The innovators who left us these things had to find the way to success through a maze (错综复杂) of wrong turns.

_________

We have just celebrated the 125th anniversary of American innovator Thomas Edison’s success in heating a thin line to white, hot heat for 14 hours in his lab in New Jersey, US. He did that on October 22, 1879, and followed up a month later by keeping a thread of common cardboard alight (点亮着的) in an airless space for 45 hours. Three years later he went on to light up half a square mile of downtown Manhattan, even though only one of the six power plants in his design worked when he turned it on, on September 4, 1882.

________

“Many of life’s failures,” Edison said, “are because that people did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Before that magical moment in October 1879, Edison had worked out no fewer than 3,000 theories about electric light. But in only two cases did his experiments work.

________

No one likes failure, but the smart innovators learn from it. Mark Gumz, the head of a camera maker, attributes some of the company’s successes in technology to understanding failure. His popular phrase is：“You only fail when you quit.”

_________

Over two centuries, the most common quality of the innovators has been persistence (坚忍不拔). That is another way of saying they had the emotional ability to keep on with what they were doing. Walt Disney, the founder of Disneyland, was so penniless after a series of financial failures that he was left shoeless in his office because he could not afford the $1.50 to get his shoes from the repair shop. Pioneering car maker Henry Ford failed with one company and was forced out of another before he developed the Model T Car.

After a long day at school, I walked home with my heavy schoolbag . By the time I got home, I was sweaty,  16 and hungry. I threw my things on the couch and grabbed something from the kitchen to  17 . I passed by the living room and wished I could watch TV , but I knew my  18   would take me the whole night. I grabbed my schoolbag and went  19 to my room, feeling defeated. I tried to understand chemistry and  20 sleepiness at the same time. I was stressed out and  21 . I wanted something to cheer me up .
Later in the evening , I  22 the sound of the front door opening. And I waited for it—the sound of my mom singing .  23 she sings off-key (跑调), it made me excited that she was here. I ran down the stairs to greet my mom. We  24 and I ran back upstairs to do homework again. I like it when my mom was happy. Her  25 flowed down to me and I got the strength to  26  the stress again.
Sometimes, I wonder how my mom can still be  27 after coming back from work. Every weekday, she wakes up  28 in the morning to go to work and spends an hour on the bus before getting downtown . At a  29 factory, she works standing for the whole day and draws patterns for clothes over and over. After work, she gets stuck in  30 for two hours on her way back home. When I  31 my school life with her work life, I should not be the one to  32 . At least I have some fun things to do at school, while one mistake at work can cost my mom her job. I  33   that my mom has a positive attitude and lives her life with a joyous heart even though there may be   34 . Seeing her happy makes me feel  35 , too.

A poor boy Howard Kelly was trying to make some money for school by selling goods. He found that he had only one coin left. He was so  16  that he decided to beg for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his courage when a lovely young  17 opened the door. Instead of asking for a meal, he asked for a drink of  18 . She smiled understandingly and brought him a  19  glass of milk. He drank it slowly and then asked, “How much is it?”
“You need pay nothing.” she replied. “Mother has  20 me never to accept pay for a  21 .” As Howard  22  that house, he not only felt stronger 23  , but it also made him believe in God and the human beings more. He was about to give up before this.
24 later, the young woman became very ill. She was sent to the big city,  25  Dr Howard Kelly, now famous, was called in for the treatment. When he heard the name of the  26  she came from, a  27  light filled his eyes. Immediately, he rose and went down through the hospital hall into her room. He  28  her at once. From that day on, he gave   29  attention to her case and  30   to do his best to save her life.
After a long time, she recovered. The bill was sent to her room. She was  31  to open it because she knew it would 32  the rest of her life to pay it off. Finally she looked at the bill and saw these words on one side of it,
"Paid in full with  33 ."
                    Dr Howard Kelly
Tears of  34  ran out of her eyes as she cried, "Thank you,  35 . Your love has got around through human hearts and hands. "

In the clinic, I asked if Michael could be retested, so the specialist tested him again. To my  16  , it was the same score.
Later that evening, I   17  told Frank what I had learned that day. After talking it over, we agreed that we knew our son much better than an IQ test. We decided that Michael’s score must have been a   18  and we should treat him   19  as usual.
We moved to Indiana in 1962, and Michael studied at Concordia High School in the same year, he got     20   grades in the school, especially in biology and chemistry, which was a great comfort.
Michael   21   Indiana University in 1965 as a pre-medical student. Soon afterwards, his teacher permitted him to take more courses than  22 . In 1968, he was accepted by the School of Medicine, Yale University.
On graduation day in 1972, Frank and I   23  the ceremony (典礼) at Yale. After the ceremony, we told Michael about the   24  IQ score he got when he was six. Since that day, Michael sometimes would look at us and say   25 , “My dear mom and dad never told me that I couldn’t be a doctor, not until after I graduated from medical school!” It is his special way of thanking us for the  26  we had in him.
Interestingly, Michael then asked for another IQ test. We went to the same clinic where he had   27  the test eighteen years before. This time Michael scored 126, an increase of 36 points. A result like that was supposed to be  28 .
Children often do as well as what adults, particularly parents and teachers,  29 of them. That is, tell a child he is “  30  ” , and he may play the role of a foolish child.