John H. Johnson was born in a black family in Arkansas City in 1918. His father died in an accident when John was six. When he reached the high school age, his hometown offered no high school to the blacks. Luckily, he had a strong-willed (意志坚强的) and patient mother. His mother told him many times, “Son, you can be anything you really want to be if you just believe.” She told him not to be dependent on others, including his mother. “You have to earn success,” she said. “All the people who work hard don’t succeed, but the only people who do succeed are those who work hard.”

These words came from a woman with less than a third-grade education. She also knew that belief and hard work didn’t mean everything. So she worked hard as a cook for two years to save enough money to take her son to Chicago.

Chicago in 1933 was not the land that the blacks were looking for. John,s mother and stepfather could not find work here. But here John could go to school. His wish was to publish a magazine for the blacks.

While others discouraged him, John’s mother offered him more words to live by: “Nothing beats a failure but a try.” She also let him pawn (抵押) her failure to get the $500 he needed to start the Negro magazine.

It is natural that difficulties and failures followed John closely until he became very successful. He always kept his mother’s words in mind. “Son, failure is not in your vocabulary.” John H. Johnson was one of the 400 richest people in America— worth of $150 million once.

1.Why did NOT John get into high school in his hometown?

A. Because his mother didn’t have enough money.

B. Because there was no high school in his hometown for the blacks.

C. Because the high school in his hometown was not good.

D. Because he didn’t want to study in his hometown.

2.What made John successful?

A. His family background and his hard work.

B. His good education experiences and his hard work.

C. His mother’s support and his hard work.

D. His intelligence and hard work.

3.What does the underlined sentence mean?

A. A failure is too difficult to deal with.

B. A try is always followed by a failure.

C. If you try hard, you’ll succeed finally.

D. You won’t beat a failure if you don’t try.

4.What’s the purpose of the passage?

A. To tell us something about John H. Johnson.

B. To tell us something about John H. Johnson’s mother.

C. To tell us something about John H. Johnson’s family.

D. To tell us something about John H. Johnson’s career.

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网