题型：阅读理解 题类：期中考试 难易度：难
年份：2017
Jimmy’s mother called out to him at seven in the morning, “Jimmy, get UP. It’s time for school.” He answered, “Mother, I’m not going to school. There’re fifteen hundred kids at that school and every one of them hates me. All the teachers hate me, too. I don’t understand it. Why would you want to put me through all of that suffering?” “Jimmy, for two good reasons,” she fired back. “Firstly, you’re forty-two years old. Secondly, you’re in charge of the whole school.”
There are few of us who, on some days, have not felt like Jimmy. We just do not want to go to school. That school, of course, is life itself, where dropping out can seem a much better idea than facing the challenges that inevitably (不可避免地) lie ahead.
Pablo Casals, the great musician, was asked why he continued to practice five hours a day ateighty-five years of age. He replied, “Because I think I’m getting better.” To grasp the significanceof this more fully, let me explain the success in our culture. Through the over-exposure（曝光） and media attention given to the rich and powerful, we believe that some people have made it. The lie is thatthey then live happily ever after. Those who have made it in order to “make it” discover that happylife ever after doesn’t exist.
Success begins the moment we understand that life is about growing; it is about acquiring the knowledge and skills, which we need to live more fully and effectively. Life is meant to be a never-ending education, and when this is fully appreciated, we are no longer survivors but adventurers. Life becomes a journey of discovery, an exploration into our potential(潜力). Any joys we experience in living are the fruits of our willingness to risk, our openness to change, and our ability to create what we want for our lives.
If you have already risked much and lost much, it doesn’t matter. Mistakes don’t matter. Failure doesn’t matter. What matters is that you learned from your mistakes and failures. A successful bank president was being interviewed by a reporter:
“Sir, to what do you owe your success?”
“That’s easy to answer: good decisions.”
“And to what do you attribute (把……归于) your good decisions?”
“That’s easier still: the wisdom gained from experience.”
“And where did you get that experience?”
“Easy again: bad decisions!”
| A. Being too old to get to school. |
| B. Having difficulty in understanding teachers. |
| C. Getting through much suffering from schooling. |
| D. Having trouble getting along with workmates and students. |
| A. Progress and excellence in work is possible only with hard practice. |
| B. Challenges are waiting for you even after you have achieved some success. |
| C. Valuable lessons from experiences greatly improve the quality of life. |
| D. Memorable life should be filled with traditional meaning of culture. |
| A. Failure teaches success. |
| B. Wisdom flows from experience. |
| C. Even the best of us make mistakes. |
| D. Past lessons guide us in the future. |
