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Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers advised, "Barbara, be enthusiastic (热情
的)! Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience." How right they were!
"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is the paste that
helps you hang on there, then the going gets tough. It is the inner voice that whispers, "I can do it!" When
others shout, "No, you can't!" It took years and years for the early work of Barbara McClintock, a geneticist
who won the 1983 Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted, yet she didn't stop working on her
experiments. Work was such a deep pleasure for her that she never thought of stopping.
We are all born with wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder and it is this childlike wonder that gives enthusiastic
people such youthful air, whatever their age. At 90, Cellist Pablo Casals would start his day by playing Bach.
As the music flowed through his fingers, his stooped shoulders would straighten and joy would reappear
in his eyes. An author and poet Samuel Ulman once wrote, "Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm
wrinkles the soul."
Enthusiastic people also love what they do, regardless of money or title or power. Patricia Mellrath, retired
director of the Missouri Repertory Theater in Kansas City, was once asked where she got her enthusiasm. She
replied, "My father, a lawyer, long ago told me, 'I never made a dime until I stopped working for money.'"
If we can't do what we love as a full-time career, we can as a hobby. Elizabeth Layton of Wellsville, Kan,
was 68 before she began to draw. This activity ended periods of depression that had troubled her for at least
30 years,and the quality of her work led one critic to say, "I am tempted to call Layton a genius."
We need to turn the tears into sweat as we go after "what-can-be". We need to live each moment whole-
heartedly, with all our senses-finding pleasure in the sweet smell of a back-yard garden, the sim- ple picture
of a six-year-old, the beauty of a rainbow.
1. The author holds the view that _____.
A. enthusiastic people will never get old
B. enthusiasm can make you succeed and enjoy life
C. enthusiasm is more important than experience
D. enthusiasm can give people more success and fame
2. Which of the following can best explain the underlined sentence in the second paragraph?
A. Enthusiasm can give you courage and strength in difficult times.
B. If you don't have enthusiasm, you can achieve nothing.
C. Enthusiastic people never consider money and fame.
D. Enthusiastic people can gain great fame and honour.
3. The author mentions Cellist Pablo Casals in the third paragraph to show that _____.
A. music can arouse people's enthusiasm
B. enthusiasm can give people needed inspiration to succeed
C. enthusiasm can make people feel young
D. enthusiasm can keep people healthy
4. How many examples are given in the passage to show the importance of enthusiasm?
A. Three.
B. Two.
C. Four.
D. Five.
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