Some people bring out the best in you in a way that you might never have fully realized on your own. My mom was one of those people.
My father died when I was nine months old, making my mom a single mother at the age of eighteen. While I was growing up, we lived a very
36 life. We had little money, but my mom gave me a lot of love. Each night, she sat me on her lap and spoke the words that would
37 my life, “Kemmons, you are certain to be a great man and you can do anything in life if you work hard enough to get it.”
At fourteen, I was hit by a car and the doctors said I would never
38 again. Every day, my mother spoke to me in her gentle, loving voice, telling me that no matter what those doctors said, I could walk again if I didn’t want to be bad enough. She
39 that message so deep into my heart that I finally believed her. A year later, I returned to school-walking on my own!
When the Great Depression（大蕭條）
40 , my mom lost her job. Then I left school to support（支撐） both of us. At that moment, I decided never to be
41 again.
Over the years, I experienced various levels of business success. But the real
42 point happened on a vacation I took with my wife and five kids in 1916. I was dissatisfied with the second-class hotels for families and was angry that they charged（收費）an extra $2 for each child. That was too
43 for most American families. I told my wife that I was going to open a hotel for families that would never charge extra for
44 . There were plenty of doubters at that time.
Not
45 , mom was one of my strongest supporters. She worked behind the desk and even designed the room style. As in any business, we experienced a lot of hard time. But with my mother’s words deeply rooted in my heart, I
46 doubted we would succeed. Fifteen years later, we had the largest hotel system in the world - Holiday Inn. In 1979 my company had 1,759 inns in more than fifty countries with an income of $1 billion a year.
You may not have started out life in the best situations. But if you can find a
47 in life worth working for and believe in yourself, nothing can stop you. | 【小題1】 | | A．quiet | B．boring | C．hard | D．strange |
|
| 【小題2】 | | A．a(chǎn)ccept | B．change | C．disturb | D．check |
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| 【小題3】 | | A．study | B．speak | C．listen | D．walk |
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| 【小題4】 | | A．drove | B．expected | C．explained | D．covered |
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| 【小題6】 | | A．excited | B．brave | C．patient | D．poor |
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| 【小題7】 | | A．leading | B．breaking | C．turning | D．celebrating |
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| 【小題8】 | | A．expensive | B．fantastic | C．different | D．special |
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| 【小題9】 | | A．husband | B．parents | C．children | D．wife |
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| 【小題10】 | | A．successfully | B．surprisingly | C．interestingly | D．importantly |
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| 【小題11】 | | A．a(chǎn)lways | B．sometimes | C．a(chǎn)lmost | D．never |
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| 【小題12】 | | A．task | B．hotel | C．company | D．wor |
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