Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers urged, “Barbar

Years ago, whenI started looking for my first job, wise advisers urged, “Barbara, beenthusiastic! Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience.”How right they were! Enthusiastic people can turn a boring drive into anadventure, extra work into opportunity and strangers into friends.

“Nothing greatwas ever achieved without enthusiasm,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is thepaste that helps you hang in there when the going gets tough. It is the innervoice that whispers, “I can do it!” when others shout, “No, you can’t!” It tookyears and years for the early work of Barbara McClintock, a geneticist (遗传学家) whowon the 1983 Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted. Yet she didn’tlet up on her experiments. Work was such a deep pleasure for her that she neverthought of stopping.

We are all bornwith wide – eyed, enthusiastic wonder and it is this childlike wonder thatgives enthusiastic people such a youthful air, whatever their age. At90,cellist Pablo Casals would start his day by playing Bach (巴赫). Asthe music flowed through his fingers, his bent shoulders would straighten andjoy would reappear in his eyes. As author and poet Samuel once wrote, “Yearswrinkle(使生皱纹) the skin, but to give up enthusiasmwrinkles the soul.”

Enthusiasticpeople also love what they do, regardless of money, title or power. PatriciaMcllrath, retired director of the Missouri Repertory Theater in Kansas City, was once asked where she got her enthusiasm. She replied, “My father, alawyer, long ago told me, I never made a penny until I stopped working formoney.”

If we cannot dowhat we love as a full-time career, we can do it as a hobby. Elizabeth Laytonof Wellsville, Kan, was 68 before she began to draw. This activity ended herdepression that had troubled her for at least 30 years, and the quality of herwork led one critic to say, “I am persuaded to call Layton a genius.”

We can’t affordto waste tears on “might-have-beens”. We need to turn the tears into sweat aswe go after “what-can-be.” We need to live each moment whole-heartedly, withall our senses-finding pleasure in the sweet smell of a backyard garden, thesimple picture of a six-year-old, and the beauty of a rainbow.

1.The authormentions cellist Pablo Casals in the third paragraph to show that         .

A. music can arouse people’senthusiasm

B. enthusiasm can givepeople inspiration needed to succeed

C. enthusiasm can makepeople feel young

D. enthusiasm can keeppeople healthy

2.How manyexamples are given in the passage to show the importance of enthusiasm?

A. Two.             B.Three.         C. Four.          D.Five.

3.The author holdsthe view that       .

A. enthusiastic people willnever get old

B. enthusiasm can make yousucceed and enjoy life

C. enthusiasm is moreimportant than experience

D. enthusiasm can givepeople more success and fame

试题答案

【答案】

1.B

2.C

3.D