I had applied for the nuclear（核）submarine(潜艇) program, and Admiral Rickover was interviewing me for the job. It was the first time I met Admiral Rickover, and we sat in a large room by ourselves for more than two hours, and he let me choose any subjects I wished to discuss. Very carefully, I chose those about which I knew most at the time – recent events, seamanship, music, literature, naval tactics(海军战术), electronics, gunnery(射击学) – and he began to ask me a lot of questions that were more difficult. Every time after my answers, he soon showed that I knew rather little about the subjects I had chosen.
He always looked right into my eyes, and he never smiled. I was saturated with cold sweat.
Finally, he asked me a question and I thought it was my turn to show myself off. He said, “How did you stand in your class at Georgia Tech before entering Annapolis as a first year student?” I had done very well, and I threw my chest with pride and answered, “Sir, I stood thirty-ninth in a class of 820!” I sat back to wait for the congratulations – which never came. Instead, the question: “Did you do your best?” I started to say, “Yes, sir,” but I remembered who this was, and thought of several of my times at the Academy when I could have learned more about our allies(二战时的同盟国), our enemies, weapons strategy(战略) and so on, so I finally said, “No, Sir, I didn’t always do my best.”
He looked at me for a long time, and then turned his chair around to end the interview. He asked one final question, which I have never been able to forget – or to answer. He said, “Why not?” I sat there for a while, shaken, and then slowly left the room.
小题1:The passage suggests that ___.| A．the atmosphere of the interviews was very serious | | B．the author always did his best in doing everything | | C．the author and Admiral Rickover were good friends | | D．Admiral Rickover knew the author quite well |
小题2:The word “saturated” in the second paragraph may probably mean ___.| A．very satisfied | B．completely wet | C．rather sad | D．too excited |
小题3:When the author said: “Sir, I stood thirty-ninth in a class of 820!’’ He meant __.| A．he did better than most of his classmates at the Academy | | B．he had 820 classmates and he was Number thirty-nine | | C．he was proud that the class he was in was very large | | D．in the class only thirty-nine students stood in front of him |
|