One day in 1965,when I worked at View Ridge School in Seattle,a fourthgrade teacher approached me.She had a student who finished his work before all the others and needed a challenge.“Could he help in the library?” she asked.I said, “Send him along.”
Soon a slight,sandyhaired boy in jeans and a Tshirt appeared.“Do you have a job for me?” he asked.
I told him about the Dewey Decimal System(杜威十进分类法) for shelving books.He picked up the idea immediately.Then I showed him a stack(摞) of cards for longoverdue books that I was beginning to think had actually been returned but were misshelved with the wrong cards in them.He said,“Is it kind of a detective job?” I answered yes,and he became working.
He had found three books with wrong cards by the time his teacher opened the door and announced,“Time for break!”He argued for finishing the finding job;she made the case for fresh air.She won.
The next morning,he arrived early.“I want to finish these books,”he said.At the end of the day,when he asked to be a librarian on a regular basis,it was easy to say yes.He worked untiringly.
After a few weeks I found a note on my desk,inviting me to dinner at the boy’s home.At the end of a pleasant evening,his mother announced that the family would be moving to a neighbouring school district.Her son’s first concern,she said,was leaving the View Ridge library.“Who will find the lost books?” he asked.
When the time came,I said an unwilling goodbye.I missed him,but not for long.A few days later he came back and joyfully announced,“The librarian over there doesn’t let boys work in the library.My mother got me transferred back to View Ridge.My dad will drop me off on his way to work.And if he can’t,I’ll walk!”
I should have had an idea such focused determination would take that young man wherever he wanted to go.What I could not have guessed,however,was that he would become a genius of the Information Age:Bill Gates,tycoon(企业巨头) of Microsoft and America’s richest man.
What was the author when the story happened?
A.A teacher. | B.A librarian. |
C.A detective. | D.A student. |
Why was the boy sent to the library by the fourthgrade teacher?
A.He failed to finish his work on time. |
B.He challenged the teacher in the class. |
C.He disturbed all the other students in the class. |
D.He needed something to do to challenge himself. |
What was the boy told to do on his first day in the library?
A.To rearrange the books according to the new system. |
B.To put those overdue books back to the shelves. |
C.To find out the books with wrong cards in them. |
D.To put the cards back in the longoverdue books. |
The boy got transferred back to View Ridge because ________.
A.he didn’t get along well with the librarian in the new school |
B.he was not allowed to work in the new school’s library |
C.he missed his old schoolmates and teachers |
D.he had to walk a long way to go to school |