Question

I must have been about fourteen then, and I put away the incident from my mind with the easy carelessness of youth. But the words, Carl Walter spoke that day, came back to me years later, and ever since have been of great value to me.

Carl Walter was my piano teacher. During one of my lessons he asked how much practicing I was doing. I said three or four hours a day.

“Do you practice in long stretches, an hour at a time?”

“I try to.”

“Well, don’t, ” he said loudly. “When you grow up, time won’t come in long stretches. Practice in minutes, whenever you can find them five or ten before school, after lunch, between household tasks. Spread the practice through the day, and piano-playing will become a part of your life.”

When I was teaching at Columbia, I wanted to write, but class periods, theme-reading, and committee meetings filled my days and evenings. For two years I got practically nothing down on paper, and my excuse was that I had no time. Then I remembered what Carl Walter had said. During the next week I conducted an experiment. Whenever I had five minutes unoccupied, I sat down and wrote a hundred words or so. To my astonishment, at the end of the week I had a rather large manuscript(手稿) ready for revision. Later on I wrote novels by the same piecemeal （零碎的）method. Though my teaching schedule had become heavier than ever, in every day there were moments which could be caught and put to use.

There is an important trick in this time-using principle: you must get into your work quickly. If you have but five minutes for writing, you can’t afford to waste it in chewing your pencil. You must make your mental preparations beforehand, and concentrate on your task almost instantly when the time comes. Fortunately, rapid concentration is easier than most of us realize.

I admit I have never learnt how to let go easily at the end of the five or ten minutes. But life can be counted on to supply interruptions. Carl Walter has had a significant influence on my life. To him I owe the discovery that even very short periods of time add up to all useful hours I need, if I throw myself into it without delay.

1.The meaning of “stretch” in the underlined part is the same as that in the sentence “_______”

A. The dog woke up, had a good stretch and wandered off.

B. Bob worked as a government official for a stretch of over twenty years.

C. My family wasn’t wealthy by any stretch of the imagination.

D. This material has a lot of stretch in it.

2.Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A. The author didn’t take the teacher’s words to heart at first.

B. Rapid concentration is more difficult than people imagine.

C. The author thanked his teacher for teaching him to work in long stretches.

D. Carl Walter has influenced the writer greatly since he was a student.

3.We can infer that the author______.

A. had new books published each year however busy his teaching is

B. is tired of interruptions in life because he always has much work

C. has formed a bad habit of chewing a pencil while writing his novels

D. makes mental preparations beforehand so as to focus on work quickly

4.What is probably the best title for this text?

A. Concentrate on Your Work            B. A Little at a Time

C. How I Became a Writer                            D. Good Advice

 

Answer 1

【答案】

 

1.B

2.A

3.D

4.B

【解析】

試題分析：文章通過一個故事講述了一個大道理。作者的老師讓作者不要集中練琴，而是把練習的時間分散開來。作者認識到，要做好心理準備，來迎接不期而遇的機會。

1.根據“When you grow up, time won’t come in long stretches. Practice in minutes, whenever you can find them five or ten before school, after lunch, between household tasks. Spread the practice through the day, and piano-playing will become a part of your life.”可知，當你長大了，你不會一直長時間有空練習。要把練習分成一小段一小段的，上學前練，午飯后練，做家務的空當練。Stretch指一段（時間）。B項“鮑勃做了二十幾年的官員”。故選B。

2.根據“But the words, Carl Walter spoke that day, came back to me years later, and ever since have been of great value to me.”可知，Carl Walter老師的話，在多年以后才被作者記起來。故選A。

3.根據“You must make your mental preparations beforehand, and concentrate on your task almost instantly when the time comes.”可知，你必須事先做好心理準備，時機一到，就要立即把注意力集中在你的任務上。故選D。

4.根據“But life can be counted on to supply interruptions. ...very short periods of time add up to all useful hours”可知，作者對老師的教導很是感激，作者謹記教誨，把一點點的時間片段聚集起來，成為了寶貴的時光。要學會把一個目標分成一個個的小步驟，一個個的接著完成它們，并最終實現最終的目標。故選B。

考點：故事類短文閱讀