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 |
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小題2: | A.accept | 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.always | B.sometimes | C.almost | D.never |
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小題12: | A.task | B.hotel | C.company | D.wor |
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