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
