Jay Wilson was my English teacher at Lake Forest High School. It was him           realized my potential in writing, and his           made me a writer eventually.
He was kind to me, but I had no           that he took particular notice of me. There were other          kids in the class, and soon I fell back into my usual          and thought that I was just a little over average in most things. Near the end of the term, we began to read the play--Macbeth. Believe me, this is not an easy play for high school students to understand,         I spent a lot of time reading it. After working till the night before it was due, I wrote a paper about the           — the first paper I typed on a typewriter — and turned it           the next day.
I got a good           on it, and below the grade Mr. Wilson wrote, “Sure           you become a writer.” That was it. Those six words were written in his clear and neat handwriting. It was the first time he or anyone had           in any way that writing was a          option for me. We’d never had any writers in our family line, and we didn’t know any writers personally, even          , so writing for a living didn’t seem something           to me. But then, just like that, Jay Wilson tapped my hidden            and let me see a wider world.
Over the next 10 years, I often           about Mr. Wilson’s six words. Whenever I felt discouraged, it was those six words that came back to me and gave me          . When a few instructors in college gently and not-so-gently tried to tell me I had no talent, I held Mr. Wilson’s           before me to protect myself. I didn’t          what anyone else thought. Mr. Wilson, head of the whole English department at Lake Forest High,           I could be a writer. So I put my head down and struggled forward.  396

A．when B．who C．how D．where

A．knowledge B．confidence C．influence D．assignment

A．intention B．concern C．doubt D．sense

A．older B．smarter C．richer D．luckier

A．location B．position C．motivation D．qualification

A．so B．but C．or D．for

A．work B．term C．class D．play

A．on B．off C．in D．up

A．grade B．praise C．idea D．start

A．wonder B．hope C．make D．help

A．arranged B．persuaded C．announced D．indicated

A．career B．study C．hobby D．method

A．distantly B．frequently C．actually D．obviously

A．necessary B．precious C．different D．available

A．talent B．memory C．secret D．opinion

A．worried B．thought C．heard D．wrote

A．impression B．improvement C．imagination D．strength

A．actions B．wisdom C．words D．duty

A．care B．predict C．ignore D．learn

A．proved B．said C．promised D．answered