“Do you want to come with me?” Sally asked her brother. “I’m going to meet some friends at the bike course（赛道，路线）down the block. We’re going to practice for the race next week.”

“No, thanks,” Mark replied. “Sam’s coming over to play basketball.”

Sally rode off on her bike while Mark waited for his friend. Mark was fast,   35   he usually did well in most sports. He didn’t think it would   36   if he practiced the course. It could be hilly or sandy, and Mark knew he would   37   speed along.

The race day finally arrived. “My stomach feels like I ate some butterflies,” Sally told Mark when she saw so many kids around. Then they   38   the other riders at the start line.

“Sally is always nervous,” Mark thought. “Don’t worry.   39   will do fine,” he said. As soon as the starter shouted “Go!”, Mark’s legs pumped up and down like two machines. He moved   40   to the front.

A few minutes later, there wasn’t anyone ahead of him! Mark raced along the course. He rode past some pine trees. Then the path looped(环绕)around a pond. Mark was surprised that the course was so   41  .

His tired legs felt like they weighed a hundred pounds. All at once, a flash of color caught his eyes. There was a line of bike riders on the course ahead of him! “How could this be?” Mark said to himself. “I must have taken a wrong   42   and made one more loop in the course,” he thought.

Mark pushed his achy muscles(肌肉)harder. He realized his   43   alone wouldn’t be enough this time;   44   the course was just as important. He managed to ride past a couple of bike riders, but he couldn’t   45   the riders who were in the lead.

After the race Mark saw his sister. “Wow, you must have done a good job in the race. What place did you get?” Mark asked.

“Third place!” Sally answered excitedly.

“That’s great! I came in ninth place. But I’ll do better next year because I’ll be     46   enough to practice the course with you,” Mark made a face at his sister and replied.

35. A. but                           B. as                        C. and                      D. or

36. A. help                          B. move                   C. care                     D. come

37. A. just                           B. even                     C. never                   D. still

38. A. joined                       B. passed                  C. visited                  D. invited

39. A. I                              B. You                      C. They                    D. She

40. A. quickly                     B. quietly                  C. clearly                  D. carefully

41. A. hard                         B. wide                    C. long                     D. tidy

42. A. chance                      B. turn                     C. step                     D. ride

43. A. patience                    B. spirit                    C. speed                   D. imagination

44. A. accepting                  B. changing              C. knowing               D. finishing

45. A. leave                         B. touch                   C. face                     D. reach

46. A. honest                      B. smart                   C. brave                   D. confident

The greatest saleswoman in the world today doesn’t mind if you call her a girl. That’s because Markita Andrews has got more than eight thousand dollars selling Girl Scout cookies since she was seven years old.
Going door-to-door after school, the terribly shy Markita changed herself into the cookie-selling dynamo（高手）.
It starts with great wish.
For Markita and her mother, whose husband left them when Markita was eight years old, their dream was to travel the world. “I’ll work hard to make enough money to send you to college,” her mother said one day. “When you leave college, you’ll make enough money to take you and me around the world. Okay?”
So at the age of 13 when Markita read in her Girl Scout magazine that the Scout（童子军）who sold the most cookies would win a free trip for two around the world, she decided to sell all the Girl Scout cookies she could—more Girl Scout cookies than anyone in the world, ever.
Wish, however, alone is not enough. To make her dream come true, Markita knew she needed a plan.
“When you are doing business, wear your Girl Scout clothes when you go up to people in their building, ” her aunt told her. “Always smile, whether they buy something or not and always be nice.”
Lots of other Scouts may have wanted that trip around the world, but only Markita went off in her own uniform each day after school, ready to ask—and keep asking—people to help in her dream.
Markita sold 3,526 boxes of Girl Scout cookies that year and won her trip around the world. Since then, she has sold more than 42,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies.
Markita is no cleverer than thousands of other people, with dreams of their own. The difference is that many people fail before they even begin. They fear（恐惧）that they will be refused. This fear leads many of us to refuse ourselves and prevents us from getting where we have set off for long before anyone else ever has the chance—no matter what we are selling.
“It takes courage（勇气）to ask for what you want,” she said. “Courage is not that you don’t have fear. It means doing what it takes although you have a fear of it”.
【小题1】From the passage we learn that ________.