完形填空。      "I"m too old and it"s too late," which played over and over in my mind.
      I was    1   and exhausted after ending my marriage and my law career at the same time.    2   my ambition to
become a writer, I    3   my ability to succeed as one. Had I wasted years going    4   the wrong goals? I was at a
low point    5   the voice on the radio began    6   the story of Grandma Moses. Ann Mary Moses left home at
thirteen, bore ten children and worked hard to raise the five who    7   . Struggling to make a living on poor farms, she managed to    8   a bit of beauty for herself by embroidering (绣花) on cloth.
     At seventy-eight, her fingers became    9   awkward to hold a needle.    10   give in to aging, she went out to
an empty room and began to    11  . For the first two years, these paintings were either given away or sold  12  a
little money. But at the age of seventy-nine, she was "discovered" by the    13   world-and the rest is   14  . She
went on to produce more than two thousand paintings,   15   her book illustrations (插图) for It was the Night
before Christmas were completed in her one-hundredth year!
        16  I listened to the radio, my   17  changed. If Grandma Moses   18   begin a new career and succeed after
eighty, my life still had    19   after thirty. Before the program ended, I rushed to my computer to work on the
novel I"d nearly    20  .
     It was published eight months later.

(     )1. A. encouraged   (     )2. A. Despite    (     )3. A. believed    (     )4. A. by        (     )5. A. unless     (     )6. A. telling     (     )7. A. succeeded   (     )8. A. notice     (     )9. A. so        (     )10. A. Other than (     )11. A. paint     (     )12. A. off      (     )13. A. literature  (     )14. A. story     (     )15. A. but       (     )16. A. Until     (     )17. A. mood     (     )18. A. should    (     )19. A. ability    (     )20. A. finished

B. discouraged  B. Except     B. expected   B. after      B. because      B. reminding B. left         B. offer       B. too        B. As well as   B. write       B. at          B. art        B. fortune    B. and        B. Thus      B. heart      B. must      B. hope      B. abandoned

C. thrilled       C. For          C. proved      C. against      C. when          C. saying      C. survived     C. give        C. such       C. Rather than   C. think         C. by            C. education      C. history       C. so            C. As          C. interest     C. might         C. freedom     C. published

D. inspired       D. With           D. doubted        D. over           D. while          D. playing        D. grew           D. provide        D. that         D. Instead of     D. change         D. for            D. entertainment  D. fact           D. therefore    D. Then           D. spirit         D. could          D. dream        D. sold