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
小题1:A
小题2:B
小题3:A
题目分析：
小题1:这是推理理解题。 根据 He always looked right into my eyes, and he never smiled. I was saturated with cold sweat.可以看出应选A。
小题2:这是猜测词义题。根据横线后的with cold sweat 可以看出作者由于紧张而出汗了故选B。
小题3:这是推理理解题。根据I had done very well, and I threw my chest with pride and answered, “Sir, I stood thirty-ninth in a class of 820!可以看出作者说这句话时是充满自信，认为自己做的相当好了。故选A。
点评：本文叙述作者的一次面试经历。在面试过程中作者与面试官“斗智斗勇”，一波三折，读来使人回味。推理理解题主要测试考生理解有关关系结构并推出结论的能力，在近几年的高考中出现的频率较高。