When I was learning calligraphy (书法), my teacher told me a story.
A calligrapher taught handwriting. One of his students who often practiced handwriting with old sheets of newspaper complained that he made very little progress though he had learned it with the calligrapher for a long time. His teacher said to him, “Try to use the best paper. Maybe you'll write better.”
The student did as he was told. It really worked. He made headway not long afterwards and felt curious. He asked his teacher about the reason. The calligrapher answered，“When you used old newspaper to practice handwriting, you would think you were writing a draft. It didn't matter if you wrote badly as old newspaper was plenty in supply. In that case you wouldn't pay much attention to it. Now you use the best paper and you'll treasure it. Each time you write you feel strongly about the rarity of chances and you'll devote to it with all your heart and soul; you'll do the handwriting much more attentively than practicing. Of course you've made rapid progress.”
Indeed, we spend our ordinary days just as they are worthless “old newspaper”．We don't care if we scrawl and waste it, thinking that it will come endlessly—the “old newspaper” is inexhaustible. In such a mood we may each day pass by opportunities but fail to catch any of them.
Life is not a military exercise but an actual war in which real weapons are used. In everyday life there's no chance for us to draft. That's because what we call “draft” actually is the answer sheet we write that cannot be changed.
Every day of our life is something new. Let us take every day as a sheet of the best paper.
小题1:The calligrapher in the story told the student to write on the best paper because he thought ________.
A．the student would practice more carefully on the best paper
B．it was comfortable to write on the best paper
C．the student had enough money to buy the best paper
D．the student could write more on the best paper小题2:The student didn't make much progress at first because ________.
A．he didn't follow his teacher's advice
B．he was too poor to buy better paper to write on
C．he regarded his writing on old newspaper just as a draft
D．he was not used to the calligrapher's teaching manner小题3:We learn from the passage that ________.
A．the student finally gave up
B．the student made rapid progress by practicing more carefully
C．the calligrapher was strict with his students
D．old newspaper is not useful小题4:Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A．What teachers say is always true.
B．Success calls for attentiveness.
C．Handwriting is easy to practice.
D．New things are always better than old ones.小题5:The writer wants to tell us that ________.
A．there are some good ways to practice handwriting
B．life is like old newspaper
C．we should learn from the student in the story
D．life will not give us a chance to draw a draft
