It is customary for adults to forget how hard and dull and long school is. The learning

by memory of all the basic things one must know is a most incredible and unending effort. School is not easy and it is not for the most part very much fun, but then, if you are very lucky, you may find a real teacher. Three teachers in a lifetime are the very best of my luck. My first was a science and math teacher in high school, my second, a professor of creative writing at Stanford, and my third was my friend and partner, ED Rickets.

I have to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that three are as few as there are any other great artists. It might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.

My three teachers had these things in common: They all loved what they were doing; they did not tell, but stimulated a burning desire to know. Under their influence, the horizons sprang wide and fear went away and the unknown became knowable.

I shall speak only of my first teacher because in addition to the other things, she brought discovery. She aroused us to shouting, book-waving discussions. She had the noisiest class in school and she did not even seem to know it. We could never stick to the subject. Our speculation (思绪) ranged the world. She breathed curiosity into us so that we brought in facts or truths shielded in our hands like captured fireflies (萤火虫).

She was fired, and perhaps rightly so, for failing to teach fundamentals. Such things must be learned. But she left a passion in us for the pure knowable world and she inflamed me with a curiosity which has never left. I have had many teachers who told me soon-forgotten facts but only three who created in me a new attitude a new hunger. What deathless power lies in the hands of such a person？

21. In the writer’s opinion, school life is usually .

A. exciting B. interesting C. tiresome D. challenging

22. We can infer from Paragraph 2 that .

A. it is easy to find great artists as well as great teachers.

B. there are few great teachers but many great artists.

C. the greatest artists are not easy to find; nor are the greatest teachers.

D. being a great teacher is a great art to learn because teachers spread knowledge.

23. In the writer’s opinion, a good teacher should .

A. teach students the fundamental things

B. stick to one subject and be strict with students

C. teach students the knowledge ranging the world

D. arouse students’ curiosity and desire for the world

24. The writer’s first teacher was dismissed mainly because .

A. her class was the noisiest in school

B. she did not teach basic knowledge in class

C. she let students shout and wave books in class

D. she did not know how to teach basic knowledge effectively

25. What is the best title of this article？

A. The Teachers in My Life B. How to Become a Teacher

C. What to Teach at School D. What Makes a Good Teacher