There was once a young man who liked puppets (木偶) so much that he became an apprentice (学徒) to a master puppet-maker. Sadly, the young man was not so clever, and his teacher and the other apprentices were always telling him he had no talent for making puppets, and that he would never amount to anything.
Even so, he enjoyed it so much that he worked day after day to improve. Despite his efforts, they would always find something wrong with his puppets, and the poor puppets ended up being thrown out of the workshop.
The young man wasn’t going to give up, so he decided that from then on he would spend all his time making just one kind of puppet. Whenever he found a fault in his puppet he would throw it away and start again. Years passed, and with each new attempt his puppet became a little bit better. By that time, his puppet was much better than anything that the other apprentices could make, but he kept making improvements. Living like that, the man wasn’t making any money, and many people laughed at how poor he was.
By the time he was an old man, his puppet was truly wonderful. Finally, after so many years of work, he finished work on his puppet, and said, “I can’t find anything wrong with it. This time it is perfect”. And for the first time in all those years, instead of throwing his puppet away, he put it up on the shelf, feeling truly satisfied and happy.
It is well-known that perfect puppet, Pinocchio, came to life after that, had a thousand adventures, and gave that old man — whose name was Geppetto — more joy than any other famous puppet-maker had ever got from any of their creations.
41. What does the underlined sentence in the first paragraph mean?
A. Geppetto would never be as clever as the others.
B. Geppetto was not paid for making puppets.
C. Geppetto would give up making puppets soon.
D. Geppetto would achieve nothing in making puppets.
42. What can we learn about Geppetto from the third paragraph?
A. He was laughed at by the others.
B. He could only make one kind of puppet.
C. He had collected all the puppets he made.
D. He made a lot of money by selling puppets.
43. When the puppet, Pinocchio, was made, ________.
① Geppetto was already an old man
② Geppetto was satisfied with it
③ Geppetto was much happier
④ Geppetto planned to throw it away
A. ①②③ B. ①②④ C. ①③④ D. ②③④
44. What is the main idea of this passage?
A. Many hands make light work.
B. No one can do two things at once.
C. A good beginning makes a good ending.
D. Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.