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【阅读理解】Reading: The Potter's Lesson
Mira ran a small pottery studio in a town where clay was still packed by hand.
She was intelligent, creative, and known for her prowess at the wheel.
Her classes began at dawn.
She would commence each session with a short talk on form.
Students sat in a circle, surrounded by wet earth and half-finished bowls.
One morning a stranger arrived.
He was tall and quiet.
His clothes hinted at wealth, yet his manner had no trace of the perquisite air of a collector.
He said he had come to learn.
Mira watched him knead the clay.
His hands were steady.
There was an incongruity, though: for a beginner, he showed no fear of failure.
He worked with an emphasis on patience, not speed.
It terrified the other students.
They were susceptible to doubt.
He was not.
Mira tried to circumscribe the lesson.
She set a task: make a cup that could hold water.
The stranger's first attempt collapsed.
He smiled.
"Failure is not obscene," he said.
"It is data."
Mira felt a clot of anger, then let it go.
She knew that violence against clay never worked.
You had to apply gentle pressure.
You had to listen.
The wheel's reign over the room was absolute.
Similarly, the ecliptic path of the sun ruled the drying racks.
Nothing could precede the slow work of drying.
An extrusion of wet clay, forced too fast, would crack.
By the third week, the stranger's pots were better than hers.
This caused a quiet disillusionment in Mira.
She had built her identity on being the best.
Now she saw her own limits.
The stranger, it turned out, was a famous designer.
He had come to study her technique.
He wanted to unravel the secret of her glaze.
He said he admired her humanity, her lack of conformity.
"You are not ubiquitous," he said.
"That is your strength."
The words were a gift and a wound.
Mira decided to change her class.
She dropped the old rules.
Instead of one method, she taught diverse approaches.
She asked students to trust their own personality.
She reinforced the idea that creativity is not a property to own.
It is a practice.
She used elicitation rather than instruction.
She asked questions.
She let silence do its work.
The results were effective.
Her students became more inventive.
They began to surround each other with support, not rivalry.
Mira realized that her pivotal moment had come not from success but from being humbled.
She had been innocent about her own ego.
Now she saw it clearly.
The studio filled with new energy.
And the stranger, before he left, gave her a small bowl.
It was imperfect.
It was enough.
Questions
1. What task did Mira set for the stranger on his first day?
A. To make a bowl that could hold water. B. To make a plate that could hold water. C. To make a cup that could hold water. D. To make a vase that could hold water.
2. What does the word "prowess" in the first paragraph mean?
A. Skill or expertise. B. Fear or anxiety. C. Weakness or inability. D. Patience or calmness.
3. Why did the stranger's presence terrify the other students?
A. Because he was rich and famous. B. Because he worked quickly and efficiently. C. Because he criticized their work. D. Because he showed no fear of failure.
4. What can be inferred about Mira's change in teaching?
A. She adopted a more flexible and supportive approach. B. She became more strict and rule-oriented. C. She encouraged students to compete with each other. D. She focused on teaching only one method.
5. What is the main idea of the passage?
A. How to make a perfect bowl on the pottery wheel. B. The importance of patience in the art of pottery. C. A famous designer learns pottery from a small-town artist. D. A pottery teacher learns humility and changes her teaching.