Years later, I was in college looking around for a new career, but with no success. Then I   9   Virginia DeView and my desire at 13 to be a journalist. And I called my parents. They didn’t   10  me. They just reminded me how competitive the field was and   11   all my life I had run away from competition. This was true. But journalism did something to me: it was in my blood. It gave me the freedom to go up to total strangers and ask what was   12  .

For the past 12 years, I’ve had the most satisfying reporting career,   13   stories from murders to airplane crashes and   14   choosing my strongest area. When I went to pick up my phone one day, an incredible wave of memories hit me and I realized that had it not been  for Virginia DeView, I would not be sitting at that desk.

I was   15   all the time: “How did you pick journalism?”

“Well, you see, there was this teacher …” I always start out. I just wish I could thank her.

1.  A. good              B. mad      C. careless         D. curious

2.  A. universities        B. families     C. professions      D. lives

3.  A. interview           B. please              C. admire          D. respect

4.  A. expressed           B. ordered          C. expected        D. meant

5.  A. hardly               B. nearly              C. naturally        D. eagerly

6.  A. drink                 B. newspapers    C. preparations      D. paper