Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A.opportunity     B. set        C. devoted       D. widely       E. fortune      F. gained   G. lack     H. benefit       I. rapidly       J. put     K. impressed

One of the greatest stories of rags to riches success is that of Andrew Carnegie, who started life in poverty but became the richest man in the world.

Carnegie was born in Scotland in 1837, the son of a weaver. In 1848, the family moved to the United States and at 13 Carnegie began work in a cotton mill, earning $1.5 per week. About three years later, he found a better job as a telegraph messenger boy. At work, his superiors (上级) were 【小题1】 by his abilities and willingness to work hard. In 1853, he 【小题2】 an office job at the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. This was his first big break. He continued to impress and rose 【小题3】 through the company, gaining more and more responsibility. At the same time, Carnegie loved reading very much and made use of every 【小题4】 to visit the library. He read 【小题5】 on all subjects, particularly literature.

Carnegie now began to save a little money and, with the help of his employer, began to make some successful investments. He invested in the iron industry and eventually 【小题6】 up in business himself, owning several iron and steel plants. This was where he made his 【小题7】. By the 1890s, the Carnegie Steel Company was the biggest and most profitable business in the world.

Carnegie had always believed that the pursuit of wealth was never an end in itself. In his view, successful, wealthy people should re-distribute their wealth for the 【小题8】 of everyone in society. True to his word, in 1901, at the age of 66, he retired from business and 【小题9】 the rest of his life to charity work.

Carnegie’s   【小题10】 of formal education and his poor family background clearly didn’t put barriers in the way of success. His rapid rise from poverty to wealth was due to his willingness to work hard, his intelligence and good business sense, and his talent for making things happen. He died in 1919 at the age of 83.