Chris Gardner’s unlikely road to riches started in the parking lot of San Francisco General Hospital in 1982. Then age 29 and th

admin2011-02-11  31

问题   Chris Gardner’s unlikely road to riches started in the parking lot of San Francisco General Hospital in 1982. Then age 29 and the father of year-and-a-half-old Christopher, he was barely making ends meet as a medical equipment salesman. He was about to get into his car when he saw a red Ferrari searching for a parking space. Impulsively, he waved the driver over and said, “I’ll give you my spot, but I want to ask you two questions: What do you do, and how do you do it?"
  The Ferrari’s owner said he was a stockbroker. Gardner asked what the job paid. At the time, the top salespeople where Gardner worked were making $ 80, 000 a year. "This broker was making $ 80, 000 a month, "Gardner recalls.
  The two men hit it off. Over occasional lunches, the broker explained how the business worked and how to break into it. He even gave Gardner a list of referrals. Gardner began knocking on doors--but had them slammed in his face. "At the time, brokerage firms were starting to require MBA degrees, "he explains.
"I didn’t even go to college. It wasn’t racism. It was place-ism, I did not have a college degree. I did not come from a politically connected family. I had no money. So Who was going to do business with me?"
  After ten months of pursuing fruitless leads, Gardner found someone willing to give him a shot. He quit his job and showed up for his appointment, only to discover his contact had been fired. No one knew who he was or why he was there.
  It was back to the beginning, but without steady employment. "I was doing everything I could that was legal to take care of my family-- cutting grass, cleaning basements, hauling rubbish. I learned roofing. I did house painting. And I continued to pursue a career on Wall Street."
  But life remained precarious. After an argument Gardner had with his girlfriend, someone called the police. A routine check of his license plate number turned up a backlog of unpaid parking tickets. And that led to ten days in jail.
  To make matters worse, while he was incarcerated, his girlfriend took their son and moved out. "I was devastated. I grew up without a father, and I had promised myself that I would never leave my son in a situation where he wouldn’t know his father. Those were the most terrible days of my life. I was there with murderers and rapists, and all I could think about was: Where is my child? Will I ever see him again?"
  Before landing in jail, Gardner had lined up an interview at Dean Witter, the brokerage firm. Unfortunately, the interview was scheduled for the day before he was to be released. "I begged the guard to let me make one phone call to reschedule."
  Once out of jail, Gardner went to the interview wearing all he had--the Windbreaker and bell-bottom jeans he had been arrested in. The interviewer glanced up and said, "Deliveries in the rear."
  Gardner decided to take a desperate chance. "I could not think of a lie bizarre enough, so I told the truth. I said, I just got out of prison on a parking ticket charge, my ex left me, and I don’t know where my child is. But I am here because I believe I am supposed to be in this business. "The interviewer had been through a couple of divorces and could sympathize. Gardner won a place in the training program. Now he had to do well enough to be offered a job.
  Gardner took to the trade and, within a few years, fulfilled his dream of working on Wall Street. In 1987, he opened his own brokerage firm, Gardner Rich & Co. , in Chicago. And he bought his own Ferrari.
  Gardner doesn’t see his story as a rags-to-riches fairy tale. Rather, he says, "mine is a story of how to empower yourself and beat the odds stacked against you. My life could have been easily derailed by domestic violence and homelessness, but I made a choice to not let those things sink me. You can break the destructive cycles that ensnare you. Be smart, have a plan and hold on to the people you love."  
Which of the following is NOT true about Gardner obtaining his job when released from the jail?

选项 A、He couldn’t go to the interview at the originally set time.
B、Initially, the interviewer didn’t perceive he was a job applicant.
C、He wasn’t given the job immediately after the interview.
D、He obtained the job because of his professional knowledge in brokerage.

答案D

解析 细节题。文章第八段指出,加德纳由于屡次未缴停车费而被判十天监禁。而他在入狱前和一个叫迪恩的经纪公司安排的面试时间恰在他获释前一天,故而不能按照最初安排好的时间参加面试。加德纳当时求着守卫,打了电话重新安排面试时间(“I begged the guard to let me make one phone call to reschedule.”) [A]与事实相符,故排除。由于他参加面试时所能穿的只有入狱前穿的风衣和喇嘛裤,因此面试官误以为他是送快递人员,[B]符合事实,故排除。由于加德纳在面试中真实坦诚的表现获得了面试官的理解,因此面试后他获得了培训生的职位。但要获得正式工作岗位,他要做得非常出色才行。[C]与事实相符,故排除。由此可知,加德纳获得此机会并不是因为掌握经纪人行业的专业知识,[D]与事实不符,故为答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/TAeO777K
0

最新回复(0)