活到老，學(xué)到老

The thought of undertaking a doctorate first came to Peter in 1997， when he retired from a satisfying business career at 57. Peter’d always enjoyed learning， so it made sense to do further study. By 2000， Peter’d worked up the courage to enroll in selected finance and economic subjects， completing five of the university subjects across the next few years. He had to do them as prerequisites to starting a PhD.

Being back at university in 2000 was different. Peter had never even heard of a computer when he did his MBA in 1977. Yet suddenly he was expected to program to complete his statistics degree. It was terrible but Peter made it.

All of his studying was cast aside， however， when his son Piers， a pilot， died of a brain disease in 2013 — Piers was just 39 and Peter was 73. Peter threw himself into setting up a charity in memory of Piers — a program that now supports the mentoring of 40 aviation students a year. Later that year， Peter enrolled in a PhD. Because Piers’ death had shown Peter that life is short， and he couldn’t bear to waste any more of it. So he picked up his study again though it was tough.

Though Peter had initially begun as a part-time student， he changed to full-time in 2020. Then came COVID-19. The following two years of his PhD work were undertaken in almost complete isolation. The PhD gave Peter a focus and something to do in those miserable lockdown years.

Finally， one Friday afternoon in mid-2022， an email arrived with the subject line： “Congratulations”. His thesis had been passed with minor amendments. His graduation day came a few months later， and what a mix of emotions Peter experienced！ People ask Peter if he’s finished now， but his answer is a definite no. Age is just a number， and Peter intends to use every last minute that he has.

（材料選自Metro網(wǎng)站，有刪改）

1. How old is Peter now？

A. 57 years. B. 76 years.

C. 80 years.    D. 84 years.

2. How would Peter initially feel when asked to program？

A. Bored. B. Excited.

C. Terrified. D. Delighted.

3. What did Peter do to memorize his son？

A. To write a book.

B. To cast down all his study.

C. To set up a charity.

D. To became an aviation student.

4. What can be inferred from the last paragraph？

A. Age is a number for him.

B. His essay has been published.

C. The email had some minor errors.

D. He will study for the rest of his life.

1. D。（剩余443字）