Fall found me settled at the old Boelling Hotel in Astoria, with my nephew, Frank Hobson, and my little son George. Our board was paid, I
taking care of our small room, and our clothes, with the privilege of doing our washing and ironing on Saturdays. And now I encountered one of my
sharpest trials, for, on entering school, and being examined in mental arithmetic, I was placed in the primary class!
Mr. Deardorff, the principal
, kindly offered to assist me in that study after school, and, later, permitted me to enter both classes. Words can
never express my humiliation at having to recite with children of from elght to fourteen years of age. This, however, was of brief duration, for in a
few weeks, I had advanced to the next class above, and was soon allowed to enter the third (and highest) class in mental arithmetic.
At the end of the term of nine months, I had passed into most of the advanced classes; not that I was an apt scholar, for knowledge has
always been acquired by the hardest labor, but by sheer determination, industry and perseverance. At 4 a.m.my lamp was always burning, and I
was poring over my books, never allowing myself more than eight hours of sleep.
Nothing was permitted to come between me and this, the greatest opportunity of my life.
• From Dr. Owens-Adair: Some of Her Life Experiences. Published by Mann & Beach, Printers, Portland,
What was Bethenia's main problem in this passage?
O 1. She did not have enough money to live on.
O 2. She had nobody to take care of George while she was in school.
O 3. She had to do arithmetic with the primary students.
04. She could not seem to master mental arithmetic.
