Answer the questions at the end based on the text.

"Angie, I know you like to sing," her father, a worker, told Angela Brown, "but you must have something to fall back on ."

Brown took her father's advice. She got a degree in secretarial science before entering Oakwood College, in Huntsville, Alabama. However, her aim was to become a singer at religious meetings. So after graduation she headed for Indiana University to study with the famous soprano Virginia Zeani.

Once, when Brown was troubled by self-doubt, Zeani said to her, "If you want to be the next Aretha Franklin, you need no more lessons," Brown remembers her saying. "But if you want to be the best Verdian soprano this world has ever seen, you must work."

Work she did. Three times she competed in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions . Three times she failed to make the final round in New York. Then, in 1997 at age 33, the age limit for sopranos to audition, she gave it one more try. She signed up at the last minute and didn't even practice, thinking, "All they could do was to tell me no, and that didn't hurt my feelings anymore." She had the strength she needed to fall back on if she failed.

She won. But making it in New York was just the beginning. It took her three more years to become an understudy at the Met. But waiting in the wings was fine with her. Finally, her time came. When the featured singer fell ill, Brown earned the chance to sing the lead role in Aida. And The New York Times described her performance as a great success. Angela Brown, who had prepared for 20 years, was an "overnight" successful singer at age 40.

1. Who got a degree?
2. Had someone suggested she do so?
3. Who?
4. What had she liked to do?
5. What school did she attend?
6. Did she go to work after graduating?
7. Where did she go?
8. Who did she study with while there?
9. What was she known for?
10. Did Brown also want to be a soprano?
11. What kind?
12. How many times did she audition?
13. How many times was she rejected?
14. Did she try again?
15. Could she keep trying every year for as long as she wished to?
16. Why not?
17. And how old was she?
18. So this would be her last chance?
1. Angela Brown
2. yes
3. her father
4. sing
5. Oakwood College
6. no
7. Indiana University
8. Virginia Zeani.
9. she was a famous soprano
10. yes
11. Verdian
12. three
13. three
14. yes
15. no
16. the age limit for sopranos was 33
17. 33
18. yes