四、任务型阅读。

阅读下面短文，根据短文内容回答问题或翻译画线部分。

（2023—2024·常德市期中联考改编）Jane was not a confident girl before, because she was fat and others often laughed at her. As a result, Jane became very shy. She was scared to say hello to strangers. She was afraid to ask simple questions and speak loud in front of others. It seemed that she felt afraid of everything in her life. **She used to believe that she would be like this all her life.**

But one day, her friend Paul's words changed her mind. He encouraged Jane to change herself. He said, “If you can give it a try, you will have a chance to make a change. But if you never try, your life is only going to get worse.” Jane was deeply touched by what Paul said. She thought, “Why not have a try? After all, I had nothing to lose.”

The first thing Jane did was to lose weight. She had a strict diet and did exercise every day. After 6 months, she lost 40 pounds. This taught her that she could change herself.

A few months later, Jane heard about a speech competition at her university. She plucked up (鼓起) the courage to sign up for the competition. For the first time, she was able to share her story and speak loud in front of many people. In the end, she got a big prize!

After the competition, Jane made a list and started changing rapidly. She tried her best to finish the things on the list one by one. When working on them, she became more and more confident.

Jane is still making progress now. And she will never stop.

25. Why was Jane not confident before?

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26. What did Jane share in the speech competition?

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27. How did Jane become when she worked on changing herself?

________

28. What do you think of Jane's changes?

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29. 将短文中画线句子翻译成中文。

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