A group of swans flew down to a beach where a crow(乌鸦) was jumping around. The crow watched them with disdain(鄙视).
“You have no flying skills at all!” he said to the swans. “All you can do is to move your wings. Can you turn over in the air? No, you can’t. Let’s have a flying competition. I’ll show you what real flying is!”
One of the swans, strong and young, took up the challenge. The crow flew up and began to show his skills. He showed flying tricks, and then came down and looked proudly at the swan.
Now it was the swan’s turn. He flew up, and began flying over the sea. The crow flew after him, making all kinds of comments (评价) about his flying. They flew on and on till they couldn’t see the land and there was nothing but water on all sides. The crow was making fewer and fewer comments. He was now so exhausted that he found it hard to stay in the air, and had to try to keep himself from falling into the water.
The swan pretended (假装) not to notice, and said, “Why do you keep touching the water, brother? Is that another trick?”
“No,” said the crow. He knew he had lost the competition. “I’m in trouble because I am proud! If you don’t help me, I’ll lose my life…”
The swan took pity on him, and took him on his shoulders and flew back to the beach.
What does the underlined word “exhausted” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A．Tired.

B．Excited.

C．Scared.

D．Amazed.

What can we infer (推断) from the passage?

A．Flying skills were useless.

B．The crow didn’t have a gift for flying.

C．The swan was better at long-distance flying than the crow.

D．The swan saved the crow because they were good friends.

What does the story tell us?

A．No pains, no gains.

B．Practice makes perfect.

C．Being proud makes you fail.

D．The early bird catches the worm.