I had applied for the nuclear submarine  program, and Admiral Rickover was interviewing me for the job. It was the first time I met Admiral Rickover, and we sat in a large room by ourselves for more than two hours, and he let me choose any subjects I wished to discuss. Very carefully, I chose those about which I knew most at the time - recent events, seamanship, music, literature, naval tactics , electronics, gunnery  - and he began to ask me a lot of questions that were more difficult. Every time after my answers, he soon showed that I knew rather little about the subjects I had chosen. He always looked right into my eyes, and he never smiled. I was _ with cold sweat. Finally, he asked me a question and I thought it was my turn to show myself off. He said, "How did you stand in your class at Georgia Tech before entering Annapolis as a first year student?" I had done very well, and I threw my chest with pride and answered, "Sir, I stood thirty-ninth in a class of 820!" I sat back to wait for the congratulations - which never came. Instead, the question: "Did you do your best?" I started to say, "Yes, sir," but I remembered who this was, and thought of several of my times at the Academy when I could have learned more about our allies , our enemies, weapons strategy  and so on, so I finally said, "No, Sir, I didn't always do my best." He looked at me for a long time, and then turned his chair around to end the interview. He asked one final question, which I have never been able to forget - or to answer. He said, "Why not?" I sat there for a while, shaken, and then slowly left the room. When the author said: "Sir, I stood thirty-ninth in a class of 820!'' He meant   _  .
he did better than most of his classmates at the Academy he had 820 classmates and he was Number thirty-nine he was proud that the class he was in was very large in the class only thirty-nine students stood in front of him