Not so long ago, most people didn’t know who Shelly Ann Francis Pryce was going to become. She was just an average high school athlete. There was every indication that she was just another American teenager without much of a future. However, one person wants to change this. Stephen Francis observed then eighteen-year-old Shelly Ann as a track meet and was convinced that he had seen the beginning of true greatness. Her time were not exactly impressive, but even so, he seemed there was something trying to get out, something the other coaches had overlooked when they had assessed her and found her lacking. He decided to offer Shelly Ann a place in his very strict training seasons. Their cooperation quickly produced results, and a few year later at Jamaica’s Olympic games in early 2008, Shelly Ann, who at that time only ranked number 70 in the world, beat Jamaica’s unchallenged queen of the sprint(短跑).

"Where did she come from?" asked an astonished sprinting world, before concluding that she must be one of those one-hit wonders that spring up from time to time, only to disappear again without signs. But Shelly Ann was to prove that she was anything but a one-hit wonder. At the Beijing Olympic she swept away any doubts about her ability to perform consistently by becoming the first Jamaican woman ever to win the 100 meters Olympic gold. She did it again one year on at the World Championship in Briton, becoming world champion with a time of 10.73—the fourth record ever.

Shelly-Ann is a little woman with a big smile. She has a mental toughness that did not come about by chance. Her journey to becoming the fastest woman on earth has been anything but smooth and effortless. She grew up in one of Jamaica’s toughest inner-city communities known as Waterhouse, where she lived in a one-room apartment, sleeping four in a bed with her mother and two brothers. Waterhouse, one of the poorest communities in Jamaica, is a really violent and overpopulated place. Several of Shelly-Ann’s friends and family were caught up in the killings; one of her cousins was shot dead only a few streets away from where she lived. Sometimes her family didn’t have enough to eat. She ran at the school championships barefooted because she couldn’t afford shoes. Her mother Maxime, one of a family of fourteen, had been an athlete herself as a young girl but, like so many other girls in Waterhouse, had to stop after she had her first baby. Maxime’s early entry into the adult world with its responsibilities gave her the determination to ensure that her kids would not end up in Waterhouse’s roundabout of poverty. One of the first things Maxime used to do with Shelly-Ann was taking her to the track, and she was ready to sacrifice everything.

It didn’t take long for Shelly-Ann to realize that sports could be her way out of Waterhouse. On a summer evening in Beijing in 2008, all those long, hard hours of work and commitment finally bore fruit. The barefoot kid who just a few years previously had been living in poverty, surrounded by criminals and violence, had written a new chapter in the history of sports.

But Shelly-Ann’s victory was far greater than that. The night she won Olympic gold in Beijing, the routine murders in Waterhouse and the drug wars in the neighbouring streets stopped. The dark cloud above one of the world’s toughest criminal neighbourhoods simply disappeared for a few days. " I have so much fire burning for my country," Shelly said. She plans to start a foundation for homeless children and wants to build a community centre in Waterhouse. She hopes to inspire the Jamaicans to lay down their weapons. She intends to fight to make it a woman’s as well as a man’s world.

As Muhammad Ali puts it, "Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them. A desire, a dream, a vision." One of the things Shelly-Ann can be proud of is her understanding of this truth.

1. Why did Stephen Francis decide to coach Shelly-Ann?

A. He had a strong desire to free her family from trouble.

B. He sensed a great potential in her despite her weaknesses.

C. She had big problems maintaining her performance.

D. She suffered a lot of defeats at the previous track meets.

2. What did the sprinting world think of Shelly-Ann before the 2008 Olympic Games?

A. She would become a promising star.

B. She badly needed to set higher goals.

C. Her sprinting career would not last long.

D. Her talent for sprinting was known to all.

3.What made Maxime decide to train her daughter on the track?

A. Her success and lessons in her career.

B. Her interest in Shelly-Ann’s quick profit.

C. Her wish to get Shelly-Ann out of poverty.

D. Her early entrance into the sprinting world.

4.What can we infer from Shelly-Ann’s statement underlined in Paragraph 5?

A. She was highly rewarded for her efforts.

B. She was eager to do more for her country.

C. She became an athletic star in her country.

D. She was the envy of the whole community.

5. By mentioning Muhammad Ali’s words, the author intends to tell us that ________.

A. players should be highly inspired by coaches

B. great athletes need to concentrate on patience

C. hard work is necessary in one’s achievements

D. motivation allows great athletes to be on the top

6. What is the best title for the passage?

A. The Making of a Great Athlete

B. The Dream for Championship

C. The Key to High Performance

D. The Power of Full Responsibility

阅读理解。

A scientist working at her lab bench and a six-month-old baby playing with his food might seem to have little in common.After all,the scientist is engaged in serious research to uncover the very nature of the physical world,and the baby is,well, just playing…right?Perhaps,but some developmental psychologists(心理学家)have argued that this“play”is more like a scientific investigation than one might think.

Take a closer look at the baby playing at the table.Each time the bowl of rice is pushed over the table edge,itfalls to the ground—and, in the process, it brings out important evidence about how physical objects interact (相互作用); bowls of rice do not float in mid-air, but require support to remain stable. It is likely that babies are not born knowing this basic fact of the universe; nor are they ever clearly taught it. Instead, babies may form an understanding of object support through repeated experiments and then build on this knowledge to learn even more about how objects interact. Though their ranges and tools differ, the baby’s investigation and the scientist’s experiment appear to share the same aim(to learn about the natural world), overall approach (gathering direct evidence from the world), and logic (are my observations what I expected?).

Some psychologists suggest that young children learn about more than just the physical world in this way—that they investigate human psychology and the rules of language using similar means. For example, it may only be through repeated experiments, evidence gathering, and finally overturning a theory, that a baby will come to accept the idea that other people can have different views and desires from what he or she has, for example, unlike the child, Mommy actually doesn’t like Dove chocolate.

Viewing childhood development as a scientific investigation throws light on how children learn,but it also offers an inspiring look at science and scientists. Why do young children and scientists seem to be so much alike? Psychologists have suggested that science as an effort—the desire to explore, explain, and understand our world—is simply something that comes from our babyhood. Perhaps evolution (进化) provided human babies with curiosity and a natural drive to explain their worlds, and adult scientists simply make use of the same drive that served them as children. The same cognitive (认知的) systems that make young children feel good about figuring something out may have been adopted by adult scientists. As some psychologists put it,”It is not that children are little scientists but that scientists are big children.”

1.According to some developmental psychologists, .

A. a baby’s play is nothing more than a game.

B. scientific research into babies’ games is possible

C. the nature of babies’ play has been thoroughly investigated

D. a baby’s play is somehow similar to a scientist’s experiment

2.We learn from Paragraph 2 that .

A. scientists and babies seem to observe the world differently

B. scientists and babies often interact with each other

C. babies are born with the knowledge of object support

D. babies seem to collect evidence just as scientists do

3.Children may learn the rules of language by .

A. exploring the physical world B. investigating human psychology

C. repeating their own experiments D. observing their parents’ behaviors

4.What is themain idea of the last paragraph?

A. The world may be more clearly explained through children’s play.

B. Studying babies’ play may lead to a better understanding of science.

C. Children may have greater ability to figure out things than scientists.

D. One’s drive for scientific research may become stronger as he grows.

5.What is the author’s tone when he discusses the connection between scientists’ research and babies’ play?

A. Convincing. B. Confused.

C. Confident. D. Cautious.

An 80-year-old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45-year-old highly educated son.

Suddenly a crow(乌鸦)perched on the tree near their window.

The father asked his son, ''What is this? ''

The son replied, ''It is a crow. ''

After a few minutes, the father asked his son the 2nd time, ''What is this? ''

The son said, ''Father, I have just now told you 'It's a crow'. ''

After a little while, the old father again asked his son the 3rd time, ''What is this? ''

''It's a crow, a crow, a crow.'' said the son loudly.

A little after, the father again asked his son the 4th time, ''What is this? ''

This time the son shouted at his father, ''Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again? 'IT IS A CROW'. Are you not able to understand this? ''

A little later the father went to his room and came back with an old diary, which he had kept since his son was born. On opening a page, he asked his son to read that page. When the son read it, the following words were written in the diary:

''Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa, when a crow was sitting on the window. My son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied to him all 23 times that it was a crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question again and again for 23 times. I did not at all feel annoyed; I rather felt affection for my innocent child. ''

1. In what tone did the son say to his Father ''It's a crow, a crow, a crow. ''?

A. concerned B. anxious

C. impatient D. astonished

2.Why did the Father ask his son the same question again and again?

A. Because he couldn't understand what his son said.

B. Because he wanted to see how patient his son would be.

C. Because he wanted to make his son angry.

D. Because he was too old to remember anything.

3.How old was the old man when his son asked him 23 times ''What is this''?

A. 80 years old. B. 45 years old.

C. 35years old. D. 38 years old.

4.Where is the article most probably taken from?

A. Travel journal B. a collection of poetry

C. Newspaper D. a short story collection

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