Question

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

Answer 1