Thirteen, for me, was a challenging year．My parents divorced and I moved to a new town with my father, far from my old family and friends．I was terribly lonely and would cry myself to sleep each night．To ease my sadness, my father purchased an old horse for me at a local auction．（拍卖） I named him Cowboy．

       Cowboy was without a doubt the ugliest horse in the world．But I didn’t care．I loved him beyond all reason．I joined a riding club and suffered rude comments and mean snickers about Cowboy’s looks．I never let on about how I felt, but deep inside, my heart was broken．The other members rode beautiful, registered horses．

       When Cowboy and I entered the events where the horse is judged on appearance, we were quickly shown the gate．No amount of preparation and love would turn Cowboy into a beauty．My only chance to compete would be in the speed events．I chose the jumping race．?

       One girl named Becky rode a big brown horse in the race events．She always won the blue ribbons． Needless to say, she didn’t feel threatened when I competed against her at the next show．She didn’t need to．I came in next to last．

       The stinging memory of Becky’s smirks（得意的笑） made me determined to beat her．For the whole next month I woke up early every day and rode Cowboy five miles to the arena （赛马场）．We practiced running and jumping for hours in the hot sun and then I would walk Cowboy home totally exhausted．All of our hard work didn’t make me feel confident by the time the show came．I sat at the gate and sweated it out while I watched Becky and her horse charge through the course and finish in first place．

       My turn finally came．I put on my hat, rubbed Cowboy’s neck and entered the arena．At the signal, we dashed toward the first fence, jumped it without trouble and raced on to the next one．Cowboy then flew over the second, third and fourth fences like a bird and I turned him toward the finish line．As we crossed the line the crowd was shocked into silence．Cowboy and I had beaten Becky and her fancy horse by two seconds!

       I gained much more than a blue ribbon that day．At thirteen, I realized that no matter what the odds, I’d always come out a winner if I wanted something badly enough to work for it．

1．The underlined expression "shown the gate" （paragraph 3） most probably means ______．

       A．told how to enter the arena

       B．shown how to make the horse beautiful

       C．removed from the competition early

       D．told to enter the timed-speed events

2．When the final race finished, nobody cheered because        ．

       A．the audience didn’t like Cowboy            B．people envied the writer

       C．the win was unexpected?              D．the writer bad run out of time

3．Why was the writer not confident of victory?

       A．He was an inexperienced rider．

       B．He had not practiced enough．

       C．He believed he was unpopular with the crowd．

       D．He thought his horse wasn’t as good as the others．

4．What did the writer learn from his experience?

       A．Life can sometimes be unfair．

       B．Anything is possible if one tries hard enough．

       C．A positive attitude will bring success．

       D．One should not make judgments based on appearance．

After the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill aimed at retaliatory(报复的) action against China for its “significantly undervalued” currency, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urged the IMF to pressure China to adopt “more flexible, more market-directed exchange-rate management”. This is a coded message to China: You’re keeping on purpose your currency cheap, and the U.S. economy is paying the price. So cut it out --- or else. The normally dull IMF meeting became the latest battleground for the U.S. to be against a fast developing China.
Our new conventional wisdom is that China’s policy leads to make trade deficits (逆差) greater and the loss of American jobs. Dozens of candidates have run ads attacking a competitor for allowing China to take advantage of us. In the election-year view, China grew 10% annually for the past decade while maintaining low inflation(通涨) only by taking advantage of its artificially low currency. The idea that the U.S. is not responsible for its own economy is a black-is-white view. It argues that China and its currency are causing the lion’s share of harm.
This is an argument born of fear. It covers a fact that the economies of China and the U.S. have become beneficial to each other. Those trillions in reserves that China accumulates: Where do they go? Back to the U.S. in the form of lending money to the federal government. Those made-in-China goods that account for the trade deficit: Whom do they benefit? China, yes, but also American consumers and companies. Without China, American companies could not have maintained their profitability in recent years. Take two brand names, Caterpillar and Nike. Both have their products made in China, but both also view China as a fast-growing market for their products.
George Soros warned recently that a currency war could put the world into disorder more damaging than anything caused by the financial crisis of the 1930s. He’s right. Whether we like it or not, we live in a global system. The zero-sum attitude toward China and its currency is a relic, the remaining of an earlier time when nations defined economic life.
China is far from perfect and seeks its own advantage, but holding it accountable for our domestic problems is beyond outdated. It reflects a dangerous refusal to deal with the world as it is. Retaliating against China over currency will not regain high-end jobs in the U.S., which needs more our own demand. It will not renew construction or retool the American labor force. It will not rebuild rotting bridges or create a next-generation energy network.
【小题1】Which of the following argument can be supported by the writer?