阅读理解

　　Christopher Columbus was a great sailor．He was born and grew up in Genoa, one of the oldest European seaports．As a youth he made several voyages in the Mediterranean, where the greatest seamen of ancient times were born．

　　At the age of twenty－four, by lucky chance, he was thrown into Lisbon, the center of European oceanic activities．There, while employed partly in making charts and partly on long voyages under the Portuguese flag, he thought over the great enterprise(事业)that few but a sailor would have planned, and none but a sailor could have completed．

　　His idea was to reach“The Indies”－Eastern Asia by sailing west．It took about ten years to get support for this plan, and he never did complete it because a vast continent stood in the way．America was discovered by Columbus purely by accident and was named for another man．We now honor Columbus for doing something that he never intended to do and never knew that he had done．

　　Yet we are right in so honoring him, for he had the persistence(坚韧)，the knowledge, and the courage to sail thousands of miles into an unknown ocean to make the most splendid and most far－reaching geographical discovery in recorded human history．

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完形填空

　　Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic and reached the American Continent in 1492．However, the name America has 　　1　　 to do with him．There was another 　　2　　 explorer who reached this 　　3　　 several years 　　4　　 Columbus．This man's name was Amerigo Vespucci, and he called these lands 　　5　　．

　　Amerigo Vespucci had many things 　　6　　 with Columbus．Like Columbus, Vespucci was an Italian 　　7　　 settled in Spain．　　8　　 Columbus, Vespucci 　　9　　 several trips to the New World, his first step being in 1499．In 1505, several letters thought to 　　10　　 by Vespucci 　　11　　．One of these letters 　　12　　 that“Vespucci discovered a 　　13　　 continent with 　　14　　 people but more animals than Europe, Asia and Africa．　　15　　 at that time, a 　　16　　 named Waldseemuller was writing a 　　17　　 book．He suggested that the continent be named 　　18　　 after Amerigo Vespucci．His idea was quickly 　　19　　 and so the name began to be 　　20　　．

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