56.Which of the following sports did Tanni like before thirteen?

A.Basketball.　　　　　 B.Swimming.　　　　　　　 C.Tennis.　　　　　　　 D.Horse riding.

44. Why is Adrian’s life described as an “Amazing Race”?

A. He did very well in his study.

B. He succeeded in entering a regular school.

C. He reached his goals in spite of his disability.

D. He took part in the World Yacht Race 05/06.

答案　 41.B　 42.A　 43.D　 44.C

Passage 11

(08·福建A篇)

After the Summer Olympics are over,when all the athletes and viewers have gone home and the television audience has switched off,another group of athletes and fans will arrive at the host city,and another competition will begin.These are the Paralympics,the games for athletes with a disability.But in Beijing in 2008,for the first time,one of the greatest paralympians will not be taking part.

She is a British athlete by the name of Tanni Grey-Thompson.Born with spina bifida(脊椎裂)which left her paralysed from the waist down,Tanni used a wheelchair from the age of 7.At first,she was not keen on sport,apart from horse riding,which gave her a sense of freedom.But in her teens,she started taking sports more seriously.She tried swimming,basketball and tennis.Eventually she found athletics, and never looked back.

Indeed,Tanni’s athletic career took off.In 1984,when she was 15,she pulled off a surprise victory in the 100 metres at the Junior National Wheelchair Games.

In 1988,Tanni went to her first Paralympic Games in Seoul.She won bronze in the 400 metres.Even greater success followed at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics.Tanni won gold in the 100,200,400 and 800 metres relay,setting two world records in the process.In the same year she achieved the first of her six London Wheelchair Marathon victories.

Tanni’s enduring success has been part motivation(动机)，part preparation.“The training I do that enables me to be a good sprinter(短跑运动员),enables me to be good at a marathon too.I train 50 weeks of the year and that keeps me prepared for whatever distance I went to race...I am still competing at a very high level,but as I get older things get harder and I want to retire before I fall apart.”

Indeed Tanni retired finally after the Visa Paralympic World Cup in 2007.Her wish is to coach young athletes for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

In spite of ups and downs,she never takes her fate lying down.In her splendid life,she has won an amazing eleven gold medals,four silvers and one bronze in a series of Paralympics-a top level athletic career covering two decades.She has won the London Wheelchair Marathon six times,more than any other competitor,and she has set over thirty world records.

What advice does she have for young athletes?“Work hard at your studies,and then train,train and train again.”

43. How did Adrian finally succeed in his study?

A. He did a lot of outdoor activities.

B. He was pushed hard to study every day.

C. He attended private classes after school.

D. He worked very hard both in and after class.

42. Adrian’s parents decided to send him to a regular school because 　　　　　.

A. they wanted him to live a normal life

B. they wanted to prove the headmaster wrong

C. he wouldn’t mix with other disabled children

D. he wasn’t taken good care of in the special school

41. How did Adrian communicate with other children in the special school?

A. By speaking.　　　　　　 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 B. By using sign language.

C. By reading lips.　　　　　 　　　　　　　　　　　　　 D. By making loud noises.

39. What do we learn about The House on Mango Street?

　 A. It is quite popular among students.

　 B. It is the only book ever written by Cisneros.

　 C. It wasn’t a success as it was written in Spanish.

　 D. It won an award when Cisneros was twenty-nine.

答案　 36.B　 37.D　 38.C　 39.A

Passage 10

(08·浙江A篇)

Adrian’s “Amazing Race” started early when his parents realized that he, as a baby, couldn’t hear a thing, not even loud noises. In a special school for the hearing-impaired (听觉受损的)，he learned sign language and got to mix with other disabled children. However, the sight of all the disabled children communicating with one another upset his mother. She wanted him to lead a normal life. So after speaking to an advisor, she sent him to private classes where he learned to read lips and pronounce words.

　　 Later on, Adrian’s parents decided to send him to a regular school. But the headmaster tried to prevent them from doing so, saying regular schools couldn’t take care of a special needs student. His parents were determined to take the risk and pushed him hard to go through his work every day because they wanted to prove that, given the opportunity, he could do anything. Adrian made the grade and got accepted. It was a big challenge. The pace(节奏)was faster so he had to sit at the front of the class and really pay attention to the teacher, which wasn’t always easy. But he stuck to it and did a lot of extra work after school.

　 　The efforts made by Adrian and his parents paid off. Adrian graduated with good grades and got into a top high school. He also achieved a lot in life outside school. He developed a love for the outdoors and went to Nepal to climb mountains. He even entered the World Yacht Race 05/06-being the first hearing-impaired Asian to do so.

　　 But none of these achievements would have been possible without one of the most important lessons from his mother.“If you believe in yourself and work hard, you can achieve great results,”she often said.

38. According to Cisneros, what played the decisive role in her success?

　 　A. Her early years in college.　　　　　　　　 　 B. Her training in the Workshop.

　 C. Her feeling of being different.　　　　　 　 D. Her childhood experience.

37. The graduate program gave Cisneros a chance to _____.

　 A. work for a school magazine　　　　　　　　　　 　 B. run away from her family

　 C. make a lot of friends　　　　　　　　　　　　 　 D. develop her writing style

36. Which of the following is TRUE about Cisneros in her childhood?

A. She had seven brothers.　　　　　　　　　　 　 B. She felt herself a nobody.

　 C. She was too shy to go to school.　　　　 　 D. She did not have any good teachers.

67．What is the author’s attitude towards Nigel’s actions?

A．He is mildly critical.　　　　 　　　　　 B．He is strongly critical.

C．He is in favor of them.　　　　 　　　　　 D．His attitude is not clear.

答案　 64.D　 65.C　 66.D　 67.A

Passage 9

(08·天津A篇)

Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954 to a Mexican American family. As the only girl in a family of seven children, she often felt like she had “seven fathers,” because her six brothers, as well as her father, tried to control her. Feeling shy and unimportant, she retreated(躲避) into books. Despite her love of reading, she did not do well in elementary school because she was too shy to participate.

In high school, with the encouragement of one particular teacher, Cisneros improved her grades and worked for the school literary magazine. Her father encouraged her to go to college because he thought it would be a good way for her to find a husband. Cisneros did attend college, but instead of searching for a husband, she found a teacher who helped her join the famous graduate writing program at the University of Iowa. At the university’s Writers’ Workshop, however, she felt lonely-a Mexican American from a poor neighborhood among students from wealthy families. The feeling of being so different helped Cisneros find her “creative voice.”

“It was not until this moment when I considered myself truly different that my writing acquired a voice. I knew I was a Mexican woman, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with why I felt so much imbalance in my life, but it had everything to do with it! That’s when I decided I would write about something my classmates couldn’t write about.”

Cisneros published her first work, The House on Mango Street, when she was twenty-nine. The book tells about a young Mexican American girl growing up in a Spanish-speaking area in Chicago, much like the neighborhoods in which Cisneros lived as a child. The book won an award in 1985 and has been used in classes from high school through graduate school level. Since then, Cisneros has published several books of poetry, a children’s book, and a short-story collection.