Short and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. "Football, tennis Cricket — anything with a round ball, I was useless." he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the object of jokes in school gym classes in England’s rural Devonshire.
It was a mountain bike he received for his 15^th birthday that changed him. At first the teen went biking alone in a nearby forest. Then he began to cycle along with a runner friend. Gradually, Saunders set his mind building up his body, increasing his speed, strength and endurance. At age 18, he ran his first marathon.
The following year, he met John Ridgway, who became famous in the 1960s for rowing an open boat across the Atlantic Ocean. Saunders was hired as an instructor at Ridgway’s school of Adventure in Scotland, where he learned about the older man’s cold-water exploits (成就). Intrigued, Saunders read all he could about Arctic explorers and North Pole expeditions, then decided that this would be his future. Journeys to the Pole aren’t the usual holidays for British country boys, and many people dismissed his dream as fantasy. "John Ridgway was one of the few who didn’t say, ’You are completely crazy,’" Saunders says.
In 2001, after becoming a skilled skier, Saunders started his first long-distance expedition toward the North Pole. He suffered frostbite, had a closer encounter (遭遇) with a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit.
Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he’s skied more of the Arctic by himself than any other Briton. His old playmates would not believe the transformation.
This October, Saunders, 27, heads south to explore from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, an 1800-mile journey that has never been completed on skis.
【小题1】The turning point in Saunders’ life came when ________.

"Tom? Are you in bed yet?" called Mrs White. There was no answer. Mrs White put down her book and went to her 14-year-old son's room. Tom was sitting in front of a bright computer screen on which a colourful dragon jumped and shouted.

     "Oh, Tom! You're still playing on that computer. You must stop now. It's half past eleven. If you don't go to bed soon, you'll be very tired tomorrow," said Mrs White.

     "But I've nearly beaten the dragon," said Tom. Mrs White could see the excitement on her son's face. She sat down beside him.

     "You are always playing on that computer. You spend more time with this machine than with your family," she said with a smile. "What's special about it? Show me what it can do!"

     "I think this is a great computer, Mum!" he said happily. "The hardware (硬件) is good. There's so much memory and it has some wonderful software programs. This game, 'Dragon Player', is my favourite, but I sometimes borrow games from Daniel and other friends. I don't have to worry about any infected（感染） disks because I have a virus（病毒） detector (探测器) which can go over any disk and check it for viruses. Let me show you!" Tom began tapping. The screen changed in answer to his orders.

    "Oh, Tom," laughed Mrs White. "I'm sure it's a wonderful computer, but I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about."

1.When Mrs White was calling Tom, he was ______.

    A. playing computer games in' his bedroom      B. playing with a dragon in his bedroom

    C. playing "Dragon Player" in the study         D. lying in bed reading a book

2. Tom was excited because ______.

    A. the computer has a good memory            B. the hardware is good

    C. he had nearly won the game                 D. his mother came to see him

3. What do we know about Mrs White?

    A. She loves her son too much.

    B. She loves computer games too.

    C. She is very hard on his son.

    D. She is as wonderful as the computer game.