I climbed the ladder, heard my dive announced, and began the moves that would push me into
the air. Pushing off the diving board with my legs, I lifted my arms and shoulders back, and knew
immediately I would be close to the board and might hit my hands. I tried to correct myself as I
turned, spreading my hands wide apart. Then I heard a strange sound and my body lost control.
Moments later I realized I had hit my head on the board.
       At the beginning, I felt embarrassed. I wanted to hide, to get out of the pool without anyone
seeing me. Next I felt intense fear. Had I cut my head? Was I bleeding? Was there blood in the pool?
Swimming to the side, I noticed many shocked faces. People were worried about my head; I was
worried about something far more threatening. An official examined my head. In a hurry, I pushed
him away, and everyone else who approached me. "Don't touch me!" I felt like screaming. "Get away
from me!"
       These were the trials (选拔赛) for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea. Until this dive, I had been
ahead. But now, something else was more significant than winning. I might have endangered other
divers' lives if I had spilled blood in the pool. For what I knew--- that few others knew - was that I
was HIV-positive.
       According to my mother, my natural parents were Samoan (萨摩亚人) and only teenagers when
I was born, so they gave me up for adoption. When I was only eighteen months old, I started gym
classes. At ten, I explored doing gym exercises off the diving board at the pool.
       Because of my dark skin, kids at school called me names. My diving made me feel good about
myself when my peers made me feel stupid. At sixteen, I knew I had a shot at the 1976 Olympics.
       Everyone was alarmed when I hit my head on the board in Seoul. Regardless, I made it to the
finals. During my last dive in the finals, I enjoyed for the last time the quietness underwater and then
swam to the side of the pool. The crowd cheered, and I knew I'd won-two gold medals. AIDS
forced me to stop diving; I had to give up diving professionally after the Olympics.

1. Immediately before he hit his head on the board, the writer ______.

A. climbed the ladder            
B. started the moves that would push him into the air
C. knew he was too close to the board      
D. corrected his actions when he turned

2. The writer pushed away everyone who came near to him because ______.

A. he hated them
B. he was HIV- positive and feared that others would be infected if they touched his bleeding head 
C. he felt embarrassed and wanted to hide without anyone seeing him
D. he felt like screaming

3. The writer's natural parents put him up for adoption because ______.

A. they were too young to raise him    
B. they were too poor to raise him
C. they didn't love him            
D. they were Samoan

4. According to the passage, the writer's diving gave him the sense of being ______.

A. stupid  
B. strong
C. successful
D. lonely

5. After he hit his head on the board at the trails, the writer ______.

A. practiced less                      
B. was scared and gave up diving forever
C. lost the chance to compete at the finals  
D. still got the chance to compete at the finals

      The story began on a downtown Brooklyn street corner. An elderly man had collapsed while
crossing the street, and an ambulance rushed him to Kings County Hospital. There, when he came
to now and again, the man repeatedly called for his son.
      From a worn letter located in his pocket, an emergency room nurse learned that his son was a
marine stationed in North Carolina. Apparently there were no other relatives.
      Someone at the hospital called the Red Cross office in Brooklyn, and a request for the boy to
rush to Brooklyn was sent to the Red Cross director of the North Carolina Marine Corps camp.
Because time was short--- the patient was dying--- the Red Cross man and an officer set out in an
army vehicle. They found the young man walking through some marshes (沼泽) in a military exercise.
He was rushed to the airport in time to catch the only plane that might enable him to reach his dying
father.
      It was dusk when the young marine walked into the entrance lobby of Kings County Hospital. A
nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside.
      "Your son is here," she said to the old man. She had to repeat the words several times before the
patient's eyes opened. The medicine he had been given for the pain from his heart attack made his eyes
weak and he could only see the shadow of the young man in Marine Corps uniform standing outside
the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand. The marine wrapped his strong fingers around the old man's
weak ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement. The nurse brought a chair, so the marine
could sit by the bed.
      Nights are long in hospitals, but all through the night the young marine sat there in the dimly lit ward
(病房), holding the old man's hand and offering words of hope and strength. Occasionally, the nurse
urged the marine to rest for a while. He refused.
      Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the marine was there, but he paid no attention to her and
the night noises of the hospital --- the banging of an oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff exchanging
greetings, the cries and breathing of other patients. Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words.
The dying man said nothing, only held tightly to his son through most of the night.
      It was nearly dawn when the patient died. The marine placed the lifeless hand he had been holding
on the bed, and went to inform the nurse. While she did what she had to do, he smoked a cigarette, his
first since he got to the hospital.
      Finally, she returned to the nurse's station, where he was waiting. She started to offer words of
sympathy, but the marine interrupted her. "Who was that man?" he asked.
     "He was your father," she answered, shocked.
     "No, he wasn't," the marine replied. "I never saw him before in my life."
     "Why didn't you say something when I took you to him?" the nurse asked.
     "I knew immediately there'd been a mistake, but I also knew he needed his son, and his son just
wasn't here. When I realized he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, I guessed he really
needed me.  So I stayed. "
     With that, the marine turned and left the hospital. Two days later a message came in from the North
Carolina Marine Corps base informing the Brooklyn Red Cross that the real son was on his way to
Brooklyn for his father's funeral. It turned out there had been two marines with the same name and
similar numbers in the camp. Someone in the personnel office had pulled out the wrong record.
      But the wrong marine had become the right son at the right time. And he proved, in a very human
way, that there are people who care what happens to their fellow men.

1. An emergency room nurse found out that the old man's son was a marine ______.

A. by calling the Red Cross office in Brooklyn
B. because the old man repeatedly called for his son
C. from a letter found in the old man's pocket
D. form the old man's relatives

2. When the marine was found, ______.

A. he was setting out in an army vehicle with an officer.
B. he was participating in a military exercise
C. he and his fellow soldiers were stuck in marshes
D. he was already with the old man

3. In the hospital, ______.

A. the nurse stayed by the old man's bed most of the night
B. the dying man said a few words to the young man
C. the young marine offered him comfort in the last few hours of the old man's life
D. the night was cold and long, with people coming and going all night

4. The young marine told the nurse that he was not the real son of the old man ______.

A. after the old man died
B. when the nurse sensed something strange
C. before the marine came to the nurse's station
D. as soon as he arrived

5. The mistake was due to ______.

A. the fact that the two marines had the same name and looked alike
B. carelessness on the part of someone in the personnel office
C. the wrong records kept in the North Carolina Marine Corps base
D. the wrong information provided by the Brooklyn Red Cross

6. The sentence "the wrong marine had become the right son at the right time" in the last paragraph
means that ______.

A. the marine was wrong in fooling the dying man
B. the marine did not tell the truth at the hospital until some time later
C. the marine told the real story about him and the old man
D. the marine made the right decision about what he should do

      I have a friend Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch in San Ysidro. He has let me use his house
to put on fund-raising events to raise money for youth at risk programs.
      The last time I was there he introduced me by saying, "I want to tell you why I let Jack use my house.
It all goes back to a story about a young man who was the son of an itinerant(游荡的) horse trainer
who would go from stable to stable, race track to race track, farm to farm and ranch to ranch, training
horses. As a result, the boy's high school career was continually interrupted. When he was a senior, he
was asked to write a paper about what he wanted to be and do when he grew up. "
     "That night he wrote a seven-page paper describing his goal of owning a horse ranch someday. He
wrote about his dream in great detail and he even drew a diagram of a 200-acre ranch, showing the
location of all the buildings, the stables and the track. Then he drew a detailed floor plan for a 4,000-square-foot house that would sit on a 200-acre dream ranch. "
      "He put a great deal of his heart into the project and the next day he handed it in to the teacher. Two
days later he received his paper back. On the front was a large red F with a note that read, 'See me after
class.' " 
     "The boy with the dream went to see the teacher after class and asked, 'Why did I receive an F?'"
     "The teacher said, 'This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you. You have no money. You
come from an itinerant family. You have no resources. Owning a horse ranch requires a lot of money.
You have to buy the land. You have to pay for the original breeding stock and later you'll have to pay
large stud(马群)fees. There's no way you could ever do it.' Then the teacher added, 'If you rewrite this
paper with a more realistic goal, I will reconsider your grade.' "
      "The boy went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what he should do.
His father said, 'Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on this. However, I think it is a very
important decision for you.' "
      "Finally, after sitting with it for a week, the boy turned in the same paper, making no changes at all.
He stated, 'You can keep the F and I'll keep my dream.'"
      Monty then turned to the assembled group and said, "I tell you this story because you are sitting in
my 4,000-square-foot house in the middle of my 200-acre horse ranch. I still have that school paper
framed over the fireplace." He added, "The best part of the story is that two summers ago that same
schoolteacher brought 30 kids to camp out on my ranch for a week. When the teacher was leaving, he
said, 'Look, Monty, I can tell you this now. When I was your teacher, I was something of a dream
stealer. During those years I stole a lot of kids' dreams. Fortunately you had enough gumption not
to give up on yours.'"
      Don't let anyone steal your dreams. Follow your heart, no matter what.

1. What is the best title of the passage?

A. A dream-stealer            
B. An unforgettable experience
C. Fly with your belief        
D. Struggling of life

2. The teacher thought Monty's dream was unrealistic because ______.

A. He lived in a poor family.            
B. The boy didn't have enough ability to do that.
C. The dream was too far away from him.  
D. All of the above

3. What does the teacher mean by saying the underlined words in the last paragraph?

A. The teacher was too greedy to steal many things from the kids.
B. The teacher failed to help many kids to achieve their goals. 
C. The teacher always refused to praise kids.
D. The teacher treated the kids in an unfair way..

4. Why did Monty tell others his experience?

A. He wanted other people to know more about his life experience.
B. He wanted to tell others his house was a best place to put on the events to raise funds.
C. He hoped people could understand what was important to help young people to achieve their goals.
D. He thought his story was good enough to attract others.

5. Which of the following can best describe my friend?

A. stubborn and brave              
B. intelligent but rebellious
C. farsighted and determined        
D. rich and knowledgeable