When 36-year-old Andy Duran decided to return to his favorite high school hobby-skateboarding— in January 2021，the only problem he expected to run into was his own ability to get back into the sport after the long break. However, the 340-pound skateboarder from Oakland, California, soon realized that was the least of his problems.
Duran’s problems began before he even stepped on a skateboard. “I couldn’t find any resources (资源) for fat skaters, what types of boards to try, or where to buy branded (名牌的) shirts in sizes 2XL or 3XL,” he says.
What Duran did find instead was an unfounded belief that fat people should not be skating. “I started to find people who were saying that if you’ re over 190 pounds you shouldn’t be on a skateboard, or that the board won’t support you,” he says.
Determined to do something to change that, Duran founded Chub Rollz— a skating and skateboarding community for overweight skaters. “If you feel like your size makes you feel uncomfortable about skating with others, you are welcome to skate with us,” Duran says.
Duran created a list of recommended (推荐的) products for fat skaters. He also held skating and skateboarding classes to teach beginners. He received a lot of messages from strangers expressing gratitude. “This means so much to me; I didn’t think I could skate,” said one. “A person at the skate shop laughed at me, but this club makes me feel like I can still do it,” wrote another.
Though encouraged, Duran believes a lot more needs to be done to change the idea that fat bodies can’t do and aren’t interested in the activity. He thinks that is simply not true. “I want to see more changes in communities. Maybe skate shops have more training for creating a more welcoming environment for all types of skaters or boards to be made in different sizes,” he explains.
1. What difficulty did Duran have when he decided to start skateboarding again?| A．He couldn’t afford a branded skateboard. |
| B．He couldn’t find proper products for him. |
| C．He realized the board couldn’t support him. |
| D．He found it hard for him to step on a skateboard. |
| A．He wrote them encouraging messages. |
| B．He found them excellent teachers. |
| C．He raised money for them. |
| D．He started a club for them. |
| A．Worries. | B．Thanks. | C．Pride. | D．Doubt. |
| A．More members will join Chub Rollz. |
| B．More support will be given to fat skaters. |
| C．Skate shops will provide more affordable boards. |
| D．There will be more communities like Chub Rollz. |
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【推荐1】The Kangaroo Kids is a precision jump rope team based in Maryland. Precision jump rope is a sport in which one or more people jump rope in precise routines set to music. It is also called synchronized jump rope, meaning people jump at the same time with each other often using more than one rope. Kangaroo Kids has been performing for 45 years. Members often jump together at the same time, which can be very challenging.
The team started as a small fitness club at Atholton Elementary School in Columbia, Maryland, in 1978. Today, It has over 200 athletes from Howard County and is run as nonprofit Organization. That means they are not focused on making a lot of money.
Nicole Meek, in Ellicott City, Maryland, served in several roles within the program for 15 years. She is now the director of coaching and operations for Kangaroo Kids. She’s also the mom of three of its members. She said it means a lot for the organization to be celebrating its 45th year. Three of Meek’s four children are competitive jump ropers. They are Devin, Jenna and Mason. Devin began training when he was 6 years old. He advanced to intermediate classes. He later landed spots on the competition, performing and travel teams for Kangaroo Kids. Her husband, Brian, serves as president of the board of directors.
Influenced by their family’s passion and encouragement, fifteen-year-old Eliza Kim, one of Devin’s friend, is a member of the competition and travel teams. She has been involved in the program for seven years, saying she has made friends across the county. Jasmine Wright, who is also 15, has been engaged in the program for about seven years, also telling that being a part of the team has brought camaraderie to him.
Nicole Meek tells BBC, “I hope to spread the sport of jump rope and to raise awareness for it and show that it’s more than just a playground activity that people think it is”, adding that the biggest challenge she faces is convincing the public that jump rope is not just for children, and that she hopes to use her position to help it become more mainstream in the future.
1. What can we know about the Kangaroo Kids from the text?| A．Focusing on making much money. |
| B．Having 200 athletes from all over the country. |
| C．Using over one rope to jump set to music at the same time. |
| D．Jumping ropes in precise routines set to music individually. |
| A．Brian Meek’s coaching style. | B．Nicole Meek’s volunteer work. |
| C．The work of the board of directors. | D．The passion of the Meeks for the sport. |
| A．Security. | B．Friendship. | C．Achievement. | D．Pride. |
| A．The lack of money and support. | B．Fewer children interested in the sport. |
| C．Having no time to train. | D．Persuading more people to take part in the sport. |
【推荐2】Creative ways to change your workouts
Most people know working out is good for your health, both physical and mental.
Create a word or image with your exercise route
Runners often map routes through city streets that create a word or image, then use a GPS device to “draw” it as they run.
Join a free fitness group
Exercising can be more fun with others, so look for group fitness opportunities. Many communities offer free exercise opportunities. Fitness in the Park is a summer-long activity that has been operating in New York state for a decade. Everyone is welcome to head to one of 18 different parks.
Sure, you can run a 5 K. But why not try orienteering (定向越野赛)? This timed navigational sport requires you to use detailed maps to find orange-and-white flags that are hidden in parks or remote areas. Races involve difficult running routes
Dance
Whether you take a class or practice at home, dancing is a great way to get your body moving. Dancing doesn’t seem like exercise to a lot of people, which is why it’s always a popular choice.
| A．Hit the road. |
| B．Sign up for a new-to-you event. |
| C．Participants have ranged in age from about 10 to over 70. |
| D．But staying motivated — especially for the long term — can be a struggle. |
| E．The event is timed, so people often jog or power walk from flag to flag. |
| F．You can do the same, whether your favored exercise is running, walking or biking. |
| G．It’s also something you can do anywhere, to any kind of music, salsa, hip-hop — it all works. |
Do you love running? It is a good exercise, yet many people find it boring. But what if making your morning jog a creative one? Like jumping from walls and over gaps, and ground rolls? Just like the James Bond in the movie Casino Royale? Bond jumps down from a roof to a windowsill and then runs several blocks over obstacles on the way. It is just because of Bond's wonderful performances that the sport has become popular worldwide.
Yes, that's parkour, an extreme street sport aimed at moving from one point to another as quickly as possible, getting over all the obstacles in the path using only the abilities of the human body. Parkour is considered an extreme sport. As its participants（参与者）dash around a city, they may jump over fences, run up walls and even move from roof top to roof top.
Parkour can be just as exciting and charming as it sounds, but its participants see parkour much more than that.
Overcoming all the obstacles on the course and in life is part of the philosophy(理念) behind parkour. This is the same as life. You must determine your destination, go straight, jump over all the barriers as if in parkour and never fall back from them in your life to reach the destination successfully. A parkour lover said, “I love parkour because its philosophy has become my life, my way to do everything.”
Another philosophy we've learnt from parkour is freedom. It can be done by anyone, at any time, anywhere in the world. It is a kind of expression of trust in yourself. It is only a state of mind. It is when you trust yourself that you earn energy.
1. Parkour has become popular throughout the world because of ________.
| A．its founder, David Belle |
| B．the varieties of participants |
| C．its risks and tricks |
| D．the film, Casino Royale |
| A．streets | B．buildings |
| C．barriers | D．roofs |
| A．It needs special training. |
| B．It is a good but boring sport. |
| C．It challenges human abilities. |
| D．It is a team sport. |
| A．they should run to extremes |
| B．they may choose to escape |
| C．they can ask for help |
| D．they must learn to survive |
| A．Sports and extremes. |
| B．Excitement and freedom. |
| C．Determination and freedom. |
| D．Dreams and success. |
【推荐1】Mrs. Jones was my first patient when I started medical school-and I owe her a lot.
She was under my care for the first two years of my medical training, yet I knew very little about her, except that she was thin, perhaps in her mid70s. It might seem rather inattentive not to know the basic facts of my patient, but I had an acceptable reason-Mrs. Jones was dead, and had been dead for about three years before I made a patient of her. Mrs. Jones was the dead body that I dissected (解剖)over the first two years of my medical training.
Of course, her name wasn't really Mrs. Jones, but it seemed a little impolite to be conducting research into someone's body without even knowing its name, so out of respect, I thought she should have one. "Me and Mrs. Jones, we've got a thing going on, " went the song coming out of the radio as I opened the bag of her on my first day-and so she was christened.
As the months passed, I soon forgot that Mrs. Jones had, in fact, once been alive. One day, though, she suddenly became very human again. I'd been dissecting Mrs. Jones a good 18 months before I got around to the uterus (子宫). After I'd removed it, the professor came up to me, "If you look at the opening carefully, you'll see that the angle indicates that this woman has had several children, probably three. " I stared at it, and I suddenly felt very strange. This woman, who had given me something extremely precious that I'd begun to take for granted, wasn't a dead body. She was a person, a mother, in fact .
At my graduation, the same professor came over to congratulate me. I explained the story about Mrs. Jones to him, and recalled what he'd told me about her having children and how that had affected me all those years ago.
"Well, " he said, "at the beginning of your training you had a dead body and managed to turn it into a person. Now you're a doctor, the trick is to have a person and not turn them into a dead body, " and he laughed, shook my hand and walked away.
1. Why didn't the author know much about Mrs. Jones?| A．Because he was irresponsible for his patients. |
| B．Because he wasn't allowed to ask for her privacy. |
| C．Because he didn't know her until she passed away. |
| D．Because he was too careless while dissecting her. |
| A．It was passed down from the seniors of my school. |
| B．It came from a song being played when we first met. |
| C．She was named after a well-known singer I liked best. |
| D．It just occurred to me when I opened the bag of her. |
| A．Grateful. | B．Pitiless. |
| C．Hateful. | D．Cold. |
| A．Medical students are able to bring the dead back to life. |
| B．Being a doctor has nothing to do with the medical training. |
| C．Good doctors never fail to save their patients from dying. |
| D．Medical staff ought to have respect for life and humanity. |
【推荐2】One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway and it just wasn’t worth to retrieve the donkey. So, he decided to bury it!
He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly, then slowly he quieted down till nothing more was heard.
A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well, and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing! He would shake it off and take a step up!
As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off!
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest wells by not stopping, never giving up, shaking it off, and taking a step up!
1. The farmer finally decided to bury the donkey because ________.| A．the well was useless | B．he never wanted to help the donkey |
| C．the donkey was old | D．Both A and C |
| A．Because the donkey felt helpless. |
| B．Because the donkey realized his owner was saving him. |
| C．Because the donkey found a way to get out of the well. |
| D．Because the donkey was too tired to cry. |
| A．with the help of his owner and neighbors |
| B．with his own strong will and cleverness |
| C．with the water in the well |
| D．with the dirt in the well |
| A．kill | B．rescue | C．sell | D．bury |
【推荐3】A new collection of photos brings an unsuccessful Antarctic voyage back to life.
Frank Hurley’s pictures would be outstanding — undoubtedly first-rate photo-journalism — if they had been made last week. In fact, they were shot from 1914 through 1916, most of them after a disastrous shipwreck (海难), by a cameraman who had no reasonable expectation of survival. Many of the images were stored in an ice chest, under freezing water, in the damaged wooden ship.
The ship was the Endurance, a small, tight, Norwegian-built three-master that was intended to take Sir Ernest Shackleton and a small crew of seamen and scientists, 27 men in all, to the southernmost shore of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. From that point Shackleton wanted to force a passage by dog sled (雪橇) across the continent. The journey was intended to achieve more than what Captain Robert Falcon Scott had done. Captain Scott had reached the South Pole early in 1912 but had died with his four companions on the march back.
As writer Caroline Alexander makes clear in her forceful and well-researched story The Endurance, adventuring was even then a thoroughly commercial effort. Scott’s last journey, completed as he lay in a tent dying of cold and hunger, caught the world’s imagination, and a film made in his honor drew crowds. Shackleton, a onetime British merchant-navy officer who had got to within 100 miles of the South Pole in 1908, started a business before his 1914 voyage to make money from movie and still photography. Frank Hurley, a confident and gifted Australian photographer who knew the Antarctic, was hired to make the images, most of which have never before been published.
1. Who reached the South Pole first according to the text?| A．Frank Hurley. |
| B．Ernest Shackleton. |
| C．Robert Falcon Scott. |
| D．Caroline Alexander. |
| A．Artistic creation. | B．Scientific research. |
| C．Money making. | D．Treasure hunting. |
| A．They were made last week. |
| B．They showed undersea scenery. |
| C．They were found by a cameraman. |
| D．They recorded a disastrous adventure. |
