1 . Packing up her bedroom in Virgin a Beach, Douglas had to say goodbye to her family, to her two dogs, and to the beach, where she loved to ride waves on her boogie board. But it was time to take the leap, however, heartbreaking and awkward it would be. Even at 14, Douglas knew that.
So off she went about 1.200 miles to West Des Moines, Iowa, to train with a coach from China and live with a white family she had never been met. When she arrived,\Douglas thought that she must be the only black person in the state.
“I was unpacking and saying, ‘What am I doing?’”said Douglas, who is 16.“it was like:’Where do I put everything? Where are the spoons?’ I’d wake up and say, ‘This is my bed, where am I?’”
Liang Chow, who had coached the Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson, transformed Douglas into one of the best gymnasts in the world, helping her skyrocket from an average member of the national team to the top of the sport. And a couple with four young daughters became her second family, nurturing her in low a while her real family|supported her from afar,(遥远地).
That move also was important in Douglas’s making history. By winning the Olympic all-round title, she became the first black woman to do so. She also became the fourth American woman to win the all-round, following Mary Lou Rettonjin 1984, Carly Patternson in 2004 and Nastia Liukin in 2008.
Douglas won, scoring 62.232 points, and led the competition from beginning to end.’Viktoria Komova, who sobbed into her coach’s chest when she learned she had lost, won the silver, with 61.973 points. Aliya Mustafina. the 2010 world all-round champion, won the bronze with 59.566 points. The other American in the competition, Aly Raisman finished fourth after losing a tiebreaker(决胜局) to Mustafina.
Douglas said she had felt confident all along that she would win.“It was just an amazing feeling,”she said,“I was just like, believe, don’t fear, believe.”
1. Douglas left her home at 14 because she| A．didn’t like her dogs |
| B．needed training to make a difference |
| C．wanted to live with her second family |
| D．wanted to become the only black champion in the state |
| A．uneasy | B．excited |
| C．independent | D．tired |
| A．Komova felt stressed during the game and lost her heart. |
| B．Douglas stayed ahead throughout the whole game. |
| C．Aliya came from America and won the third place. |
| D．Most of the competitors were from America. |
| A．She was the first American woman to win the all-around. |
| B．She was the only black person in the state of Iowa. |
| C．Her family didn’t like the idea of her becoming a gymnast. |
| D．Her move to Iowa brought her the chance to succeed. |
“Tennis – I’m saying goodbye.” With these words, Russian tennis superstar Maria Sharapova, 32, has announced her retirement.
“How do you leave behind the only life you’ve ever known?” she asked herself. Several reasons played a role in Sharapova leaving the tennis court for good.
Over the last couple of years, she’s dealt with an injury in her right shoulder and inflammation (炎症) in her forearms that may have prevented her from returning to top form. In more recent news, the death of her longtime friend, US basketball legend Kobe Bryant, also played a factor in her decision to retire.
“As I think you’ve seen throughout my career, my perseverance ( 毅 力 ) has been my greatest tool, my greatest strength,” Sharapova said in an interview. “But I’ve started feeling like it was becoming a weakness, because the stubbornness (执着) that was keeping me going was keeping me going for wrong reasons.”
Sharapova rose to stardom (明星身份) at age 17 when she won Wimbledon in 2004. She won a total of four Grand Slam singles titles: the 2006 US Open, the 2008 Australian Open, and the 2012 and 2014 French Open. She also earned the Fed Cup title in Russia in 2008 and an Olympic silver medal in singles in 2012, among many other accomplishments.
For 16 straight years from 2004, Sharapova was the world’s highest-earning female athlete, according to Forbes. Off the court, she made millions of dollars from companies such as Evian and Nike, as well as starting her own candy company.
“Tennis showed me the world --- and it showed me what I was made of,” Sharapova wrote on Facebook on Feb 26, alongside a photo of herself as a young girl with a tennis racquet (球拍). “It’s how I tested myself and how I measured my growth. And so in whatever I might choose for my next chapter, my next mountain, I’ll still be pushing, I’ll still be climbing，I’ll still be growing.”
1. What made Maria Sharapova decide to retire at the age of 32? (no more than 10 words)2. What does Para. 5 mainly talk about? (no more than 10 words)
3. How did Maria Sharapova become the world’s highest-earning female athlete? (no more than 20 words)
4. What does the underlined sentence mean in the last paragraph? (no more than 10 words)
5. Do you think perseverance (毅力) is always our greatest tool? Give your reason. (no more than 20 words)
