1 . Jesse Owens thought deeply of what he went through after the Berlin 1936 Olympic Games and said, “People say it was shameful for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? The fall from glory was hard to take and it surely troubled me. But at least it was an honest living. I had to eat.”

The four­time gold medal winner refused to accept an invitation to compete in Sweden immediately after the Games with fellow 1936 stars, and he received good commercial (商业的) offers back in the USA. Shortly after his athletic career ended, the commercial offers dried up and with no chance to remind the public of his good skills in sports, his life became difficult.

After getting married and having his first daughter, he had to earn money. He first took part in the local races and won easily because of his special talent. He then raced against motorbikes, cars, trucks and finally horses. In the following years, he worked as a lift operator, petrol station assistant, playground doorkeeper and manager of a dry cleaning firm.

It was in the 1950s that things started to change for Owens and his family. He began to give speeches to corporations and bodies including the Ford Motor Company and the US Olympic Committee. He opened his own public relations business, travelling across the USA to stress the importance of behaving in a fair and respectful way towards the opposing team or player. In 1976, President Gerald Ford awarded Owens the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter presented the Olympic champion with the Living Legend Award. In 1990, George H. W. Bush posthumously awarded Owens the Congressional Medal of Honor.

1. What can we learn about Jesse Owens in the first paragraph?

A．He was sensitive to others’ words.

B．He was worried about his future life.

C．He chose another way to make a living.

D．He found it hard to forget about his past experiences.

2. What problem did Jesse Owens have after he closed his sporting career?

A．He fell behind other stars.

B．He lost his skills in sports.

C．He failed to live a normal life.

D．He didn’t receive commercial offers.

3. What did Jesse Owens put stress on when giving speeches?

A．Behaving well.	B．Working hard.
C．Acting quickly.	D．Thinking positively.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Jesse Owens’ opinion on making decisions.

B．Jesse Owens’ success in sports and speeches.

C．Jesse Owens’ life after the Olympic Games.

D．Jesse Owens’ honors awarded by presidents.

2 . 根据汉语提示补全对话
A: I’m sorry to hear that Kobe Bryant was killed in the air crash.
B: Me, too. Kobe is my favorite basketball player and he is also       1    (体育榜样).  
A: Yes, what he achieved in his life     2     (激励着许多人) to do better and better.   When did he    3     (获得他的第一个冠军)?  
B: He won his first championship in 2000. In all, he won 5 championships.
A: How many times did he win     4     (最有价值球员)?  
B: He was an 18-time NBA All-star and he got the AMVP four times.
A: What’s his highest score in a single game?
B: He once scored 81 points at a single game in 2006 so he was nicknamed Mr 81.
A: In a word, he left a deep impression on us and he will be remembered forever for his     5     (体育精神).

3 . 语法填空

The Chinese women’s volleyball team stood on the top of the podium at the Rio Olympics. People could see Chinese players     1    (embrace), with tears of happiness in their eyes. They     2    (achieve) their another dream. The team     3    (hold) a very special place in the nation’s heart with several major world     4    (title). They have become heroes in people’s minds,     5     they have won honour for the Chinese people. Especially at the Rio Olympics, they painted the     6    (vivid) portrait of the team’s competitive spirit. As     7    (assign) to the “group of death”, they would face several strong opponents and needed fighting spirit and perseverance. Every single member of the team gave their all to the fight. Their perseverance paid     8     with an epic comeback against the defending champion Brazil and Serbia     9    (seize) gold in the final. The Chinese women’s volleyball team has fought their way     10     ups and downs. In this way, the team begins its journey to the next Olympics.

4 . 课文背诵检测

In the 1400s and 1500s, Peru was the centre of the powerful ancient Inca Empire. The Inca emperor lived in the     1     Machu Picchu. Spain took control of Peru in the 16th century and ruled until 1821. It is for this reason that Spanish is the main     2     of Peru.

Michael Jordan, known as “Air Jordan”, changed basketball with his graceful moves and jumps. His skills were impressive, but the     3     that he showed made him unique.

Tangshan started to revive itself and     4    . With strong support from the government and the     5     of the city’s people, a new Tangshan was built upon the earthquake ruins.

5 . Directions:   Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. ultimately B. crowned     C. string       D. distancing   E. secure       F. rewarded G. spectacular H. prominence     I. edge             J. sustaining     K. proudly

Just Focus on Your Own Way

Head held high as she took the court moments after her Chinese team entered the arena, she waved and smiled in several directions. She then paced around the floor observing China’s championship opponents from Serbia (塞尔维亚). She     1     sang through the national anthem, guided her team to defend the title and made her own history, too. Lang Ping became the first person to win back-to-back World Cup championships both as a player (1981,1985) and as a coach (2015, 2019).

Lang, a significant cultural icon in China, rose to    2     as a volleyball player in the early 1980s. She, along with her teammates, was     3     four-time world champions in international competitions between 1981 and 1985. This    4     of victories pushed women’s volleyball to the forefront of Chinese sports discussions. Before this time, only table tennis had taken on a characterization as the sport in which the Chinese boasted about an outright     5    . As the leading outside hitter (主攻手), Lang herself was honored as the MVP of women’s volleyball at the 1984 Olympics.

After she retired from playing, Lang moved to the United States to experience what she called a “normal life”,     6     herself from her national fame. In 1987, she started coaching the women’s volleyball team at the University of New Mexico. Having honed her coaching skills with these young athletes over a five-year period, Lang became the head coach of China women’s national team in 1995.   She     7     led the team to a silver medal at the 1996 Olympics and a second place at the World Championship two years later. In 2005, Lang set her sights on a new challenge: coaching the U.S. women’s national volleyball team. The first foreign female to coach a major sport for the United States, she devoted herself to the job, despite     8     criticism back home. Lang returned to coach the Chinese national team for the second time in 2013. After guiding the team to the gold medal at the 2016 Olympics, she became the first person in volleyball history to     9     Olympic titles both as a player and as a coach. However, when asked about her success, Lang just said, “It’s not important for me to make history. But I’m so happy for the girls. They trained very hard.”

Lang’s     10     life is displayed in a recently announced documentary entitled The Iron Hammer, named after her nickname. The film not only tells her story but showcases her internal strength and commitment to greatness in the sport. Furthermore, her ability to break down gender barriers has inspired women to achieve new heights in the sport, a legacy that still inspires hope in the youth of today.

6 . 根据课文内容填空

Stephen is a famous basketball player. It was self-belief, hard work and perseverance     1    made him a success. Stephen’s grandfather built a simple basket by    2    (attach) a piece of plastic to a telephone pole along a narrow muddy road different from the bright lights and shiny courts of the National Basketball Association(NBA). The bumps and rocks caused the ball to bounce in all     3    (direct).     4    (know) where the ball would go wasn’t very easy. However, Stephen improved his skills by practicing day in and day out. Many people thought Stephen was too short, too thin and too weak to start his career. But he regarded playing basketball as his dream. He would not give up. He finally ended up    5    (play)college ball at Davidson College,     6     his creativity and perseverance made him a star player. In 2009,     7     (select)for the NBA, Stephen joined the Golden State Warriors. In 2015, Stephen won his first NBA championship and he led the Warriors to their first championship since 1975. In addition, he received the Most Valuable Player award for two years     8     a row. Stephen shared his philosophy: be yourself, value the fact that you can work every single day to get    9     (good), and be able to put in the time and the work. His success     10     (show)that nothing is impossible.