1 . Someone said that encouragement is simply reminding a person of the “shoulders” he’s standing on, the heritage he’s been given. That’s what happened
____ a young man, the son of a(n)
____ baseball player, was chosen by one of the minor league teams. Hard as he tried, his first season was
____, and by midseason he expected to be removed
____ day. The coaches were
____ by his failure because he possessed all the characteristics of a superb athlete, but he seemed to have become
____ from his potential.
His
____ seemed darkest one day when he had already struck out his first time at bat. Then he stepped up to the batter’s box again and quickly ran up two strikes. The catcher called a
____ and ran for a conference to discuss strategies. While they were busy, the
____, standing behind him, spoke casually to the boy.
Then play
____, the next pitch was thrown and the young man knocked it out of the park. That was the turning
____ From then on, he played the game with a new confidence and power that quickly
____ the attention of the parent team, and he was called
____ to the majors.
On the day he was leaving for the city, one of his coaches asked him what had caused such a turnaround. The young man replied it was the
____ remark the judge had
____ that day when his baseball career had seemed
____“He told me I reminded him of all the times he had stood
____ my dad in the batter’s box,” the boy explained. “He said I was holding the bat just the way Dad had held it.
____ he told me, ‘I can see his genes in you; you have your father’s
____’ After that, whenever I swung the bat, I just
____ I was using Dad’s arms instead of my own.”
1. 2. | A．star | B．average | C．amateur | D．old |
3. | A．embarrassing | B．disappointing | C．satisfying | D．rewarding |
4. 5. | A．amazed | B．impressed | C．puzzled | D．ashamed |
6. | A．separated | B．different | C．inconsistent | D．divided |
7. | A．hope | B．future | C．dream | D．ambition |
8. | A．pause | B．rest | C．break | D．stop |
9. | A．catcher | B．coach | C．batter | D．judge |
10. | A．began | B．lasted | C．restarted | D．moved |
11. | A．part | B．point | C．place | D．spot |
12. | A．drew | B．fixed | C．focused | D．took |
13. 14. | A．encouraging | B．casual | C．demanding | D．wise |
15. | A．said | B．made | C．given | D．pointed |
16. | A．fixed | B．useless | C．endless | D．helpless |
17. | A．on the right | B．on the left | C．before | D．behind |
18. | A．And | B．So | C．Thus | D．Therefore |
19. | A．strength | B．arms | C．body | D．talent |
20. | A．supposed | B．pretended | C．imagined | D．expected |
