1 . There was once a boy who liked nothing more in the world than to win. He loved winning at whatever it might be: football, cards, video games….And because he couldn't stand losing, he had become an expert in all kinds of tricks. He could play tricks in every situation without being noticed, even in video games or playing alone. He could win without ever being caught.
He won so many times that everyone saw him as the champion. It meant that almost no one wanted to play with him. One person who did play with him was a poor boy. He was a bit younger. The champion really enjoyed himself by making the boy look foolish.
But the champion ended up getting bored. He needed something more, so he decided to apply for the national video games championship, where he would find some competitors worthy of himself. At the championship he was eager to show his skills, but when he tried using all those tricks he knew from a thousand different games, none of them worked. The judges had prevented any of the tricks from working.
He felt embarrassed: he was a good player, but without his tricks, he couldn't beat a single competitor. Finally, the judges announced the name of the champion. It was the poor boy whom he had always beaten!
The boy realized that the poor boy had been cleverer than him. It hadn't mattered to the poor boy if he lost or got a good beating, because what he was really doing was learning from each of his defeats. And from so much learning he had become a real master.
1. Why could the boy manage to win at everything?| A．Because he was good at playing tricks. |
| B．Because he knew every situation well. |
| C．Because he was cleverer than others. |
| D．Because he had better skills than others. |
| A．The judges praised the boy for his skills. |
| B．The judges stopped the boy from cheating. |
| C．The boy was quite proud of his own skills. |
| D．The boy defeated all his competitors easily. |
| A．Pride goes before a fall. |
| B．A good beginning is half done. |
| C．Failure is the mother of success. |
| D．Never judge a book by its cover. |
