The frightening day of our diving test was here. Our parents thought we were lucky to have an Olympic-size swimming pool at the school. My mom stressed that the swimming pool was one of the best in our city. But I didn’t feel happy about it at all. Instead, I felt afraid of the swimming pool. It was mainly because I was terribly shy.
I was so shy that I always sat at the back of the room in class so I’d not be called upon to read. As for the present physical education class each Monday morning, I would work my way to the back of the line forming at the diving board so I would not have to practice the dives.
Now, it was another Monday morning - the morning of our diving test. My blood ran cold when the teacher Ms. Robbins announced that we would be graded for our final on the most difficult dive- the jackknife. And she added, “This diving test is important. The one who fails has to spare time in the following Monday mornings to practice diving in this swimming pool and attend this test again.”
My body kept shaking with fear as the line to the scary diving board shortened. As I watched, each student seemed to perform the challenging dive effortlessly. And shortly I would have to attempt something that I had never even practiced before.
Then I remembered someone telling me that when you picture yourself doing a skill over and over, it’s just as effective as physically practicing that skill. So I watched carefully as each classmate jumped at the end of the board once, added a jump for height, folded their body in half to reach for their toes, and finally straightened out like an arrow for going into the water. After carefully watching for a while, I was actually in a state of surprise, because all of a sudden I realized that it was possible for me to perform these four steps of diving.
Eventually all classmates except me finished jumping. The teacher announced that it was my turn.
注意：1. 续与词数应为150左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
With my heart knocking wildly, I walked down the diving board towards its end.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Knowing I failed, I climbed out of the pool, embarrassed.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . Figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, who won men’s singles Olympic gold medals in 2014 and 2018, said Tuesday he was retiring from competition.
He won the men’s singles gold at the Sochi Games in 2014 and again at the Pyeongchang Games in South Korea in 2018, becoming the first men’s skater to achieve consecutive (连续不断的) golds in the category since Dick Button in 1948 and 1952. At this year’s Winter Games in Beijing, he attempted to become the first man to complete a quadruple axel-4 rotations (旋转) in the air at the Olympics, a jump that he had previously come close to achieving in Japan. In Beijing, he came just short of completing the required rotations for the quadruple axel and fell on his rear, but he expressed satisfaction with his effort afterward and hinted he was ready to retire.
“In terms of how it feels for me, I don’t imagine it being all that different.” he said. “Of course, I feel strongly that I’d like to achieve success with the quadruple axel.”
Beyond his jumping ability, Hanyu’s gift for the dramatics and his gentle appearance made him popular among admirers. Some said he looked as if he had danced off the pages of a Japanese cartoon. They would throw Winnie the Pooh stuffed bears—reportedly his favorite cartoon character—on the ice after his performances. In China, crowds gathered outside the Beijing venue to express devotion to their favorite, and one Chinese follower on social media called Hanyu “the most beautiful icy fairy in my heart”.
In recent years, Hanyu has been suffering from injuries. He said he had constantly thought about retiring from competition since the 2018 Winter Games. “If we’re talking about when I considered turning professional. I was thinking about that at every single competition,” Hanyu said. He said he made the final decision after the Beijing Games as he was recovering from his ankle injury.
1. What can we know from Hanyu’s many experiences?| A．He won the first Olympic gold medal of skiing in 2014. |
| B．He is the first men’s skater to win two golds continuously. |
| C．He is the first to perform the quadruple axel successfully. |
| D．He first indicated his retirement in Beijing. |
| A．Because of his favourite stuffed bear. |
| B．Because of the Japanese cartoon pages. |
| C．Because of his popularity on social media. |
| D．Because of his looking and performance. |
| A．Unexpected. |
| B．Long-awaited. |
| C．Encouraging. |
| D．Thrilling. |
| A．Ice Prince Yuzuru Hanyu Retires from Competition |
| B．Figure Skater Yuzuru Hanyu, Satisfied with Victory |
| C．Being Injured, the Ice Prince Sticks to His Dream |
| D．The Consecutive Golds Winner Has Made His Glory |
1.祝贺获奖；
2.告诉他或她你观看直播时给你留下印象最深的一幕，并带给你怎样的思考；
3.祝福及期待。
注意：1.词数80左右；2.可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。（The Winter Olympic Games）
Dear,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
4 . After figure skaters finish their programs, adoring fans often throw gifts onto the ice. There have definitely been some strange ones over the years. Sasha Cohen was once given sweaters and Debi Thomas even got a box of pizza after her performance at the 1987 world championships.
Apart from cards and clothing, the gifts are mostly stuffed animals（毛绒玩具）. Though it’s not clear exactly how or when this custom began, there are a couple of factors that help explain why they’re so popular rather than flowers. One factor is that flowers, once the go-to item to throw at skaters, are messy. The “sweepers” — the kids who skate around collecting all the gifts between each program — have a much easier time picking up stuffed animals than clear up every petal（花瓣）and leaf falling off its flower.
There’s no global ban on throwing bunches of flowers, but organizations made attempts to discourage the practice in the past. In 1989, US Figure Skating banned arenas(竞技场) hosting national championships from selling flowers. And at the 2002 national championships, the association publicly prevented fans from bringing flowers to the arena at all.
“Flowers have always been a problem. Even when they’re wrapped, some parts stick out and become a headache.” Larry Kriwanek, chairman of the event’s organizing committee, told us. “Flowers were going to be eliminated. It was just a question of when.” Instead, fans could buy stuffed animals inside the arena and shower their favorite skaters with those.
Stuffed animals also give supporters an opportunity to choose presents that seem more personal. “We sometimes will get stuffed animals in custom-made costumes to match what we’re wearing.” American ice dancer Meryl Davis, who won gold with partner Charlie White in 2014, told us. It turns out that skaters often do take especially meaningful gifts home with them.
1. Why does the writer mention Sasha Cohen and Debi Thomas in Paragraph 1?| A．To indicate they are top figure skaters in the world. |
| B．To show figure skaters may get unusual gifts. |
| C．To tell readers how much their fans like them. |
| D．To explain what gifts are suitable for figure skaters. |
| A．Punishing fans bringing flowers into arenas. |
| B．Issuing a global ban on throwing flowers. |
| C．Canceling a national game for selling flowers. |
| D．Keeping flowers out of a certain arena. |
| A．forbidden. | B．grown. | C．allowed. | D．ordered. |
| A．Tips for fans to choose suitable gifts. |
| B．Meryl Davis’s advice on stuffed animals. |
| C．Advantages of stuffed animals as gifts. |
| D．Gifts that figure skaters are fond of. |
5 . As the door finally slipped into place at the end of the mile-long steel tube, the WARR Hyperloop team rushed to a nearby tent, where they spent the next 20 minutes waiting anxiously as pumps took nearly all the air out of the tube. They were the third and final team to get a run in the last stage of Elon Musk's Hyperloop Competition. The only standard for winning? Speed.
When many people hear the word hyperloop, they think it's some sort of magic vehicle that Musk suggested five years ago. Rather, it's more a new concept of transportation than a single invention. The basic concept calls for a vehicle running inside a nearly airless tube at extremely high speeds. The details—how to power it, what shape it should be, and so on—are anyone's guess. Musk just laid out the concept in a 2013 white paper, but the people are trying to bring it to life.
On May 7, 2021. 700 members of 25 teams from around the world gathered at the SpaceX headquarters for the second annual hyperloop competition. To add to their excitement, Elon Musk also stood among the students, gazing over their shoulders at the big screen that showed the speeds of the vehicle from inside the white tube. When the WARR Hyperloop topped the 192-mph mark set by Hyperloop One with its full-sized vehicle in its own test tube in the Nevada desert last month, Musk shouted over the cheers that erupted from the students, "200 miles an hour for a student-built vehicle. It is incredible!"
That 20-second run beat out Paradigm Hyperloop's 63 miles per hour, and Swiss Hyperloop's 25 miles per hour at the competition.
But he immediately asked for more. "Our goal for the next competition will be 384 miles per hour!" he said.
His final goal, of course, is to reach a speed that can help him realize the wild dream of transporting passengers and goods from San Francisco to Los Angeles in half an hour: 760 miles per hour. Judged by the cheers, the students will try anything to make it a reality.
1. What are the competitors most concerned about?| A．Speed. | B．Safety. | C．Power costs. | D．Vehicle shape. |
| A．Hyperloop One. | B．Swiss Hyperloop. | C．Paradigm Hyperloop. | D．WARR Hyperloop. |
| A．200 miles per hour. | B．384 miles per hour. | C．760 miles per hour. | D．965 miles per hour. |
| A．The challenges for the hyperloop. | B．The concept of the hyperloop. |
| C．The possibility to build the hyperloop. | D．A competition for the hyperloop. |
The annual League of Legends World Championship, commonly referred to as “Worlds,”
The International Olympic Committee is introducing new events
In fact, compared with most mainstream sports, electronic sports
Yet video games are highly competitive, with professional leagues
7 . One runner didn’t let the French government’s order to remain indoors prevent him from training for a marathon during the coronavirus pandemic (新冠疫情). Last week, Elisha Nochomovitz, a 32- year-old restaurant worker, ran the length of a marathon on his 23-oott long balcony (阳台). And he did it in six hours and 48 minutes, a personal record nearly double that of his previous finished time.
“My only pleasure is running, no matter what the time" Nochomovitz. who lives in the French, city of Balma near Toulouse told CNN. He devoted his run to medical staff working through this pandemic, who he felt were “dong an extraordinary job". Although Nochomovitz had run 36 marathons, he said his balcony marathon was the most challenging. Due to the short length of the balcony, Nochomovitz was unable to gain any quantity of motion or speed as he had to constantly turn back and forth. He said he ran about 3, 000 laps. Luckily, Nochomovitz said his girlfriend was there to support him, feeding him M＆M's and Coca Cola to help him refuel as he ran.
Though his balcony is nothing like the streets of Barcelona, where he was supposed to run the marathon on March 15 before it got canceled, Nochomovitz said the experience was worthwhile. Some people. he said, even reached out to say they were inspired by him.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced on March 14 that the country would be closing all places that are not essential to French living, which includes restaurants, cafes and clubs. France banned all gatherings across the country, and the country closed its borders on March 17 in order to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
1. Why did Elisha Nochomovitz run on the balcony?| A．To break the world record. | B．To arouse the public's attention. |
| C．To take an individual physical test | D．To continue training for a marathon. |
| A．Double length of the balcony. |
| B．Double length of a street. |
| C．The length of the balcony. |
| D．The length of a step. |
| A．Some people would probably follow Elisha to run on their balcony. |
| B．Elisha inspired others' support for the government. |
| C．Many citizens came to see Elisha train himself. |
| D．Players would join in the marathon on March 15. |
| A．French people are humnorous. |
| B．French government is serious about the pandemic. |
| C．French restaurants are essential to French living. |
| D．French Prime Minister is selfless. |
The ancient Olympic Games began in the year 776 BCE.
Chinese athletes have also made important
9 . 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. |
1. What does the man think helps him the most to become successful?
| A．Hard work. | B．Good training. | C．A set schedule. |
| A．At about 8:30. | B．At about 9:20. | C．At about 9:50. |
| A．Have lunch. |
| B．Attend a team meeting. |
| C．Do warm-up exercises. |
| A．To make themselves relax. |
| B．To notice the mistakes they’ve made. |
| C．To know the kinds of tips the other team use. |
