1 . Female figure skaters aren’t really expected to be able to do triple axels(三周半跳). Especially not older ones---in the Olympics, that means older than 20. Mirai Nagasu did both, nailing the jump in competition at 24 during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. She was the first American woman to land a triple axel in the Olympic Games-and only the third woman to do it.
Nagasu’s been pursuing her own path since she was just 5. “My parents used to take me golfing(打高尔夫球)every day because that was the career they wanted me to have,” she wrote. “They took me ice skating one day because we couldn’t go golfing due to the rain, and after that, I kept asking to be taken to go skating.” Her ambition paid off eventually, beginning with a host of Four Continents and ISU World Junior Championship medals and ending with two World Championship and two Olympic appearances each.
Unlike other popular athletes who’ve traded childhood for training, Nagasu had to attend public school by day and help her parents in their restaurant by night. “They really taught me to work for what I want,” she said. That lesson was put to the test in 2014, when despite taking third place at the U. S. Figure Skating Championships, Nagasu was passed over for the Olympic team in favor of fourth-place finisher Ashley Wagner. Some athletes might have taken off their skates for good at that point. Instead, Nagasu got a new coach and learned the triple axel. After two years under his instruction, she displayed her new skill in the U. S. National Championships. By the time she tried it on Olympic ice in 2018, she’d perfected it. Nagasu performed the difficult three-and-a-half jump, helping her team win a bronze medal(铜牌) in the end.
1. Which of the following statements about Mirai Nagasu is TRUE?| A．She disliked ice skating at a young age. |
| B．She was well-known as a golfer in America. |
| C．She succeeded in the 2018 Olympics for her triple axel. |
| D．She was the first woman who successfully did a triple axel. |
| A．Nagasu’s creativity and ambition. | B．Nagasu’s family background. |
| C．Nagasu’s education at home. | D．Nagasu’s road to success. |
| A．She had to quit training out of economic reason. |
| B．She dropped out of school to help her parents in the restaurant. |
| C．She failed to be involved in the Olympics for some reason beyond expectation. |
| D．She was defeated by Ashley Wagner at the U. S. Figure Skating Championships. |
| A．Interest is the best teacher. | B．Poor children are in charge early. |
| C．Misfortune may be an actual blessing. | D．Success comes from constant effort. |
2 . I love outings to the ballpark. My ears perk (竖起) up at the whack of a precisely hit ball, my nose enjoys the scent of hot dogs, and my heart jumps at the possibility of winning it all. But a few years ago I discovered the best way to watch a baseball game might be not to watch at all.
This discovery arose the year I got married. The first apartment my husband and I rented could charitably be called “charming”, although “diminutive” better describes it. But to young newlyweds, the 41-square-metre apartment felt sublime. The best thing about the apartment, in my opinion, was its location a quarter-mile from baseball’s oldest stadium, Boston’s Fenway Park.
The only problem? My husband was not a Red Sox fan. I hadn’t anticipated this stumbling block. He was an avid sports fan, and he’d only just moved to Boston. Surely a love of the hometown team would seep into his heart as naturally as fish take to water.
My hopes faded as the season began. A Seattle Mariners hat remained firmly planted on his head. Matching Red Sox T-shirts earned a veto.
As newlywed disagreements go, this one wasn’t horrible. Plenty of couples flourish with dueling team loyalties. But a worry nagged: If he couldn’t root for the Red Sox, would he ever truly make Boston home?
As a student, when the magic in the air that season permeated (传播) the girls’ boarding school I attended outside Boston, we begged our house directors to let us stay up past curfew to watch the games on TV, and when they at first refused, we listened on radios in our rooms and gleefully burst into the halls to cheer.
So when my husband said he’d never be a Red Sox fan, my heart clenched. But one delightful spring day our teeny apartment came to my rescue. As we sat at our dining room table, we heard a roar swell to a crescendo. This was the first indication that we could hear the stadium crowds from our home.
1. What do we learn about the author from Paragraph 1?| A．She has a good appetite. |
| B．She used to be a very energetic player. |
| C．She is very alert to smell. |
| D．She is a baseball fan. |
| A．Very smart. |
| B．Very small. |
| C．Extremely broken. |
| D．Extremely old. |
| A．She tolerated them. |
| B．She ignored them. |
| C．She argued with her husband frequently. |
| D．She attended school for baseball games. |
| A．Watching games with her husband at home. |
| B．Listening to the games from the neighboring stadium. |
| C．Communicating with her husband while dining. |
| D．Listening to the games on radios at home. |
3 . Japan's Momiji Nishiya, 13, made history on Monday. At the Tokyo 2020 Games, she took home the first women' s street skateboarding Olympic gold medal. Standing next to her on the podium (领奖台) was Rayssa Leal, also 13, from Brazil. Japanese skater Funa Nakayama, 16, took bronze.
The women's skateboarding final was a huge moment for the Games. Some of the Olympic youngest competitors appeared there. Half of the skaters in the final were younger than 18. In Tokyo's burning heat, they decided to try their best. They managed to fill the mostly empty skatepark with joy as hip-hop music sounded in the background.
After winning gold, Momiji was asked what she wanted to tell young skaters.“Skateboarding is fun and interesting,” she said. “I hope everyone can give it a try.”
And the young medalist is already offering powerful inspiration for new skaters. Outside of the skateboarding field, 9-year old Keito Ota and 8-year-old Ayane Nakamura were eagerly waiting to catch sight of the new Japanese medalists. The two friends started skateboarding about a year ago. They arrived at the park wearing Team Japan skateboarding shits. Every time a bus left the field, they held up pieces of paper that said,“Thank you for your hard work" and “Congratulations on your gold medal.”Keito says he' s adding Momiji to his list of favourite skateboarders. In August, Keito will enter his first competition at a skateboarding student cup.
Just 13 years and 330 days old at the time of her win, Momiji is Japan's youngest-ever gold medalist. She’s one of the youngest in Olympic history. That record, though, goes to American diver (跳水选手) Marjorie Gestring. Gestring to the gold medal at the Berlin 1936 Games at the age of 13 years and 267 days. At age 13 years and 203 days, Leal would have set a new record had she finished first.
1. What can we know about the women’s street skateboarding at the Tokyo 2020 Games?| A．It is included in the Olympic Games for the first time. |
| B．It produced the first gold medal of the 2020 0lympic Games. |
| C．It was the first event in which the Japanese won the gold medal. |
| D．It was the sport whose winner was the youngest in the Olympics. |
| A．No audience. | B．Difficult moves. |
| C．The hot weather. | D．The background music. |
| A．To present a fact. | B．To give an example. |
| C．To introduce a topic. | D．To make an expectation. |
| A．Rayssa Leal. | B．Momiji Nishiya. | C．Funa Nakayama. | D．Marjorie Gestring. |
4 . The official line on Marie-Eve Chainey in the women’s high jump read “NH” — shorthand for “No Height” — not exactly a fitting designation for an athlete who truly jumped very high.
For some athletes at the Canadian track and field championships in August 2010, a prideful return meant posting fast times after a slow season. For Chainey, it meant returning to top competition after a nine-year battle with kidney (肾) disease. Three years ago, she was unable to walk and even had no strength to wash her hair.
As a 14-year-old, Chainey would often travel 820 kilometres from Kapuskasing to Toronto to train under coach Gary Lubin at York University. At 18, Chainey went to Spain to learn the language and continue her high-jump training. While there, she became so dizzy (晕) she had to be hospitalized. That’s when she got the news: Her kidneys were no longer working. She hasn’t known life without dialysis (透析) since.
Healthy kidneys remove waste products from the blood. In dialysis treatment, a machine cleans the blood at regular periods, for example, three times a week. Chainey has been using nightly dialysis, which works while she sleeps.
Since her original diagnosis, Chainey has had to face four returns and countless other difficulties, including going blind for two months. She was told over and over she’d never jump again because her muscles were too damaged. But for Chainey, jumping is like breathing.
“From when I got sick, the goal that I had was to just be back jumping,” she said. “Jumping was basically my happy place. Even now more so. Because I’m sick and there’s so much going on, when I go to high jump, I don’t think about anything else than just high jump and enjoying it. It is surely my getaway. I feel normal because I don’t have to think about anything else.”
So on the eve of the national championships, the 27-year-old was not about to be deterred by a difficult night of dialysis. “I’m very stubborn (执着), I’m very hard-headed … I just had to find a way that I would be able to jump, no matter what.”
Chainey certainly felt nervous at the championships; her hands wouldn’t stop shaking once the competition began. She didn’t clear the starting height of 1.50 meters, which she had managed to get over in practice. Still, you’d be hard pressed to find a happier last-place finisher anywhere.
“Just being out there, especially when they lined us up and they introduced us to the crowd, it was a special moment that I’ll always remember,” she said. “I didn’t feel comfortable at first because I didn’t feel I belonged. But although I didn’t get a height, I still feel I belonged there. It felt wonderful just to have the opportunity and experience this.”
Chainey says kidney disease has cured her of her perfectionism. “I’ve always been a straight A student, always done well in sports and piano,” she said. “So when I got sick, my life wasn’t perfect anymore. I had to learn how to live with what you have, that I had limits. That was a very good lesson for me, to know that things aren’t always perfect but you can still make the best of it.”
Lubin is not surprised by her determination. “She used to come down from Kapuskasing, a 12-hour train ride... in order to train. When I talk to my athletes about devotion, I say, ‘Don’t tell me you came from Burlington. You think that’s far? How about Kapuskasing?’ This is the type of person she is.”
1. Early on, how did Chainey prove her devotion to high jumping?| A．She went to Kapuskasing to train competitively. |
| B．She competed at the Canadian track and field championships. |
| C．She frequently travelled long distances to train at York University. |
| D．She competed even though she had received dialysis treatments. |
| A．cause and effect | B．present to past |
| C．similarities and differences | D．more important to less important |
| A．Chainey does not like jumping at all. | B．It’s OK that Chainey can’t jump. |
| C．Chainey is fond of jumping. | D．It’s dangerous for Chainey to jump. |
| A．stopped | B．punished | C．confused | D．influenced |
| A．Chainey became dissatisfied with anything less than a win. |
| B．Chainey stopped using jumping as an escape from her troubles. |
| C．Chainey no longer expected to be perfect in what she attempted. |
| D．Chainey valued her fellow competitors as encouraging supporters. |
| A．She had jumped her personal best. | B．She had met her coach’s expectations. |
| C．She had defeated her closest competitor. | D．She had returned to the sport she enjoyed. |
5 . SPORTS EVENTS
| BASKETBALL Central Sports Center, ★City Road All Stars vs. Rockets, Sat. 8:30 p.m., $12 ★Northerners vs. Tigers, Sun. noon, $10 | LAWN BOWLS Tans Town B.C ●Tans Town vs. White Vale Sun. 9:00 a.m. Wake Hill B.C ●Wake Hill vs. Colls, Sat. 2:00 p.m. |
| BUSHWALKING ◆Meet at Wanda Station, Sat. 9:00 a.m. sharp for hour. ◆Walk to Canary Mountains $5, ph 5432868 ◆Meet at Westley Station, Sun. 9:00 a.m. Sharp for full day ◆Walk to Wombat Valley $5, ph 3416384. Bring your own lunch | FOOTBALL St. Martins Sports Center ▼Martins vs. Doonsberg, Sat. 2:00 p.m. $8 ▼Eastside Central vs. Light Hill, Sun 2:00 p.m. $8 ▼Neil Park Recreation Center Neil Park vs. Robinson, Sat. 2:00 p.m. $11 ▼Essen vs. Springwood, Sun. 2:00 p.m. $11 |
| A．Martins vs. Doonsberg and Wake Hill vs. Colls. |
| B．Northerners vs. Tigers and Eastside Central vs. Light Hill. |
| C．Essen vs. Springwood and Eastside Central vs. Light Hill. |
| D．Neil Park vs. Robinson and Northerners vs. Tigers. |
| A．Martins vs. Doonsberg | B．Eastside Central vs. Light Hill |
| C．All Stars vs. Rockets | D．Neil Park vs. Robinson |
| A．Sat 8:30 | B．Sun noon | C．Sat 2:00 p.m. | D．Sun 2:00 p.m. |
6 . Farmers and runners have a lot in common. There is the drive to struggle in tough conditions. There is the ability to do hard labor, outside in any condition. There is also the restlessness, which, however, might be unique to Elle Purrier St. Pierre, a farmer and a professional runner, who admits she has a tough time sitting still, as a result of her growing up on a dairy(奶制品)farm, where she developed a working attitude that is hard to change. "Cows need to be fed; they need to be milked. And if something breaks, you have to figure out a way to fix it, and you have your responsibilities no matter what," she says. "That attitude really helps me in my career now."
Purrier St. Pierre will run for Team USA in the Olympic Games in Tokyo this year, where she’ll compete in the 1,500-meter run. In February 2020, she broke the American record for fastest indoor mile, with a time of 4:16.85. A year later, she broke the American record for the indoor two-mile, at 9:10.28. And sure, she trains hard, and is diligent and naturally athletic. But according to Purrier St. Pierre, farming is what initially set her up for success on the track.
"Runners and farmers are similar in their lifestyle. It’s just something that they do every single day. They’re kind of addicted," says Furrier St. Pierre. "It’s just who you are."
While farming is a central part of who Furrier St. Pierre is, running is a more recent addition. She started running in high school, despite the school not actually having a track. Instead, she trained on the dirt roads near her farm or the mountain biking trails that surround the hilly town. They proved to be good training grounds. It was in college that she started to identify as a runner and pursue it as a career. Now, running is what she’s known for, and there are high hopes for her to bring home a medal from Tokyo.
Whatever happens at the games, Furrier St. Pierre is excited to come home to the support of her husband, who is unsurprisingly, also a dairy farmer. As much as running is her life and career at this moment, Furrier St. Pierre keeps one eye on her future, and that’s on the farm.
"I am such a homebody and very true to my roots. I’ll always be a farmer. I’m pursuing this career right now, as a runner, but I’m still very much a farmer."
1. What does Elk Purrier really mean by what she says in the first paragraph?| A．Life on the dairy farm is boring. | B．Farming is actually too much work. |
| C．Her time spent on running is limited. | D．It’s hard for her to stop moving around. |
| A．Winning the 1,500-meter run in America. |
| B．Setting two American records in running. |
| C．Winning the 1,500-meter run at the Olympics. |
| D．Setting a record for the indoor two-mile in Tokyo. |
| A．Beneficial. | B．Unsatisfactory. | C．Beautiful. | D．Unique. |
| A．An athlete who devotes herself to sports. |
| B．An athlete who has made great achievements. |
| C．An athlete who combines running with farming. |
| D．An athlete who prefers to be an ordinary farmer. |
7 . Ellie was a skilled gymnast（体操运动员）. But she liked showing off（炫耀））. At the gymnastics tryout（选拔赛）, she put on a perfect performance. "See who can do that! " she said proudly.
The next Friday, the list was posted announcing who had made the team. Ellie's name wasn't on it. "It's unfair. I'm better than all the other girls! " she said. She went to see the coach.
"You are quite talented, but your attitude is terrible, " the coach said. "Making the gymnastics team isn't just about gymnastics. It's also about being on a team. " That night Ellie complained to her parents. Her mother was angry, but her father said that the coach had a point. They had a big argument. Ellie couldn't sleep. She kept thinking about what the coach had said.
Ellie couldn't stay away from the gym, so she practiced alone. One day, after watching Ann fall off the parallel bars（双杠）again and again, Ellie ran to her and explained to Ann what she was doing wrong. Ann did as Ellie suggested and improved. Ellie didn't notice the coach was looking at her. Over the next few months, Ellie always helped the other girls. They did better and better. "We couldn't have done this without Ellie's help, " the girls said.
The following year, Ellie tried out for the gymnastics team again. This time, she was modest. When the girls praised her, she just smiled and thanked them. When the coach posted the list of who had made the team, her name was on it. Ellie and the other girls were all very happy.
1. How did Ellie feel when she went to see the coach?| A．Angry. | B．Happy. | C．Proud. | D．Nervous. |
| A．she slept too much in the afternoon |
| B．she had an argument with her mother |
| C．she was worried about the gymnastics tryout |
| D．she was thinking about the meanings of the coach's words |
①Ellie practiced alone. ②Ellie's parents argued.
③Ellie coached other girls. ④Ellie showed off at the gymnastics tryout.
| A．③①④② | B．③④②① | C．④②①③ | D．④①③② |
| A．A serious coach | B．A gymnastics team | C．Gymnastics tryouts | D．Gymnastics competitions |
8 . Every racehorse has different abilities．Like humans，some are short- distance runners，while others are marathoners． Figuring out which is which and how to pace them can be the difference between failure in the finish and taking the award home．Jockeys （赛马骑师） and trainers have traditionally relied on centuries of experience and data from previous races to plan their races．
Amandine Aftalion，a mathematician in Paris，thought she could add to that．Since 2013，she has been analyzing the performances of world champion runners like Usain Bolt．She has found that short-distance runners tend to win when they start strong and gradually slow down toward the finish line．But in medium-distance races，runners perform better when they start strong，settle down，and finish with a burst of speed．
Her model shows how those winning strategies maximize the energy output of muscles reliant on two different pathways：powerful aerobic（有氧的）ones that require oxygen，which can be in limited supply during a race，and anaerobic ones，which don't need oxygen but build up waste products that lead to tiredness．
Aftalion wondered which strategy would be best for horses．So she and Quentin Mercier，another mathematician， took advantage of a new GPS tracking tool inserted in French racing saddles（马鞍）．
The two studied patterns in many races at the Chantilly racetracks north of Paris and developed a model that accounted for winning strategies for three different races：a short one(1，300 meters)， a medium one (1,900 meters)， and a slightly longer one (2,100 meters)，all with different starting points on the same track．The model takes into account not just different race distances，but also the size or friction from the track surface．
The results might surprise jockeys who hold horses back early for bursts of energy in the last finish．Instead，a strong start leads to a better finish，the team found．“That doesn't mean those jockeys are wrong，though．If the start is too strong，it can be devastating as well，leaving the horse tired by the end，” Aftalion says．
1. What should a runner do to get an award according to the text?| A．Make a good start． | B．Plan for the race early． |
| C．Run slowly on the starting line． | D．Try running quickly all the time． |
| A．The experience and data from previous horse races． |
| B．The benefit of knowing horses' different abilities． |
| C．The success in studying runners' winning strategies． |
| D．The performance of horses on different race distances． |
| A．Boring． | B．Damaging． | C．Astonishing． | D．Puzling． |
| A．Runners have the same energy output of muscles． |
| B．Aftalion's findings may help horses to win the race． |
| C．What Jockeys and trainers do makes no sense to horses． |
| D．World champion runners made a contribution to the study． |
9 . As early as 1894, the newly formed International Olympic Committee (IOC) considered ice skating as a possibility for the first modern Olympic Games which would be held in 1896.
In 1911, a member of the IOC suggested that winter sports should be staged as part of the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. Some opposed the idea. At last, the IOC decided to hold Winter Olympic Games in 1916. However, World War I broke out in 1914. After 1920, the national governing bodies for winter sports in several countries began talking about the possibility of a separate Winter Olympics.
The town of Chamonix, in the French Alps, planned to hold a winter sports festival in 1924; at the same time Paris was to host the Olympics. The Marquis de Polignac, a member of the IOC, suggested that the festival be formally recognized as the Winter Olympic Games. The IOC didn't go that far, but did agree that Chamonix could call its festival an “Olympic winter carnival”.
The festival drew 258 athletes from 16 countries to compete in bobsledding (雪橇比赛), figureskating, hockey, Nordic skiing and speed skating. Charles Jewtraw from the United States won the first gold medal in the 500metre speed skating, but the festival's hero was Claus Thunberg from Finland. He won five medals, three of which were gold in speed skating.
Weather has often been a major story at the Winter Olympics and so it was at Chamonix. The festival opened with rain and the unseasonably warm temperature turned snow and ice to mud. Then temperature dropped as far as 25 below zero and the mud became ice.
Despite the weather, more than 10, 000 people showed up. In 1926, the IOC recognized the Chamonix festival as the first Winter Olympics and decided that the Winter Games would be held every four years, just like the Summer Olympics.
1. Why were the first Winter Olympic Games not held in 1916?| A．Because the IOC didn't agree to it. |
| B．Because it was still under discussion. |
| C．Because some people opposed the idea. |
| D．Because World WarⅠbroke out in 1914. |
| A．the weather destroyed the first Winter Olympics. |
| B．people from 16 countries watched the first Winter Olympics. |
| C．Charles Jewtraw won the most medals in the first Winter Olympics. |
| D．Finland got 3 gold medals in speed skating in the first Winter Olympics. |
| A．The Winter Olympics were held every two years in the beginning. |
| B．The 1924 Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics were held in the same city. |
| C．The Winter Olympics depend much more on the weather than the Summer Olympics. |
| D．The IOC agreed to recognize the Chamonix festival as the first Winter Olympics in 1924. |
| A．The development of the Olympics. |
| B．The importance of weather in the Olympics. |
| C．The story of the first Winter Olympic Games. |
| D．How the Winter Olympics came into being. |
Shooting down an ice-covered track, a bobsled（大雪橇）can go faster than 80 miles an hour, and riders can feel force five times stronger than the pull of gravity. A race can be won or lost by one hundredth of a second. How do bobsleds go faster than cars on a highway? The answer is a combination of athletics and science.
At the start of a race, the crew push their sled, building up speed before they jump in for the ride. For months before the race, the crew have built up power in their legs. The push is the crew's only chance to add speed. All other work goes into keeping friction and drag（摩擦力和阻力）from slowing the sled down.
The design of the sled's runners（滑板）reduces their friction with the ice. The friction of a moving runner melts a little ice right under the runner, and the runner rides on that thin layer of water. The runners are rounded on the bottom. Runners that are too flat may not melt enough ice for fast ride. Runners that are too round may become too warm, softening the ice and slowing the sled down. No amount of rounding is perfect for all races because the hardness of the ice depends on the weather on race day.
Bobsleds used to be open. The riders did not sit inside a hull（外壳）. As the crew sped down the track，the air would create drag. Today, a sled's hull reduces drag by splitting the air in front of the sled and making it flow smoothly along the slides. As with the runners，strict rules apply to the hull. For example，no team may add any part that would create helpful air currents.
Reducing friction and drag creates another challenge: high speeds. “The faster the sleds car travel on the run, the more thrilling the race,” one research team wrote. “But the track must not be too fast: he crew still need to be able to reach the bottom safely.”
1. What's the text mainly about?| A．The shape of the sled. | B．The design of the runners. |
| C．The safety rules applying to the sled. | D．The elements relating to the sled's speed |
| A．Proper amount of melted ice is needed for a fast ride. |
| B．The rounder the runners are, the faster the sled goes. |
| C．Thin layer of water would drag the runners backward. |
| D．A sled's movement has nothing to do with weather. |
| A．It's comfortable to sit in. | B．It leads to beneficial air flow. |
| C．It helps to create a safe ride. | D．It's free from strict rules. |
| A．Safety is the most important. | B．Keeping high speed is difficult. |
| C．Riders' desire to win is understandable. | D．The crew's cooperation is necessary. |
