While watching the Olympics the other night, I came across an unbelievable sight

While watching the Olympics the other night, I cameacross an unbelievable sight. It was not a gold medal, or a world recordbroken, but a show of courage.

The event was swimming and started with only three menon the blocks. For one reason or another, two of them false started, so theywere disqualified. That left only one to complete. It would have been difficultenough, not having anyone to race against, even though the time on the clock isimportant.

I watched the man dive off the block and knew rightaway that something was wrong. I'm not an expert swimmer, but I can tell a gooddive from a poor one, and this was not exactly medal quality. When he resurfaced,it was evident that the man was not out for gold — his arms were waving in anattempt at freestyle. The crowd started to laugh. Clearly this man was not amedal competitor.

I listened to the crowd begin to laugh at this poorman who was clearly having a hard time. Finally he made his turn to start back.It was pitiful. He made a few desperate strokes and you could tell he was wornout.

But in those few awful strokes, the crowd had changed.

No longer were they laughing, but beginning to cheer.Some even began to stand and shout "Come on, you can do it! " and hedid.

A clear minute past the average swimmer, this youngman finally finished his race. The crowd went wild. You would have thought thathe had won the gold, and he should have. Even though he recorded one of theslowest times in Olympic history, this man gave more heart than any of theother competitors.

Just a short year ago, he had never even swum, letalone race. His country had been invited to Sydney.

In a competition where athletes remove their silvermedals feeling they have somehow been cheated out of gold, or when they act soproudly in front of their competitors, it is nice to watch an underdog.

1.From the passage we can learn that the young man         .

A．made his turnto start back pitifully

B．was skillfulin freestyle in the game

C．swam faster thanthe average swimmer

D．was notcapable enough to win the medal

2.The crowd changed their attitudes because ________.

A．they feltsorry for the young man

B．they weremoved by the young man

C．they wantedto show their sympathy

D．they meant toplease the young man

3.According to the passage, "it is nice to watchan underdog" probably means _______.

A．it’s amusing to watch a man with awful swimming skills

B．it’s amazing to watch an ordinary man challenging himself

C．it’s cheerful for athletes to act proudly before theircompetitors

D．it’s brave enough for some athletes to remove the silvermedals

4.What’s the best title for the passage?

A．Compete forGold!                      B．Try again!

C．Break aRecord!                        D．Go for it!

试题答案

【答案】

1.D

2.B

3.B

4.D

【解析】

试题