Thirteen, for me, was a challenging year. My parents divorced and I moved to a n

Thirteen,for me, was a challenging year. My parents divorced and I moved to a new townwith my father, far from my old family and friends. I was terribly lonely andwould cry myself to sleep each night. To ease my sadness, my father purchasedan old horse for me at a local auction. I named him Cowboy.

Cowboy waswithout a doubt the ugliest horse in the world. But I didn’t care. I loved himbeyond all reason. I joined a riding club and suffered rude comments and meansnickers about Cowboy’s looks. I never let on about how I felt, but deepinside, my heart was breaking. The other members rode beautiful, registeredhorses.

WhenCowboy and I entered the events where the horse is judged on appearance, wewere quickly shown the gate. No amount of preparation and love wouldturn Cowboy into a beauty. My only chance to compete would be in the speedevents. I chose the jumping race.?

One girlnamed Becky rode a big brown horse in the race events. She always won the blueribbons.  Needless to say, she didn’t feel threatened when I competedagainst her at the next show. She didn’t need to. I came in next to last.

Thestinging memory of Becky’s smirks made me determined to beat her. For the wholenext month I woke up early every day and rode Cowboy five miles to the arena (赛马场). We practiced running and jumping forhours in the hot sun and then I would walk Cowboy home totally exhausted. Allof our hard work didn’t make me feel confident by the time the show came. I satat the gate and sweated it out while I watched Becky and her horse chargethrough the course and finish in first place.

My turnfinally came. I put on my hat, rubbed Cowboy’s neck and entered the arena. Atthe signal, we dashed toward the first fence, jumped it without trouble andraced on to the next one. Cowboy then flew over the second, third and fourthfences like a bird and I turned him toward the finish line. As we crossed theline the crowd was shocked into silence. Cowboy and I had beaten Becky and herfancy horse by two seconds!

I gainedmuch more than a blue ribbon that day. At thirteen, I realized that no matterwhat the odds, I’d always come out a winner if I wanted something badly enoughto work for it.

63. 1.Theunderlined expression "shown the gate" (paragraph 3) most probablymeans ______.

A. toldhow to enter the arena

B. shownhow to make the horse beautiful

C. removedfrom the competition early

D. told toenter the timed-speed events

64. 2.When the final race finished, nobody cheered because        .

A. theaudience didn’t like Cowboy             B.people envied the writer

C. the winwas unexpected?           D. the writer bad run out of time

65. 3.Whywas the writer not confident of victory?

A. He wasan inexperienced rider.

B. He hadnot practiced enough.

C. Hebelieved he was unpopular with the crowd.

D. Hethought his horse wasn’t so good as the others.

66. 4.Whatdid the writer learn from his experience?

A. Lifecan sometimes be unfair.

B.Anything is possible if one tries hard enough.

C. Apositive attitude will bring success.

D. Oneshould not make judgments based on appearance.

试题答案

【答案】

1.C

2.C

3.D

4.B

【解析】略