-
Go for the Gold
Diana Golden was
12 years old when she found out she had cancer.
She was
walking home one day after
playing in the snow when her right leg simply gave
out.
Doctors diagnosed the problem as
bone cancer. They recommended removing her leg
above the knee.
When Diana
heard the news, she asked the first question that
came into her mind:
“ Will I still be
able to ski?”
“When the
doctors said yes,” she later recalled, “I figured
it wouldn?t be too bad.”
That attitude was characteristic of
Diana?s ou
tlook on life. Losing a leg
would
cause most children to lose
confidence and hope, but Diana refused to dwell on
the
negative. “Losing a leg?” she?d
say. “It?s nothing. A body part.”
Most of all, Diana didn?t want to let
cancer stopk her from doing what sh
e
loved.
And what she loved was skiing.
Diana had been on skis since the age of five. Her
home in Lincoln, Massachusetts, was
just a couple of hours from New Hampshire?s
Cannon Mountain. After the operation,
Diana worked hard to get back to the mountain.
“
I always skied, and I
intended to keep on skiing. There was never any
question in my
mind about that,” she
declared. Seven months after losing her leg, Diana
met her goal.
She was back out on the
slopes.
Skiing wasn?t quite the same
with just one leg, but
Diana made the
best of it. She
learned to go faster on
one leg than most people could go on two. In high
school,
Diana became a member of her
school?s ski racing team. And in 1979, when she
was
just 17, she became a member of the
U.S Disabled Ski Team.
After high
school, Diana Golden went on to Dartmouth College.
There she saw
how top two-legged skiers
trained. Determined not to be left behind, Diana
began
training with the dartmouth team.
When they ran around the track, she followed them
on crutches. When they ran up and down
the steps of the football stadium, she went up
and down the steps too
—by
hopping. “I had to adapt,” she later explamed. “I
was an
athlete. I had one leg, which
meant I had to do it differently.”
In 1982, Diana entered her first
international ski race. She went to the World
Handicapped Championships in Norway,
where she won the downhill competition. In
1986, Diana won the Beck Award, which
is given to the best American racer in
international skiing. The next year,
she placed 10
th
in a race
against some of the best
nondisabled
skiers in the country. And in 1988, she was named
Ski Racing magazine?s
U.S. Female Skier
of the Year.
As a result of her courage
and determination, Diana has changed the way the
world looks at disabled athletes.
People have begun to see them as strong and
competent. “Everyone has some kind of
?disability?, Diana says. “It?s what we do with
our abilities that matters.”
In 1990, Diana retired from racing for
good.
Comprehension Exercise
1.
When Diana
lost her leg, she
was__
C
______
A)
very
discouraged
B)
quite unhappy
C)
still optimistic
D)
unaffected
2)
In 1986, Diana
won the Beck Award, which is given to the best
American___
C_
__
A)
disabled skier
B)
woman skier
C)
racer in
international skiing
1
D)
Olympic skiing
champion
2.
The
author probably wrote this passage
to___
B_
__
A)
inform you
about disabled skiers
B)
inspire you with Diana?s
courage
C)
describe the events in international
ski competitions
D)
tell about the disadvantages of being a
disabled skier
3.
Which
sentence
below
correctly
restates
the
following:
“Det
ermined
not
to
be
left
behind, Diana began training with the
Dartmouth team.
C
A)
Diana began
training so she could make the Dartmouth team.
B)
Diana trained
with the Dartmouth team so she wouldn?t finish
last in her races.
C)
Diana wanted
to keep up, so she trained with the Dartmouth
team.
D)
Diana
wanted to be as good as the Dartmouth team so she
trained with the team.
4.
Which of the following is the best
summary of the passage?
D
A)
After Diana
lost a leg to cancer, she learned to ski on one
leg.
B)
After
losing a leg to cancer, Diana trained hard and won
an Olympic gold medal.
C)
After Diana lost a leg to cancer, she
was still competent in many sports events.
D)
After
losing
a
leg
to
cancer,
Diana
worked
hard
to
become
a
champion
skier
and
a
respected athlete.
2
参考译文：
勇夺金牌
当发现自己身患癌症时，戴安娜
·
高登才仅仅
< br>12
岁。那天，她还在外玩
雪。随后正准备回家时，突然
发现右腿不能动了。经医生诊断，她患有骨
癌。医生建议从膝盖以上进行截肢治疗。
听到这个消息，她想到的第一个问题是：
“
我以后还能滑雪吗？
”
戴安娜后来回忆道：
“
当医生回答说可以时，我觉
得这还不算太坏。
”
这，就是戴安娜
对生活的态度。对大多数孩童来说，失去一条腿，意味
着失去信心，没有了希望。但是戴
安娜却一直很乐观。她常说：
“
一条腿没
了？没事，不就是身体的一部分嘛！
”
更为重要的是，戴安娜不希望癌症阻挡自己所喜爱的运动
——
滑雪。由
于她的家在马赛的林肯市，距离新罕布什尔州的加农滑雪场仅数小时路程，<
/p>
戴安娜从
5
岁起就开始滑雪。手术后，为
了早日回到滑雪场，戴安娜积极接
受恢复治疗。她说：
“
以前一直滑雪，自己也想坚持下去。在我看来，这没问
题。
”
截肢
7
个月后，戴安娜
实现了她的目标，重新回到了滑雪道上。
与正常的滑雪相比，
单腿滑雪截然不同。但是，戴安娜充分发挥了仅有
左腿的作用，不仅学会了单腿滑雪，速
度还比大多数正常人快。中学的时
候，她成为了校滑雪队的一名成员。
< br>1979
年，
17
岁的她进入了
美国残疾人滑
雪队。
中学毕业后，高
登
·
戴安娜进入达特茅斯学院学习。在那里，她见识到优
秀的滑雪队员是怎么训练的。她下决心要迎头赶上，于是跟随达特茅斯滑雪
队一块儿训练。当他们在操场跑步时，她拄着拐棍跟在后面跑。当他们在看
台上上下
下地跑台阶时，她也跟着上上下下
——
单腿跳着台阶。她后来解
释
说，
“
我必须适应这一切，我是一名
运动员，我也只有一条腿，这意味着我必
须以一种不同的方式完成训练。
”
1982
年，戴安娜第一
次参加了国际性的滑雪比赛
——
挪威世界残疾人锦
标赛，并且获得了速降滑雪比赛的第一名。
1986
年，她荣获了美国贝克奖，
这个奖专门给在国际性滑雪比赛获得冠军的美国选手。次年，
她参加了一次
对抗赛，与一些出色的、健全的滑雪选手比赛，获得了第
< br>10
名的成绩。
1988
年，她
被美国《滑雪竞赛》杂志评为
“
年度最佳女滑雪运动员
”
。
她的勇气和决心
，改变了全世界对残疾运动员的看法，人们开始承认他
们是坚强的，也是有能力的。戴安
娜说：
“
每一个人在某些方面都有一些残
疾，但重要的是，我们能发挥自身的能力做些什么。
”
1990
年，戴安娜永远的退役了。
3
As dream comes
true
We all have dreams. Yet so few of
us fulfill (
履行，实现
)them.
Often , a dream
dies as quickly as it
is born because we lack the confidence to keep it.
When I was
old enough to understand the
realities of life , I realized that society puts a
high value
on youth , beauty and
intellectual
（智力的，聪明的）
achievement. This discovery
gave me
some idea to develop my dream.
I know
beauty is something I will never have. So I didn?t
dream of becoming
beautiful. But I
didn?t see it as something bad because it forced
me to concentrate my
energy to develop
my other qualities. What people see in the handica
pped
（障碍，
不利条件）
is
only their appearance of being handicapped. People
are not impressed
with the ability that
lies inside every handicapped person.
My dream was simple. I dreamed of
becoming a typist
（打字员）
when
I was
in secondary school. I always
hoped to be able to master the typewriter. This
magic
machine would be my
passport
（护照，通行证）
to getting
a job. I come from a
poor family of
five children and the best that my parents could
give us was a good
school education.
But, of course, this achievement proved to be no
sure guarantee of
getting a job in an
office. The employment field was a highly
competitive place. It
gave not only
keen
（强烈的，热心的）
competition to
a handicapped job-seeker
but also the
unfriendly treatment from the physically strong
and healthy. They see the
handicapped
as the back row of society.
However, I
refused to sit in the back row. I took a brave
step to break through
the wall that
isolates
（使隔离）
the
handicapped. I decided to take a course in
typing run by the governmnet. I filled
in the detailed information in the application
form and wrote down typing as my
training course. When I handed over the form to
the interviewer, she looked at me then
moved her eyes to my body. She left and
discussed with another member of the
staff at the center. I had decided that it must be
typing, or nothing. When the
interviewer returned, she advised me to changemy
choice from typing. “ Why don?t you
take up dressmaking so you can earn while at
home ? You cannot hope to compete with
college graduates,” she said. “ Offices
prefer to hire smartlu dressed, pretty
girls with beautiful hands, ” she
added.
I knew I didn?t have
those qualifications. But I was determined to stay
with my
choice of typing, “ I will be a
really good typist,” I told her. She accepted me.
The
typing instuctor admitted me into
his class to give me one month as a
trial
（试验
的）
period
to find out whether I could really handle the
course well. I had tried my
very best
to master the machine. I was allowed to continue
with the course after the
trial period.
On the fifth month of the six-month
course, I was called to the office of the chief
instructor. I was one of five students
in our class who was chosen to do some copy
typing from the
files
（文件，文档）
of the
department. I knew I would was chosen
to do some copy typing from the files
of the department. I knew I would be very
efficient. While I was working hard on
the typewriter, taking every care to
neat
（整
洁，整齐）
and
fast, my other companions spent their time talking
and reading. I
finished half of the
work given to all of us.
More work came
to me after this test. I could see quite clearly
the way to
achieving my dream. I was
taken on as one of the typists in one of the
offices
immediately after my
graduation. I did not mind starting at the bottom
of the ladder.
Being a typist was just
the beginning of the climb. Having achieved one
dream, I set
4
out to achieve others. I worked and
studied at the same time, which was no easy task.
But the sacrifice proved rewarding.
Overcoming one challenge after another
gives me self-confidence. The
challenges help strengthen my courage
and build up my positive attitude toward life.
All these elements are necessary for
the dream-come-true
formula
（公式）
,
Dreamers should keep reaching out for
their dreams, no matter what the pain, until
they get what they want in life. When
they are settled comfortably, they can sit back
and tell the world, “ I did it alone
.”
Select the most
appropriate answer for each of the following
questions.
1.
The
theme of the article is______
A)
that typing is
suituable for handicapped people
B)
to tell how a
handicapped person fulfilled her dream of becoming
a typist
C)
to
encourage the handicapped to become typists
D)
that it is not
easy for the handicapped to become typists
2.
The tone of
the article is _______
A)
encouraging
B)
sad
C)
hopeful
D)
disappointing
3.
For the writer, being physically
unattractive is ______
A)
unfortunate
B)
a good force to develop her other
abilities
C)
fortunate
D)
an obstacle to becoming a typist
4.
The sentence “
I refused to sit in the back row. ” ( para.4 ,
line 1) means that the writer
______
A)
didn?t like
sitting behind everybody else
B)
liked to sit
in the front
C)
wanted to change her seat
D)
didn?t like
being looked down on by other people
5.
The writer
eventually _______
A)
became the cleverest student in the
typing class
B)
achieved her dream
C)
failed in her
attempt to get the right qualifications
D)
gave up
dressmaking
5
参考译文：
当梦想成为现实
每个人都有梦想，但
很少有人能实现梦想。经常是，梦想刚刚诞生就死
亡了，因为我们缺乏坚持梦想的信心。
在我长大一点，懂得了什么是生活的
现实，我就意识到这个社会非常看重年轻、美丽和知
识成就，这给了我实现
梦想的要领。
美，与我永远不会有交集。因此，我也不会梦想着有一天变美。我认为
这不是坏事，这可
以迫使我集中精力发挥其他能力。面对残疾人，人们仅仅
看到他们外表是残疾的，却忽视
了每个残疾人内在的能力。
我的梦想很简单。在职校上学时，
我就想成为一名打字员，也一直都希
望能学会使用打字机。这个充满魔力机器是我获得一
份工作的敲门砖。我出
身于一个贫困家庭，家里还有
4
个孩子。父母所能给我们最好的东西就是良
好的学校教育。然而，这样的
努力并不能确保获得一份办公室的工作。职场
是一个高度竞争的地方，尤其对一名身患残
疾的求职者来说，竞争不仅激
烈，而且在那些身体强健的人面前，会受到不友好地对待。
他们认为残疾人
是社会的最底层。
但
是，我拒绝成为最底层的一员。我做了一个勇敢的举动，试图打破隔
离残疾人的那堵墙。
我决定参加由政府组织的打字培训课程。我仔细地填了
申请表，并选了打字作为我的培训
课程。在把申请表提交给面试官时，她看
了看我，并上下打量了一番，随后离开去与另一
名培训中心的同事商讨起
来。我已经决定学就要学打字，要么就不学。随后面试官走回来
，她建议我
改变自己的选择，说道：
“
为什么不选服装制作呢？这样就可以在家里挣钱
了。不要期望能与大学毕业生竞争。
”
她接着说道：
“
办公室都想要那些穿着
利索、长相漂亮又玉手芊芊的女孩做打字员。
”
我知道自己达不到那些要求，但我决定坚持选打字，并
对她说：
“
我会成
为一名优秀的打字员
的。
”
她接受了我的申请。打字课程的辅导老师同意我进
他的班，并且给我一个月的试学时间，看能否学好这门课。我尽一切努力学
会使用打字机。试学期满，我被许可继续学习。
在半年学
时的第五个月，教学指导主任叫我去他办公室。我们班有
5
名<
/p>
学员被选出来为部门做一些文件的打字工作，我是其中之一。我就知道自己
工作会非常高效。在其他四人聊天、看书时，我在打字机旁努力工作，小心
翼翼
地做到整洁而又快速。我一个人完成了分给我们所有人工作量的一半。
这对我来说是一次测试，之后我分到了更多的活。我可以清楚的看见梦
想在逐步
地实现。毕业时，我很快就被其中的一个办公室雇佣成为一名打字
员。我不介意从梯子的
最下层开始，况且成为一名打字员仅仅是攀爬梯子的
开始。实现了这个梦想之后，我开始
有了其他梦想。我克服困难，边工作边
学习。事实证明，付出是有回报的。
克服一个又一个的挑战给了我自信，让我变得更勇敢，同时树立了积极
的生活态度。要想梦想成为现实，这些缺一不可。有梦想，就应当努力实
现，付出一切，直到得到生活中想得到的。当一切梦想变成现实，就可以休
息一下，
告诉全世界：我，独自一人，实现了我的梦想。
6
Global Warming May Not End
up Being Warm at All
Most
scientists are now certain that global warming is
taking place. Gases such as
carbon
dioxide produced by burning of coal, oil, wood,
together with industrial pollution,
are
creating a warm blanket around the earth. This
blanket is trapping heat in the
atmosphere (the p
rocess
known as “the greenhouse effect”), and so raising
the temperature
of the earth (global
warming).
The evidence for global
warming can now be seen in the world?s changing
climate
statistics. In Europe, eight of
the last ten years have seen record high
temperatures. For
northern Europe, this
has generally been a change for the better.
Gardeners can now even
grow some
tropical plants in England, though London may
never see a “White Christmas”
again. On
the other hand, the countries around the
Mediterranean sea, and those south of
the Sahara desert are receiving even
less rain than before. In sub-Saharan Africa the
crops
are drying out in the fields and
people are dying of starvation. In the Americas,
the climate
is becoming more extreme-
the summers are getting hotter and the storms are
becoming
more violent. In 1999 the
southern United States was struck by a series of
destructive
hurricanes, while the end
of 1999 saw the worst floods ever in Venezuela.
Meteorologists
expect such trends to
continue, and indeed to worsen, if global warming
cannot be halted.
In addition to
worrying about rising global temperatures and more
extreme weather
conditions, scientists
are closely are closely monitoring sea levels
around the world. These
are slowly
rising, as the northern and southern polar ice
caps start to melt. This will have
serious consequences for low-lying
countries near the sea, such as the coral islands
in the
Pacific, and Bangladesh where
the River Ganges already floods the delta every
year.
Already parts of these places are
disappearing under the rising tides.
According to new research, one
contradictory feature of global warming is that it
will probably lead in the end to a
period of much colder weather, at least in Europe.
Scientists base their theory on what
happened the last time the world warmed up, 8, 300
years ago. They have discovered that
when the ice melted from the northern polar ice
cap
it became trapped in an enormous
lake in northern Canada. As more ice melted this
lake
suddenly burst open, releasing
millions of tons of freezing fresh water into the
North
Atlantic. This flood of water was
so large that it prevented the normal flow of
water in the
Atlantic, which takes warm
water from the tropics north to Europe. When this
flow of
warm water was cut off,
temperatures in Europe dropped by between three
and eight
degrees Celsius over the next
two hundred years. Scientists believe that a
similar process
could occur in the next
century if the Greenland Ice Sheet starts to melt.
“Ultimately,
that?s the interest here,”
says Richard Alley, an American climate expert.
“The climate
hasn?t varied much in
8,000 years. But the big changes could come
back!”
Select the
appropriate answer for each of the following
questions.
1.
According
to
Paragraph
1,
what
is
the
relation
between
global
warming
and
the
greenhouse effect?
A)
Global warming
causes the greenhouse effect.
B)
The greenhouse
effect causes global warming.
C)
Global warming
and the greenhouse effect are both types of
industrial pollution.
D)
Global warming and the greenhouse
effect are not connected in any way.
2.
According to
Paragraph 2, the overall effect of global warming
on Europe?s climate is
_____________.
A)
a decline in
rainfall
B)
a
more tropical climate
C)
a general improvement in the weather
7