Soccer is played by millions of people all over the world, but there have only been few players who were truly great. How did these players get that way---was it through training and practice, or are great players "born, not made"? First, these players came from places that have had famous stars in the past---players that a young boy can look up to and try to imitate. In the history of soccer, only seven countries have ever won the World Cup---three from South America and four from Western Europe. There has never been a great national team---or a really great player---from North America or from Asia. Second, these players have all had years of practice in the game. Alfredo Di Stefano was the son of a soccer player, as was Pele. Most players begin playing the game at the age of three or four. Finally, many great players come from the same kind of neighborhood---a poor, crowded area where a boy's dream is not to be a doctor, lawyer, or businessman, but to become a rich, famous athlete or entertainer. For example, Liverpool, which produced the Beatles, had one of the best English soccer teams in recent years. Pele practiced in the street with a "ball" made of rags. And George Best learned the _ that made him famous by bouncing the ball off a wall in the slums of Belfast. All great players have a lot in common, but that doesn't explain why they are great. Hundreds of boys played in those Brazilian streets, but only one became Pele. The greatest players are born with some unique quality that sets them apart from all the others. According to the writer, which of the following statements is true? A) Soccer is popular all over the world, but truly great players are few. B) Millions of people all over the world are playing soccer, but only seven countries have ever had famous stars. C) Only seven countries from South America and Western Europe have ever had national teams. D) Soccer seems the least popular in North America and Asia.
A
Six Americans are working on a new highway. But this highway won't have any traffic.It's an "ice highway" to the South Pole. The team has just finished a second year of work on the 1,020-mile highway. "The road is the greatest single footprint of activity we've seen in the Antarctic ," said Alan Hemmings, an Australian environmentalist. The highway will provide a new way for supplies to be trekked (, ) across the earth on tractor-pulled sleds . This method will use a lot less fuel than an aircraft, the current way that scientists and supplies reach the Amundsen-Scott Base, a U.S. research station in the South Pole. The highway will also allow for equipment that is too big for planes to carry to be brought to Antarctica.Even with these benefits, there is one disadvantage--a round trip on the road will be 30 days, compared to a few hours by plane. Making this 20-foot-wide road isn't easy, and it takes a lot of time. The crew has been working on the road for two summers, when it's warmer and easier to work with the ice. It probably won't be completed until 2006. Crevasses , or cracks, in the land often make the construction difficult. Crevasses are kind of like pot holes that form when surface ice is stretched.This can be very dangerous, especially when the crevasses are hidden under a layer of snow and can't be seen. "Last year it took us three months to go three miles across a crevasse field, full of dangerous, hidden crevasses," said the project's manager, John Wright. Each year, more crevasses appear and they have to be filled with snow and ice so the road is safe for travel. The road will also be lined with green flags so travelers know where the safe surface is. When it is finished, the highway will not be used for _ . A) giving supplies to the research station in the South Pole B) taking scientists to the South Pole C) taking travelers to a tour of Antarctic D) bringing huge equipment to Antarctic
C
Q: After years of study, I have known there are only two types of people in this world:those who get to the airport early and those who arrive as the plane is about to take off. If there were any justice in this world, the early-airport people would be rewarded for doing the right thing and the late-airport people would be punished. But the early-airport people get ulcers , heart attacks and bite their fingernails to the bone. The late-airport people are hardly aware that they are flying. A guy of that kind once said, "Don't hurry. If you miss your flight, it's because God didn't want you to go."This is clearly a guy who is never going to get an ulcer. Early-airport people suffer another"name". They are called exactly what they are--wimps . I know. I am an early-airport person for years. My luggage will get on the plane first, which makes it the last luggage they take off the plane after landing. Another strange thing:No matter how early I showed up, I was always told that someone had called two or three years ahead of me and asked for the best seat. I figured it was a trick. I figured there was someone in America who called every airline every day and said, "Is that wimp Simon flying somewhere today? If he is, give me his seat. " After a lifetime arguing with my wife over whether I really have to pack 24 hours in advance and set the alarm clock four hours ahead, I have learned another fact about early-airport people and late-airport people: They always marry each other. The purpose of writing the passage is to _ . A) give useful tips on taking a plane B) offer advice about catching a plane C) express the writer's anxiety about taking planes D) show people's two attitudes towards catching planes
A: D
Last week,Bill Gates retired from full-time work at the world's biggest computer software company, Microsoft.He will remain chairman of the company he established with Paul Allen in nineteen seventy-five. Mister Gates leaves Microsoft at a time of change in the computing industry.Microsoft grew at a time when personal computers,or PCs,were replacing big mainframe computers as the main computing tools.He showed that huge profits could be made in software as PCs increasingly were found "on every desk and in every home." Early on,Microsoft understood the importance of the "network effect." That is, software is the kind of product that increases in value as more people buy and use it. Now,free Internet software threatens to replace PC-based software.Devices like "smart phones" connect people to the Internet.Google has become a 1eader in Internet Web searching and advertising.Microsoft has struggled to change with the new computer environment.Its efforts to sell music and its latest operating system,Vista,have not been big successes.And an attempt this year to buy Yahoo for over forty-seven billion dollars failed. In the last several years,Bill Gates has slowly given control of Microsoft to others.In two thousand,he gave the job of chief executive officer to Steve Ballmer, a friend of his since their years at Harvard University.Mister Ballmer has been with Microsoft since nineteen eighty.Still,it is hard to overestimate the influence of Bill Gates on computing.He developed the business model that put the Windows operating system on about ninety percent of the world's one billion PCs.Microsoft now has almost ninety thousand employees. At fifty--two years old,Bill Gates is currently the third richest man in the world.He is worth about fifty-eight billion dollars.He remains Microsoft's biggest shareholder. Mister Gates will now spend most of his time working at his charity organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.The foundation is the world's largest charity with over thirty-seven billion dollars.It... Microsoft grew at a time when_. A) 'smart phones' connect people to Internet B) Vista was put into market C) Personal Computers were on every desk and in every home D) Computers became the main computing tools
C