Everyone wants to win a first-place blue ribbon, to be the best in something. Even kids in Kindergarten want that blue ribbon. In sports, I was never a blue-ribbon person. In a race, I was always  36 . In baseball I was likely to be  37  on the head or drop the ball. During the spring of my kindergarten year, our class had a field trip to a park in a town about twenty miles away. Making that drive now is no big  38  but when you’re six and you’ve lived in a town of 300 people all your life, going to a big town of a couple of thousand people is really something.
I don’t remember too much about it. But there was one that I will never forget —the __39__ race. The parents tied our feet together. One little boy got me for a  40  . He was the second most   41 boy in our class so he usually won at everything and I knew that with me tied to him he didn’t have a chance. And I’m sure he knew he was in trouble. The gun sounded and we were off. Some couples were falling and stumbling all around us,  42   we stayed on our feet and made it to the other side.  43  , when we turned around and headed back for home, we were in the lead! Only one couple had a chance to win, and they were a good several yards behind us.
A few feet from the finish line, disaster struck: I tripped and fell. We were   44  enough that my partner could have easily dragged me across the finish line and won. But he didn’t. Instead he stopped,   45   down and helped me up — just at the other couple crossed the finish line. As a result, we received a small red ribbon for coming in second.
I still remember that moment when the young boy decided that helping a friend get on her feet was more important than winning a blue ribbon. And 13 years later, I still have that little ribbon because it’s a   46   that a friend like this boy is one who really   47  .  

阅读下列各小题，根据括号内的汉语提示，用句末括号内的英语单词完成句子。

1.Don’t be too rude to your father. Never in his life _______________ in that way up to now. （speak）

不要对你的父亲那么粗鲁，到目前为止还没有人像那样对他说话。

2.When his mother came home from work, he was lying on the sofa, ____________. (absorb)

母亲下班回家的时候，他正躺在沙发上专心致志地看书。

3.________________ different languages and cultures does a lot of good to children. (expose)

接触不同的语言和文化对孩子们大有裨益

4.I think that it is I rather than my sister _______________ for what happened. (blame)

我认为出了事不能怪姐姐而应该怪我。

5.Although house construction _________________, you can find many diverse styles in each country. (vary)

每个国家的建筑结构都不尽相同,然而在每个国家你能发现各式各样的风格。

6.With ____________, the problem that they had worked on for a long time was eventually worked out. (adopt)

由于采取了新方法，他们钻研了很长时间的问题终于解决了。

7.If he hadn’t hesitated for a moment before kicking the ball, he ______ a goal. (score)

要是他在射门前不迟疑，他就进了一球。

8.Have you ever had a case____________ getting the wrong end of the stick? (accuse)

你们有没有这样的情况：别人控告他们说他们的报道完全失真？

9._________________ is that while I am concentrating on my study, my classmates make so much noise. (put)

我不能忍受的是在我全神贯注地学习时，我的同学那么吵闹。

10._____________to you whether I like it or not, because you never listen to me. (difference)

我喜不喜欢对你来说没什么差别，因为你从来就不听我的。

根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

There is an English saying that goes, “he who laughs last, laughs the hardest.” High School Musical star Zac Efron is laughing a lot these days. 1., because he was always the smallest in his class and was laughed at because he had a big space between his teeth. In sixth grade, Efron’s basketball team made it to the league championships. In double overtime(两个加时赛)， with three seconds left, he rebounded the ball and passed it----to the wrong team! 2.

3. Now at 21, Efron is one of People magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful People, graces (荣登) the cover of Entertainment Weekly, Hollywood’s most influential magazine, and is traveling the world promoting the third High School Musical film. Director Adam Shankman described Efron as “arguably the biggest teen star in America right now.” Simply google “Zac Efron”, and you get more than 14 million responses. Yes, it seems Efron has a lot to smile about these days.

Efron was born and raised in California. 4.According to Efron, “he would flip out (发疯) if he got a B and not an A in school, and that he was a class clown.” It was his father who encouraged him to act. 5.He also took singing lessons. He graduated high school in 2006 and was accepted at the university of Southern California to study film. But he put it off----why study movies when you can star in them. Efron has risen all the way to the top of the movie business. And he can now laugh all the way to the bank.

A. He owed it a lot to his father that he succeeded.

B. But history, as they say, is a thing of the past.

C. He took part in school performances and acted in a local theater.

D. When he was young, Efron was an unqualified basketball player.

E. He took school seriously.

F. They scored and his team lost the game.

G. As a young boy, Efron was picked on(欺负) by his classmates.

Amanda Clement grew up in Hudson，South Dakota．Baseball was always her fa—
vorite sport．Once in a while her brother Hank and his friends would let her play first
base in their games．More often，however，they asked her to umpire(裁判)for them，
because they knew her calls would be fair and there would be no arguing．
One day in 1904，Amanda and her mother traveled to Hawarden，Iowa，to watch
Hank play for the home team against Hawarden．When they arrived at the ball field，
two local teams were waiting to play a preliminary(预备)game．The umpire hadn’t ar—
rived，so Hank argued that the teams should let his sister serve as umpire．The players
finally agreed．
Amanda，then sixteen and standing five feet，ten inches tall，made perfect calls．
She was so good that players for the main game asked her 10 umpire for them and even
offered to pay her．Thus，at sixteen，Amanda Clement became the first paid female
baseball umpire on record．She is honored in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown，
New York．
61．Hank and his friends often asked Amanda to umpire for them because      
　A．they wanted to make her happy
　B．she called them brothers
　 C．no one else wanted to do it for them
　 D．she knew the rules well and was fair
62．Amanda went to Hawarden in order to      
A．serve as umpire
C．make money
B．watch her brother play
D．help the local teams
63．Amanda most probably learned how to umpire a baseball game       .
　A．in her P．E．classes at school    B．in an umpire training school
　 C．by watching and playing the games D．from her mother，a baseball umpire
64．Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
　 A．Amanda Clement．First Female Umpire
　 B．A Family of Baseball Fans
　 C．Baseball Games in Hawarden，Iowa
　 D．The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown

 — Did you have a wonderful time at the ball last night?

— __________! I’ve never had a more wonderful time all my life.