I was bleeding now. My ears were red, my nose was broken, and the pain of failure was beginning. I had lost. It was over. The match was stopped. The world seemed to stand still for a moment as I looked at who had beaten me. “I’ve lost,” I said in m mind. “The last chance to win and I had lost.” It was the final round of wrestling. It was my last year at camp and I wanted to have an undefeated season. But now, I had lost in the tournament（錦標賽）.
My coach came over to help me up. He saw that my nose was broken and realized that the match had to be stopped. He helped me up and I got small applause from my teammates. People on the other team just stared. Coach walked me over to the locker room to work on my nose.
“I’ll stop the bleeding,” Coach Matt said. His voice was cold and empty. He had expected me to win—he knew I could have won—but now he saw it was over. I had lost.
“Hey, Steve. You did good, man, He, well, he just…” my friend Paul couldn’t find what to say.
“Forget it, man.” I said, my nose still bleeding.
“Don’t talk or it won’t stop bleeding. Just relax and breath through your mouth.” Coach Matt’s voice was still cold, but warming slowly. He was like a father to me. He had been there through all my years of wrestling, all my wins and losess , all my hopes and dreams—and now he was there, fixing my smashed nose.
“This must have happened during that last throw. You fell too much on your face. You should’ve turned and tried to escape. You gotta think more.” Coach Matt began, his voice now warm like an old friend trying to give good advice.
“I wanted this so badly.” I said.
“Maybe we can get another contest because of the nose. You can still go undefeated! You can still do it…” Paul continued.
No, I lost. Nothing was left for me to do this year. This was supposed to be the year—no loses.” I said, cutting him off before he finished.
“Steve, you did your best. Come on. Let’s go and get your medal,” Coach said. He looked at me right in the eyes. “You gave it your all. You deserved that trophy(戰(zhàn)利品), not the silver medal. You deserve it, but he is getting it. You really won and the whole team is proud.”
I walked up to get my medal, my head held high. I shook the hands of the judges and my opponent, took m medal and saw that, in the eyes of everyone, I had really won. No matter what trophy or medal my opponent took home, no matter what. He may have had my trophy, but he could never have my will.
1. The word “applause” in the second paragraph means _____.
A. cheers and hand—clapping B. shouts and crying
C. screaming and laughing D. noises and whistling
2. “You gave it your all.” means that _____.
A. you tried to win but you failed B. you have done your best to do it
C. you never gave up doing it D. you succeeded in everything
3. The hero lost his match. Both his coach and friends thought that _____.
A. he really showed his strength in it
B. he shouldn’t be encouraged and thought highly of
C. he could not match his opponent
D. he had lost heart at the end of the competition
4. According to the hero, at the end of the passage, we can suppose that____.
A. he had made up his mind to win all the matches the next season
B. he looked down upon his opponent and though nothing of it
C. he had strong will to become the best wrestler in the world
D. he wanted to end his career as a professional wrestler
