Billy Joe Saunders is aiming for boxing gold at the Beijing Olympics but may have created history already.
As far as he knows, the 18-year-old welterweight from Hatfield is the first person from the Romany Gypsy community to qualify for an Olympic Games.
Billy Joe clinched （最終獲得）his place at a qualifying event in Italy earlier this month and is one of seven boxers to make Team GB for Beijing.
Billy Joe Saunders is not the only British boxer with genuine（真的）medal prospects for Beijing, but his background has to be the most fascinating.
He comes from the Romany Gypsy community and lives on a caravan site near Hatfield in Hertfordshire.
Boxing runs deep in the Saunders family, who are immensely proud of their heritage.
His brother Tommy is a professional（職業(yè)的）, while his Dad Tom was an amateur and his great, great grandfather, the wonderfully named Absolom Beeny, now aged 96, used to make his living fighting in the old boxing booth at fairgrounds.
Billy Joe admits he has heard all the stories a hundred times, but once he and his brother had visited the local boxing club, he was hooked.
"Boxing has kept me off the streets, stops me smoking and drinking and gives me something to do", he said.
His background may be colorful, but make no mistake, Billy Joe Saunders is one very special boxer.
As a boy he wasn't the most naturally gifted, but had an inner toughness that set him apart from other fighters.
His trainer, Danny Hoy, said: "When I saw him have to dig down into his boots against much older boys, I thought this kid is not the same as anyone else. There is something with this kid".
It is that something which made Billy Joe a real prospect for London 2012, so qualification for Beijing means he is effectively four years ahead of schedule.
He remembers watching Amir Khan win silver in Athens four years ago, and wants to go one better. "I'm aiming for gold, simple as that", he said.
51．Where did Billy clinch his place as a boxer to make Team GB for Beijing.
A. At Beijing                                 B. At Romany Gypsy community     
C. In Italy                                                D. In Britain
52．The underlined word " amateur" (in Para. 3) here means ________
A. a person who takes part in boxing only for pleasure    
B. a person who takes part in boxing as his job
C. a coach who teaches boxing
D. a player who takes part in baseball
53．Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A. Billy’s brother is a professional boxer.   
B. Absolom’s son is not a professional boxer.
C. Billy was very interested in the local boxing club.
D. Billy was the most naturally gifted when he was still a very young boy.
54．It can be inferred from the passage that________
A. His coach thought Billy was gifted to be a boxer when he saw Billy’s boots against older boys.
B. It was Boxing that has kept Billy off the streets.
C. Billy won a silver medal in Athens Olympic Games..
D. Billy will compete in Beijing Olympic Games four years ahead of his trainer’s schedule.
55．What is Billy hoping to win in Beijing Olympic Games?
A. A silver medal for boxing                      B. A gold medal for boxing  
C. A piece of gold                              D. A copper medal

As a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents in Texas. And every few summers, we’d __16__ the caravan (旅游團(tuán)隊(duì)), a group of Airstream trailer owners who __17__ together around the U.S. and Canada．
I loved and worshipped my grandparents and I really looked __18__ to these travels. On one particular __ 19__ ，I was about 10 years old. I was rolling around in the backseat. My grandfather was __20__ . And my grandmother had the passenger seat. She smoked throughout these trips, and I hated the __21__.
At that age, I’d take any excuse to make estimates(估計(jì)) and do minor __22__．At any rate, I decided to do the math for my __23__. I estimated the number of  cigarettes per days, estimated the number of __24__ per cigarette and so on. When I was satisfied that I’d come up with a reasonable number, I poked my head  into the __25__ of the car, tapped my grandmother __26__ the shoulder, and proudly proclaimed, “At two minutes per puff, you've taken nine years off your __27__!” Because the ad said, every puff of a cigarette takes some  number of minutes __28__ smoker’s life．
I expected to be applauded for my __29__ and arithmetic skills. That’s not what happened．__30__, my grandmother burst into __31__. I sat in the backseat and did not know what to do. My grandfather was a highly intelligent, __32__ man. He had never said a harsh word to me. He pulled __33__ onto the shoulder of the highway. He stopped and got out of the car, __34__ me, and after a bit of silence，he gently and __35__ said, “Jeff, one day you’ll understand that it’s harder to be kind than clever.”  

Before Nicholas Clapp got there, he had half hoped that he might run into some of Ubar’s ruins sticking(凸出) out of the sand. But finding the city wasn’t that easy. During the summer, he and his 40 helpers dug at 35 different spots. The only things they found were ground spiders, giant ticks, and deadly snakes.

Just before Thanksgiving says Clapp, “We were within a whisker of total failure.”

But then Clapp’s team looked at the high-tech maps again and saw something surprising. Many of the caravan routes(沙漠商隊(duì)路線)on the high-tech maps came together on the same spot marked “Omani Marketplace” on Ptolomy’s map. Two maps, made almost 2000 years apart, pointed the team toward the same area!

In December 1991, Clapp arrived at the spot where, according to the maps, the caravans met. Clapp had a handheld instrument that could detect(探測) objects below the ground. It showed ruins under the sand! He and his team started digging. And then they found it! A tower buried in the sand. They slowly unearthed a giant, eight-sided fortress(堡壘). It had nine towers and many rooms. People had lived in this fortress 2000 years ago. Outside its walls, they had found buried remains of nearly 40 campsites. They seemed to be camping areas for traders(商人). 

More digging found shards, or pieces of pottery(陶瓷) from ancient Rome, Greece, China, Egypt, and Syria. Diggers and scientists agree that people were here for about 5000 years. Clapp and his team were excited as they continued to discover more pieces of the past that seemed to prove that it was the lost city of Ubar.

“We started with this hopeless myth(神秘),” says Clapp, “and then finally found the truth behind the myth.” But is this unearthed site really the once-great Ubar? Experts aren’t totally persuaded.

Donald Whitcomb is an archeologist(考古學(xué)家) at the University of Chicago. He doubts that Clapp really discovered Ubar. “There’s probably some truth to this myth,” he says. “But Ubar is described as a place with walls all made of gold, and the rubies and emeralds(寶石).” No gold or precious stones have been found by Clapp.

“I’m not sure whether they discovered Ubar because I’m not sure if Ubar really existed,” Whitcomb says.

1.The following statements are true according to the reading EXCEPT_____.

2.Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined part?

3.It can be inferred from the reading that Nicholas Clapp is _____

As a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents in Texas. And every few summers, we’d __16__ the caravan (旅游團(tuán)隊(duì)), a group of Airstream trailer owners who __17__ together around the U.S. and Canada．

I loved and worshipped my grandparents and I really looked __18__ to these travels. On one particular __ 19__ ，I was about 10 years old. I was rolling around in the backseat. My grandfather was __20__ . And my grandmother had the passenger seat. She smoked throughout these trips, and I hated the __21__.

    At that age, I’d take any excuse to make estimates(估計(jì)) and do minor __22__．At any rate, I decided to do the math for my __23__. I estimated the number of  cigarettes per days, estimated the number of __24__ per cigarette and so on. When I was satisfied that I’d come up with a reasonable number, I poked my head  into the __25__ of the car, tapped my grandmother __26__ the shoulder, and proudly proclaimed, “At two minutes per puff, you've taken nine years off your __27__!” Because the ad said, every puff of a cigarette takes some  number of minutes __28__ smoker’s life．

I expected to be applauded for my __29__ and arithmetic skills. That’s not what happened．__30__, my grandmother burst into __31__. I sat in the backseat and did not know what to do. My grandfather was a highly intelligent, __32__ man. He had never said a harsh word to me. He pulled __33__ onto the shoulder of the highway. He stopped and got out of the car, __34__ me, and after a bit of silence，he gently and __35__ said, “Jeff, one day you’ll understand that it’s harder to be kind than clever.”   

1.A. take  B. join   C. attend    D. visit

2.A. work  B. study  C. travel     D. explore

3.A. forward    B. backward   C. toward    D. upward

4.A. holiday    B. research     C. trip      D. return

5.A. talking     B. reading     C. training   D. driving

6.A. scene      B. smell       C. band      D. type

7.A. arithmetic(算數(shù))  B. question  C. game    D. problem

8.A. grandfather  B. grandmother  C. visitor    D. car

9.A. cases     B. smokes   C. kinds   D. puffs(煙頭)

10.A. window   B. seat      C. back        D. front  

11.A. at        B. in        C. on           D. under

12.A. tour      B. life      C. distance       D. date

13.A. away     B. from      C. with         D. off

14.A. cleverness   B. coolness   C. happiness    D. ability

15.A. Eventually   B. Instead   C. Unfortunately  D. Though

16.A. words     B. laughters    C. tears       D. screams

17.A. stubborn   B. determined  C. lonely      D. quiet

18.A. over        B. in         C. away       D. up

19.A. noticed      B. looked     C. glared      D. glanced

20.A. angrily      B. excitedly    C. calmly    D. coldly

Billy Joe Saunders is aiming for boxing gold at the Beijing Olympics but may have created history already.

As far as he knows, the 18-year-old welterweight from Hatfield is the first person from the Romany Gypsy community to qualify for an Olympic Games.

Billy Joe clinched （最終獲得）his place at a qualifying event in Italy earlier this month and is one of seven boxers to make Team GB for Beijing.

Billy Joe Saunders is not the only British boxer with genuine（真的）medal prospects for Beijing, but his background has to be the most fascinating.

He comes from the Romany Gypsy community and lives on a caravan site near Hatfield in Hertfordshire.

Boxing runs deep in the Saunders family, who are immensely proud of their heritage.

His brother Tommy is a professional（職業(yè)的）, while his Dad Tom was an amateur and his great, great grandfather, the wonderfully named Absolom Beeny, now aged 96, used to make his living fighting in the old boxing booth at fairgrounds.

Billy Joe admits he has heard all the stories a hundred times, but once he and his brother had visited the local boxing club, he was hooked.

"Boxing has kept me off the streets, stops me smoking and drinking and gives me something to do", he said.

His background may be colorful, but make no mistake, Billy Joe Saunders is one very special boxer.

As a boy he wasn't the most naturally gifted, but had an inner toughness that set him apart from other fighters.

His trainer, Danny Hoy, said: "When I saw him have to dig down into his boots against much older boys, I thought this kid is not the same as anyone else. There is something with this kid".

It is that something which made Billy Joe a real prospect for London 2012, so qualification for Beijing means he is effectively four years ahead of schedule.

He remembers watching Amir Khan win silver in Athens four years ago, and wants to go one better. "I'm aiming for gold, simple as that", he said.

51．Where did Billy clinch his place as a boxer to make Team GB for Beijing.

A. At Beijing                                 B. At Romany Gypsy community     

C. In Italy                                                D. In Britain

52．The underlined word " amateur" (in Para. 3) here means ________

A. a person who takes part in boxing only for pleasure    

B. a person who takes part in boxing as his job

C. a coach who teaches boxing

D. a player who takes part in baseball

53．Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A. Billy’s brother is a professional boxer.   

B. Absolom’s son is not a professional boxer.

C. Billy was very interested in the local boxing club.

D. Billy was the most naturally gifted when he was still a very young boy.

54．It can be inferred from the passage that________

A. His coach thought Billy was gifted to be a boxer when he saw Billy’s boots against older boys.

B. It was Boxing that has kept Billy off the streets.

C. Billy won a silver medal in Athens Olympic Games..

D. Billy will compete in Beijing Olympic Games four years ahead of his trainer’s schedule.

55．What is Billy hoping to win in Beijing Olympic Games?

A. A silver medal for boxing                      B. A gold medal for boxing  

C. A piece of gold                              D. A copper medal