Twenty-six years after a terrible bicycle accident left her comatose（昏迷） for two months and with permanent brain injuries, Barbara Buchan, performs many actions more slowly than others. But on September 10 in Beijing, Buchan, at 52, the oldest member of the United States Paralympic team, broke the record and won the gold medal for her disability class in the individual 3,000-meter cycling pursuit.
“You can be very upset at the world and have everyone take care of you,” Buchan said by telephone from Beijing, “or
get back on your feet again.”
Buchan first dreamed of Olympic gold at age 15 while watching the 1972 Munich Games. She became a top American cyclist by July 1982, when a terrible road-race crash injured her brain and left doctors doubtful about whether she would survive. She was wearing only a soft leather helmet at the time; her accident made the rule put into practice that cyclists wear the hard-shell helmets that are now common.
Buchan recovered enough of her athletic ability to run track in the 1988 Paralympics in Seoul, where she won a silver medal in the 800 meters. Women’s cycling was not included in the Paralympics yet, so Buchan trained to the point where she raced against men in the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney, Australia — she finished 9th and 10th in two races — and then successfully fought for a separate women’s cycling program beginning in 2004 in Athens, where she did not get a medal.
Even though she was approaching her 50s, Buchan kept racing and again made the United States Paralympic team for Beijing — where she is twice the age of most of her teammates and competitors.
“Barbara’s almost the leader of our team — she’s been through it all,” said Craig Griffin, the United States cycling coach. “She’s never retired. She’s never let her body go and then come back. I don’t think age is as big of a deal as people make it out to be.”
小題1:According to the passage, after the accident, ____________.
| A．Buchan asked her friends to take care of her |
| B．cyclists started to wear helmets in competition |
| C．Buchan could not answer questions correctly |
| D．doctors doubted whether Buchan could come back to life |
小題2:What’s the right order of the events related to Buchan?
a. She won a gold medal in Beijing.
b. She became a top American cyclist.
c. She won a silver medal in the 800 meters.
d. She suffered a terrible bicycle accident.
e. She took part in a cycling program in Athens.
| A．c-d-b-a-e | B．b-c-d-a-e | C．b-d-c-e-a | D．c-b-d-e-a |
小題3:What does the underlined phrase
“get back on your feet” in the second paragraph mean?
| A．rise to your feet | B．walk on your way |
| C．go beyond yourself | D．depend on yourself |
小題4:Which of the following can be the best title for this passage?
| A．The Making of a Hero | B．From a Loser to a Winner |
| C．All Roads Lead to Rome | D．Health is Better than Wealth |
