Thirteen, for me, was a challenging year.

题目内容：

Thirteen, for me, was a challenging year. My parents divorced and I moved to a new town with my f

ather, far from my old family and friends. I was terribly lo nely mad and would cry myself to sleep each night. To ease my sadness, my father purchased an old horse for me at a local auction. I named him Cowboy.

Cowboy was without a doubt the ugliest horse in the world. But I didn’t care. I loved him beyond all reason.

I joined a riding club and suffered rude comments and mean snickers(窃笑) about Cowboy’s looks. I never let on about how I felt, but deep inside, my heart was breaking. The other members rode beautiful, registered horses.

When Cowboy and I entered the events where the horse was judged on appearance, we were quickly shown the gate. No amount of preparation and love would turn Cowboy into a beauty. My only chance to compete would be in the speed events. I chose the jumping race.

One girl named Becky rode a big brown horse in the race events. She always won the blue ribbons. Needless to say, she didn’t feel threatened when I competed against her at the next show. She didn’t need to. I came in next to last.

The stinging memory of Becky’s smirks made me determined to beat her. For the whole next month I woke up early every day and rode Cowboy five miles to the arena (赛马场). We practiced running and jumping for hours in the hot sun and then I would walk Cowboy home totally exhausted.

All of our hard work didn’t make me feel confident by the time the show came. I sat at the gate and sweated it out while I watched Becky and her horse charge through the course and finish in first place.

My turn finally came. I put on my hat, rubbed Cowboy’s neck and entered the arena. At the signal, we dashed toward the first fence, jumped it without trouble and raced on to the next one. Cowboy then flew over the second, third and fourth fences like a bird and I turned him toward the finish line.

As we crossed the line the crowd was shocked into silence. Cowboy and I had beaten Becky and her fancy horse by two seconds!

I gained much more than a blue ribbon that day. At thirteen, I realized that no matter what the odds, I’d always come out a winner if I wanted something badly enough to work for it.

小题1: The underlined expression "shown the gate" (paragraph 4) most probably means " __________".

A．told how to enter the arena

B．shown how to make the horse beautiful

C．removed from the competition early

D．told to enter the timed-speed events小题2: Why was the writer not confident of victory?

A．He was an inexperienced rider.

B．He had not practiced enough.

C．He believed he was unpopular with the crowd.

D．He thought his horse wasn’t as good as the others. 小题3:When the final race finished, nobody cheered because____________.

A．the audience didn’t like Cowboy

B．people envied the writer

C．the win was unexpected

D．the writer had run out of time小题4:What did the writer learn from his experience?

A．Life can sometimes be unfair.

B．Anything is possible if one tries hard enough.

C．A positive attitude will bring success.

D．One should not make judgments based on appearance. 小题5:The best title for the story is ___________. .

A．A Race to Remember

B．A Horse’s Tale

C．Neck and Neck

D．A Difficult Age 

最佳答案：

小题1:C

小题2:D

小题3:C

小题4:B

小题5:A

答案解析：

略

考点核心：

人物传记类文章的文体特征：

人物传记是记叙文体的一种，主要描写某人的生平事迹、趣闻轶事、生活背景、个性特征、成长奋斗历程等，包含记叙文的时间、地点、人物、事件等要素。其特点是以时间的先后或事件的发展为主线，空间或逻辑线索贯穿文章始终，脉络清楚，可读性较强。