I LOVE FOOTBALL. I started playing when I was nine years old, and football got me through difficult periods. It helps make me who I am today. And even though I did not reach the National Football League, I sometimes think I got more from achieving that dream, without realizing it.
My romance with football started when my dad drove me, kicking and screaming, to join a league. I didn’t want to be there at first. I was naturally weak and small. Fear turned to awe ( 敬畏 ) when I met my coach, Jim Graham, a huge and strong guy. And he was really strict and old-school.
Coach Graham used to drive me hard. I remember one practice in particular. “You’re doing it all wrong, Pausch. Go back! Do it again!” I tried to do what he wanted. But it wasn’t enough. “You owe( 欠 ) me, Pausch! You’re doing push-ups after practice.
When the practice was over, one of the assistant coaches came up to me. “Coach Graham drove you pretty hard, didn’t he?” he said.
“Yeah.”
“That’s a good thing,” the assistant told me. “When you’re doing badly and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they’ve given up on you.”
That conversation has been with me closely my whole life. When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s willing to tell you anymore, that’s a bad place to be. You may not want to hear it, but those who always push you hard in your life are often the ones telling you they still love you and care about you, and want to make you better.
There’s a lot of talk these days about giving children self-respect. It’s not something you can give; it’s something they have to build. Coach Graham knew there was really only one way to teach kids how to make it stronger: You give them something they can’t do; they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating.
When Coach Graham first got hold of me, I was a weak kid with no skills and no physical strength. But he made me realize that if I work hard enough, there will be things I can do tomorrow that I can’t do today. I really felt thankful to Coach Graham for what he had done to me, though it surely didn’t feel good at that time to do so many push-ups after practice.
根据上文内容判断正 (T) 误 (F)
1 ． In the writer’s eyes, Coach Graham was strict and wise.
2 ． The writer believes that those who are quite strict with you actually think ill of you.
3 ． The writer was thankful to Graham because the coach encouraged him to do better.
4 ． From the passage, we can learn “Never offer to teach fish to swim”
5 ． Coach Graham knew the method to teach kids how to build self-respect.
1 ． T
2 ． F
3 ． T
4 ． F
5 ． T
【分析】
文章主要通过作者学习踢足球的时候与教练的相处经历和感受告诉我们：一分耕耘，一分收获的道理以及教练对作者的人生影响。
1. 推理判断题。根据 “Fear turned to awe ( 敬畏 ) when I met my coach, Jim Graham, a huge and strong guy. And he was really strict and old-school.” 以及 “Coach Graham knew there was really only one way to teach kids how to make it stronger…” 可知，教练是一个严厉且富有智慧的人，故选 T 。
2. 推理判断题。根据 “but those who always push you hard in your life are often the ones telling you they still love you and care about you, and want to make you better.” 可知，作者认为批评你的人实际上是爱你、关心你，想要你变得更好的人，故选 F 。
3. 推理判断题。根据 “But he made me realize that if I work hard enough, there will be things I can do tomorrow that I can’t do today. I really felt thankful to Coach Graham for what he had done to me” 可知，作者感谢教练是因为教练鼓励他做的更好，故选 T 。
4. 推理判断题。根据 “When Coach Graham first got hold of me, I was a weak kid with no skills and no physical strength…though it surely didn’t feel good at that time to do so many push-ups after practice.” 及整个文章的理解可知，足够的努力可以使人将来做到今天做不到的事情，故选 F 。
5. 推理判断题。根据 “There’s a lot of talk these days about giving children self-respect. It’s not something you can give…they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating.” 可知，格雷厄姆教练知道如何教孩子建立自尊的方法。故选 T 。
阅读短文，根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
It’s always challenging to face fear. Here are some ways to help you overcome（克服）it.
Breathing
As we know, breathing can help us relax. If you purposely breathe out longer than you breathe in, your body will calm down. If you start to feel fearful, try this. Take a breath in (to a count of 7 in your mind), and then slowly breathe out (to a count of 11 in your mind). To your surprise, if you do this for a minute or so, you’ll calm down quickly. We call this "7/11 breathing".
Using a different part of your brain
When we feel fearful, it’s harder to think clearly. But if we force ourselves to use the part of thinking brain, this will help to calm us down. The easiest way to do this is with numbers. You can set your own fear from l to 10, 10 being the worst state and 1 being the most relaxed state. When you’re feeling fearful, ask yourself; “Okay, what grade do I get right now? 7 or 5?” Just doing this will reduce fear because it starts the thinking brain. Once I gave a speech to three hundred people and I felt fearful. So I graded myself at 6, and waited for myself to go down to 3 before starting. I took control.
Getting control of your imagination
Imagine seeing yourself in the situation you were scared, but see yourself being calm and things going well. Doing this starts to recondition your mind to more calmly face the coming events which were causing fear.
It seems that overcoming fear is always the first step to finish all you need to do and it will help you devote yourself to what you really want to be and to do. It takes efforts, but it’s worth your try.
| 59． to overcome fear | |||
| Introduction | It’s challenging to face fear in your life. | ||
| Ways | Breathing | To calm down, you can breathe out 60． than you breathe in. You’ll be 61． that you’ve calmed down very quickly if you take 7/11 breathing. | |
| Using a different part of your brain | You can set ten 62． for your own fear with numbers. Grading your state of mind helps 63． the thinking brain and make you 64． fearful. | ||
| Getting control of your imagination | Imagine you’re in a bad 65． but you feel calm and things go well. It can help you feel 66． to face the coming events. | ||
| Conclusion | To finish all you need to do, you must overcome fear 67． It’s worth 68． though it takes efforts. | ||
