Gu Ailing claims World Cup win

2020-06-28吴安运

疯狂英语·新悦读 2020年6期

难词探意

1. podium /'pəʊdiəm/ n. 讲台

2. naturalization /'nætʃərəlaɪ'zeɪʃn/ n. 归化

3. dominance /'dɒmɪnəns/ n. 优势；统治

China's 16-year-old double Youth Olympic Games champion Gu Ailing claimed her first halfpipe(U型池) World Cup win in Calgary, Canada. Gu scored 94.00 points on her third and final run to top thepodium.Canada's Rachael Karker finished second at 89.20 points and Russia's Valeriya Demidova took bronze with 87.20 points.

This is Gu's second World Cup season. She won her first slopestyle （坡面障碍技巧） World Cup event in Seiser Alm, Italy,last year. The all-rounder got better at each run on Friday evening and put down some tricks she has never landed successfully in the contest beforehand. “Moments like these make me feel the luckiest girl in the world. Coming in, I didn't have any expectations. I try not to take anything for granted. Honestly, I could not have expected two wins from these events,” Gu posted on her Instagram.

In June 2019, the teenage freeskier became China's first naturalized skiing athlete. At her most recent competition action at the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games, she won the halfpipe gold as well as a slopestyle silver and a big air gold, making her the country's most promising freestyle skiing star.

Born to a Chinese mother and an American father in San Francisco, US, Gu, better known as Eileen in the States, completed a naturalization process last June to represent China in international competitions.Now she has her sights set on making her mother's home country proud at the 2022 Beijing Games.

A talented skier who has won many national junior titles in the US, Gu shot to prominence after winning two golds and a silver—in halfpipe, big air and slopestyle—at her debut Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland.

With Gu now on board in freeski, China's snow sports team, which also features world-class aerial skiers and halfpipe snowboarders, is determined to challenge Westerndominanceon the snow in 2022.

Reading

Check

1. How does Gu feel about the win?

A. It's out of question. B. It's unexpected.C. It's beneficial. D. It's worrying.

2. What does the underlined word “prominence” in paragraph 5 mean?

A. Record. B. Fame. C. Surprise. D. Preparation.

3. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A. Gu will be the next champion on the snow.

B. Western countries will focus on freeski than ever.

C. Western athletes do worse than Chinese athletes on the snow.

D. Gu will take part in the 2022 Beijing Games as a Chinese athlete.

Language