阅读理解
Thirteen, for me, was a challenging year. My parents divorced and I moved to a new town with my
father, far from my old family and friends. I was terribly lonely 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 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 is 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.
1. The underlined expression "shown the gate" (paragraph 3) 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
2. 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 bad run out of time
3. 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 so good as the others.
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.

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