David Beckham was born on 2nd May, 1975, in the suburbs of London, at a place called Leytonstone. When he was a young boy, his greatest passion was football. He played it whenever he had the chance. Sometimes he would go and watch a game with his friends. When David Beckham was 12 years old, he won the Bobby Charlton Soccer Skills award. This was an important step forward for this young boy, and it led to him going for a visit to a football training camp in Spain. As a boy at secondary school he played for tile schools of Essex and also for his country team.

On 8th July, 1991, he became a trainee with Manchester United. This meant that he could practice football as much as he wanted to and play for the highly successful Manchester United Youth Cup team and Under-21 team. On 2nd April, 1995, he played his first major football league game against Leeds United. During 1995 and 1996, David became a regular member of the team and Manchester United won in both seasons, with David scoring many goals.

His goals made him a household name. In the first game of the 1996 — 1997 season, he scored an amazing goal from beyond the halfway line. Seeing the goalkeeper a little way out of his goal, David sent the ball over the goalkeeper’s head and into the goal. It was a Wonderful goal and Beckham became famous overnight. He continued to score astonishing goals, especially from free-kicks. The speed of one of his shots was timed at 157kph. He also had the ability to make the ball curl from left to right, or right to left, whenever he chose.  He could made it glide high through the air, or dive down steeply. Goalkeepers were never sure where the ball was going, and it regularly ended up in the goal.

When David Beckham was young ______.

A. he played football all the time    

B. his main interest was football

C. one of his interests was football   

D. he watched football whenever he had the chance

During the 1995 and 1996 seasons, Beckham ______.

    A. was normally a member of the Manchester United team

    B. played all the time

    C. won most of the matches for Manchester United

    D. was the winner in both years

Beckham became famous because he showed that he had the ability ______.

    A. to move the ball in any direction in the air

    B. to trick the goalkeepers and score goals

    C. to swing the ball through the air and score goals

    D. to kick the ball very hard and score goals

“His goals made him a household name” probably means ______.

    A. he became very famous because of his goals

    B. his family became very popular

    C. many people started to come to see the house where he lived

    D. his name became popular in England

  This is  16  the story goes. A footballer was accused 17  taking money for deliberately not  18  (score) goals so as to let the other team win. We went to interview him. He denied taking money 19   we were skeptical. So we arranged  20  interview between the footballer and the man supposed  21  (bribe) him. When we saw them together we guessed from the footballer’s body language that he was not telling the truth. So we 22  (write) an article suggesting he was  23 (guilt). It was a dilemma because the footballer could have demanded damages if we were wrong. He tried to stop 24   publishing it but later we   25    (prove) right..

TERESOPOLIS, Brazil – Brazil coach Dunga has poured scorn (蔑视) on the suggestion that his team lack a so – called “number nine.”

The number is traditionally worn by the out – and – out striker in Brazilian football and, at national team level, has belonged to Ronaldo for the best part of the last decade.

Ronaldo, hit by a loss of form and injuries, has not been picked since last year’s World Cup and Dunga has struggled to find a replacement. The coach, however, said he was not worried.

“We have this fixation about the number nine,” Dunga told reporters on Thursday, three days before his team face Colombia in their first match of the 2010 World Cup qualifying competition.

“If we put a number 20 on the field and he started scoring lots of goals, it would cause confusion.”

“When I played for Brazil, Romario was the marksman but he wore number 11. so I suppose today he would be out of the team.”

Adriano would have been Ronaldo’s obvious substitute until recently but has suffered a dramatic loss of form in the last year while Fred, the other leading candidate, has a long – term injury.

In their absence, Dunga has shared the striker’s role between Vagner Love and Afonso, the former managing three goals in 17 games and the latter one in seven.

The coach said it was important for all the players to share goals.

“In modern football, everyone has to score, it’s up to whoever is in the penalty area, ” he said.

“If you cross the halfway line, you become a forward and you have to know how to play the ball and have an eye for goal.”

“The more players who score goals, the better.”

1．In Dunga’s eyes,          .

       A．who wears the number nine football shirt is not important

       B．whoever wears number nine should score more goals

       C．number nine should belong to Ronaldo only

       D．number nine is causing confusion

2．Ronaldo hasn’t been picked since last year’s World Cup because          .

       A．he usually wears the number nine

       B．he can’t play well any more

       C．he is not getting on well with the coach

       D．he has some injuries and is not in good health

3．Which of the following is NOT true?

       A．Dunga is now the coach of the Brazilian national team.

       B．Dunga once played together with Romario.

       C．Number nine really has a magic power.

       D．Vagner Love once scored 3 goals in 17 games.

4．Dunga believes that          .

       A．it’s up to the striker to score goals

       B．every player should go to the penalty area

       C．it’s important for players to cross the halfway line

       D．team work is very important in modern football

5．We can infer that          .

       A．Ronaldo has got a lot of injuries

       B．Fred has also got a long – term injury

       C．football palyers can get injured easily

       D．Adriano is not in a good state

    This is  16  the story goes. A footballer was accused 17  taking money for deliberately not  18  (score) goals so as to let the other team win. We went to interview him. He denied taking money 19   we were skeptical. So we arranged  20  interview between the footballer and the man supposed  21  (bribe) him. When we saw them together we guessed from the footballer’s body language that he was not telling the truth. So we 22  (write) an article suggesting he was  23 (guilt). It was a dilemma because the footballer could have demanded damages if we were wrong. He tried to stop 24   publishing it but later we   25    (prove) right..