Davey wanted to play baseball. But fifty years ago, in his small town, he couldn’t find enough players for two full teams or an empty lot big enough for a field. And when he played ball in his back yard, he just broke windows and got into trouble. So Davey began playing with a plastic golf ball and a broom handle for a bat.
When his dad, David Mullaney, a former semi-pro baseball pitcher(投手), realized his son was hurting his arm trying to throw curves with the little plastic ball, he decided to find a better solution. Mullaney got a bunch of hollow plastic spheres from a local factory, sat down at his kitchen table and began cutting different size holes in the balls with a razor knife. He thought maybe the holes would alter the ball’s flight and help his son throw curves and sliders without hurting his arm.
All the balls failed—except the one with the eight oblong(长椭圆形的) holes cut into one of the hemispheres. This ball curved naturally and sharply without a violent snap of the wrist. In fact, Davey was now striking out so many batters; he called his new ball a “wiffle ball”. A year later, Mullaney borrowed $20,000 from family and friends and started producing Wiffle Balls in his little suburban town of Shelton, Connecticut.
“I didn’t want investors.” He said, “I wanted to control my own company.” This was the beginning of one of the hottest fads(时尚) of the fifties and a perennial(长久的) best seller well known all around the world. Since then millions of boys and girls have enjoyed countless hours of safe, wholesome fun playing with a Wiffle ball and bat. Esquire Magazine has even called the Wiffle Ball “a national treasure”. By producing a high quality product at an affordable price, three generations of Mullany’s have enjoyed the satisfaction and benefits of running a successful and profitable family business.
Over the years, they’ve had plenty of offers to buy them out, but they’re still working out of a small factory in Shelton, making a new Wiffle Ball every couple of seconds. Creativity and persistence are two of the important sources for wealth. If he gave up his attempts at trying new things, Mullany would not have invented the wiffle ball, nor would he have made such a big fortune.
小题1:From the passage we can know that .
A．Mullaney made the invention of Wiffle ball with the help of his son
B．fifty years ago people didn’t like playing baseball very much
C．Mullaney’s attempts to help Davey better enjoy ball-playing led to the invention of Wiffle ball
D．playing balls would hurt one’s arm before the Wiffle ball’s appearance小题2:All the following are true EXCEPT .
A．Davey was a good ballplayer after the Wiffle ball came into existence
B．David Mullaney wanted to run the family business on his own
C．Mullaney’s family made a big fortune through the production of Wiffle balls
D．Mullaney’s business was nearly bought out but they worked hard to keep it小题3:The underlined word “spheres” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to .
A．balls
B．bottles
C．bags
D．boxes小题4:The two important factors for Mullaney’s successful family business are .
A．time and fortune
B．persistence and creativity
C．quality and fame
D．cooperation and efforts小题5:The passage mainly tells us something about .
A．Davey, a famous baseball player
B．a popular ball game in the 1950’s
C．the birth of Wiffle ball
D．the success of a family business
