阅读理解。
Born in 1949, Diana Nyad took an early interest in swimming as a sport and was a Florida State
High School swimming champion. Like many young athletes, she had Olympic dreams, but a serious
illness kept her from competing in the Games. The disappointment didn't stop her from going forward.
Instead, she became interested in marathon swimming. A brilliant athlete, she was well-conditioned for
spending long periods of time in the water. As a long-distance swimmer, she would compete against
herself and the obstacles presented by distance, danger, cold, and exhaustion.
For ten years Nyad devoted herself to becoming one of the world's best long-distance swimmers.
In 1970, she swam a ten-mile marathon in Lake Ontario, setting the women's record for the course.
In 1972 she set another record by swimming 102.5 miles from an island in the Bahamas to the coast
of Florida. Then she broke a third record when swimming around Manhattan Island in 1975.
Nyad attempted to swim the distance between Florida and Cuba in 1978. Though the span of water
is less than 100 miles wide, it is rough and dangerous. After battling the water for two days, she had to
give for the sake of her own health and safety. Even so, she impressed the world with her courage and
strong desire to succeed. For Nyad her strength of purpose was just as important as reading Cuba.
That is how she defined success. It did not matter that her swim came up short; she believed she had
touched the other shore.
When Nyad ended her career as a swimmer, she continued to try new things---travelling the world
as a reporter, writing books and giving public speeches about her life. Diana Nyad works to inspire
others, just as she did when she swam the waters of the world.
1. What prevented Nyad from taking part in the Olympic Games? (No more than 5 words)
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2. What does the underlined word "obstacles" mean? (1 word)
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3. What achievement did Nyad make in 1970? (No more than 10 words.)
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4. Why did Nyad believe that she had touched the other shore? (No more than 10 words)
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5. Please explain how you are inspired by Nyad. (No more than 20 words)
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