When an official at the U. S. Open Pocket Pool(台球)Championship saw a 9-year-old girl playing at one of the tournament tables, he told her that spectators(观众)were not allowed to play. But much to his surprise, the girl was actually a competitor. That was nine years ago, and today, with five U. S. Open Women’s titles behind her and a recently won world championship, no one is likely to mistake Jean Balukas for a spectator again.
It doesn’t seem too surprising that Jean became caught up in pool——her father owns a pool hall within walking distance of the family’s home in Brooklyn. When she was just tall enough to see over the table, she fell in love with the game soon. Five years later Jean was ready to enter her first U. S. Open. She still remembers the letter the officials sent her reminding her that she wouldn’t be allowed to stand on a box to play.
As Jean improved, she found it increasingly difficult to play games at her father’s pool hall. “If I’d beat one of the guys, his friends would laugh at them about losing to me,” she says. Now Jean comes to the hall only weeks before a tournament when she plays Johnny Goon, her father’s pool manager.
That Johnny can beat her shows the gap that now exists in pool — as in other sports — between the top men and women competitors. “I’m supposedly the top woman player, but I’d have a hard time beating the number 50 man,” says Jean. “If I was a boy and played pool, I’d be a nobody.”
Jean thinks that women pool players still have a long way to go because pool has been a man’s game for so long. “When they think of pool players, people have this picture in their head of gambling(赌博) and smoke,” she says.
Jean won four of the seven games in these two years. She was as surprised as anyone else at her performance, even though she was a New York City tennis champion and center for her high-school basketball team. Jean does not take full credit for her achievements, saying, “I think what I have in sports is a gift from God, and that’s why I can get out there and do so well.”
小题1:We can learn from the first passage that Jean Balukas_____.
A．had become well-known at the age of 9
B．had achieved great fame at the age of 18
C．was often asked to play with men players
D．was refused to play in the U. S. Open for her young age小题2:The letter Jean received before her first U. S. Open_____.
A．told her to arrive in time for the game
B．showed people’s doubt about her ability
C．told her about the basic rules of the game
D．invited her to compete in the U. S. Open小题3:Jean Balukas believed that women pool players_____.
A．fall far behind men players
B．aren’t suitable for a man’s game
C．are impossible to beat any man player
D．have a bad reputation(名声) for gambling and smoking小题4:By saying the underlined words in the last paragraph Jean meant that _____.
A．women players had a long way to go
B．she wouldn’t stop before her great achievement
C．she had much confidence in the game
D．she achieved her success because of her born gift
