question: Marjorie Gestring 

Marjorie Gestring was a springboard diver from the United States who won the gold medal in 3-meter springboard diving at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany at the age of 13 years. With the cancellation of the Olympics in 1940 and 1944 because of World War II, Gestring did not get a chance to defend her title, and her comeback attempt for the 1948 Summer Olympics failed. 

Bob Mathias 

17-year-old American Bob Mathias won the decathlon only four months after taking up the sport. He is the youngest athlete in Olympic history to win a men's track and field event. By the time Mathias retired from decathlon competition in 1952, he had nine victories in nine competitions. He had won two gold medals separately in 1948 and 1952. In 1954 a film about his early life called The Bob Mathias Story was made, in which he and his wife played themselves. 

Fu Mingxia 

Fu Mingxia was born on August 16, 1978 in Wuhan, Hubei Province. At an early age, her father taught her to swim at a nearby river. She started exercising gymnastics at age 5, soon turning to diving. Fu Mingxia left home at age 9 to train in Beijing. In the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona, Fu Mingxia became China's youngest Olympic champion ever when she won the 10-meter platform gold at the age of 13. 

Ian Thorpe 

Ian Thorpe was born on 13 October, 1982. He is a former Australian freestyle swimmer. At the age of 14, he became the youngest male ever to represent Australia. Ian Thorpe, 17 years old, won the gold medal in the 400m freestyle by breaking his own world record in Sydney 2000. He has won five Olympic gold medals.
1. What event was Marjorie Gestring compete in?
2. What olympics did she win a gold metal in?
3. Why didn't she compete in the Olympics in 1940 and 1944?
4. When was Iam Thrope born?
5. What did he do at age 14 that was so impressive?
6. How many gold medals did Bob Mathias win?
7. What years did he win them in?
8. What Did Iam thrope medal in?
9. How many Olympic medals has he one total?
10. Who's world record did he break in the year 2000 at Sydney?
****
answer: 1. springboard diving
2. 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin
3. World War II,
4. 13 October, 1982
5. youngest male to represent Australia in the Olympics
6. two
7. 1948 and 1952
8. 400m freestyle
9. five
10. his own


question: Golf in the USA was until quite recently the hobby of old,middle class white men.Not any more.The fact that the class,age and race barriers that existed in the sport have finally been broken down is due almost entirely to two people.Tiger Woods and Michelle Wie. 

Tiger Woods was born in California in 1975 and is one of the greatest golfers of all time.His ethnic background is marvelously rich and varied.His father Earl was of mixed of black,Chinese and Native American ancestry and his mother Kultida,who was originally from Thailand,also had Chinese and Dutch forefathers. 

Woods became a professional golfer in 1996 and,less than a year later,astonished the world easily winning the prestigious Masters Colf Tournament,an annual event which takes place at the Augusta Golf Club in Georgia,USA.At 21,he was the youngest golfer ever to win the tournament,but much more important,he was also the first Asian American to do it. 

Woods'amazing achievement is put into perspective when you realize that until 1990,no non-white American had ever been allowed to join Augusta Golf Club.Even in 2000,it only had two black members.In fact,in 1977,Clifford Roberts,the chairman of the club and founder of the Masters Tournament,proclaimed:"As long as 1 am alive,golfers will be white and caddies 

will be black."Roberts died not long after making this racist remark... 

Fortunately,his views were not shared by his successors and the dramatic appearance of Tiger Woods on the Golf scene radically changed attitudes to the sport and prompted a major surge of interest in the game among ethnic minorities end young people in the USA. 

Michelle Wie,a Korean American born in 1989 whose mother was an amateur golf champion in Korea,will probably became the greatest woman golfer of all time.She's 1.85 meters tall and she can play a golf ball further than most men.Like Woods,she has transformed the world of golf,and wants to do so in even more dramatic ways.She has expressed her determination to play on the men's tournament circuit,not just the women's,and has already appeared in several professional men's tournaments. 

Thanks to Woods and Wie,golf in America will never be the same again.
1. In what year was Tiger Woods born?
2. In what state?
3. What sport does he play?
4. Is he  mixed race?
5. What racial background does his father have?
6. And his mother?
7. From what country is she?
8. What is her name?
9. In what year did Woods start his career in golfing?
10. Did he win a big award within a year of that?
11. Where does it take place?
12. How old was Woods at this time?
13. Was he the first Asian American to win it?
14. Who was chairman of the Augusta Golf Club?
15. What tournament did he establish?
16. In what year was Michelle Wie born?
17. What nationality is she?
18. Was her mother involved in golfing?
****
answer: 1. 1975
2. California
3. Golf
4. ethnic background is marvelously rich and varied
5. black,Chinese and Native American
6. Chinese and Dutch
7. Thailand
8. Kultida
9. 1996
10. Masters Colf Tournament
11. Augusta Golf Club in Georgia
12. 21
13. yes
14. Clifford Roberts
15. Masters Tournament
16. 1989
17. 1989
18. Korean American


question: CHAPTER XXV 

"I would do it now" 

Though it was rumoured all over London that the Duke of Omnium was dying, his Grace had been dressed and taken out of his bed-chamber into a sitting-room, when Madame Goesler was brought into his presence by Lady Glencora Palliser. He was reclining in a great arm-chair, with his legs propped up on cushions, and a respectable old lady in a black silk gown and a very smart cap was attending to his wants. The respectable old lady took her departure when the younger ladies entered the room, whispering a word of instruction to Lady Glencora as she went. "His Grace should have his broth at half-past four, my lady, and a glass and a half of champagne. His Grace won't drink his wine out of a tumbler, so perhaps your ladyship won't mind giving it him at twice." 

"Marie has come," said Lady Glencora. 

"I knew she would come," said the old man, turning his head round slowly on the back of his chair. "I knew she would be good to me to the last." And he laid his withered hand on the arm of his chair, so that the woman whose presence gratified him might take it within hers and comfort him. 

"Of course I have come," said Madame Goesler, standing close by him and putting her left arm very lightly on his shoulder. It was all that she could do for him, but it was in order that she might do this that she had been summoned from London to his side. He was wan and worn and pale,--a man evidently dying, the oil of whose lamp was all burned out; but still as he turned his eyes up to the woman's face there was a remnant of that look of graceful fainéant nobility which had always distinguished him. He had never done any good, but he had always carried himself like a duke, and like a duke he carried himself to the end. 
1. Who is ill?
2. Who visited him?
3. Who was she introduced by?
4. What is Goesler's first name?
5. Where did she come from?
6. Was she asked to come to the duke?
7. How does the duke look?
8. Was he expecting this visitor?
9. Was the duke a kind man?
10. Has he eaten already?
****
answer:
1. the Duke of Omnium
2. Madame Goesler
3. Lady Glencora Palliser.
4. Marie
5. from London
6. yes
7. wan and worn and pale
8. yes
9. no
10. no