Unit 1 A land of diversity reading课时作业

Ⅰ.阅读理解

　　A

　　[2019·湖南长郡中学检测]On Wednesday, nearly 300 kids will take part in the National Spelling Bee. Fewer will make it to the following day's semi­finals, where one mistake means elimination (淘汰). I'd bet that many of them will be silently praying - not on the first word. I knew it because I was there 17 years ago.

　　I was a 14­year­old girl then. My mother and I had flown from Kentucky to Washington, but the capital was no strange to her. My older sister had already competed at the national level.

　　When my sister was 14 and I was 12, we trained together. We began with the Suggested List given out at school - hundreds of words printed on a poster that could be folded up like a map. When the words along the creases (褶痕) began to disappear, we bought additional spelling lists.

　　Sometimes my mother tested us, reading words most English teachers wouldn't know how to pronounce, let alone my Indian­born mother. When she pointed out the misspelled words, I blamed her accent for my errors!

　　When it was my turn, I approached the microphone and waited for my first word.

　　The announcer was somewhere to my left, a man who pronounced clearly. "Barbican，" he said.

It seemed that my competitors were secretly complaining about the relative ease of my word. Would they laugh at me if I couldn't spell it? Would my mother be disappointed in me? That last syllable could go two ways: C­A­N or C­O­N. Which one was right? Finally I decided on