大学英语快速阅读教程(第一册第十五单元).docVIP

Book One Unit Fifteen Passage One Directions: You will have 10 minutes to read this passage quickly and answer the following questions from A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice. The Steps of Knighthood In the medieval times, many knights rode out to do battle. They made sieges (围攻) on other castles, and defended their own castles. But knights weren’t always so good at fighting. Knights had to pass long, hard, half boring hours of practice, practice, practice. First they had to be a page. If they did good they became a squire. If squires were worthy they were dubbed (授予称号) and became knights. Pages When a boy born by a knight turns six or seven he is sent from his home to a nearby castle. There he is trained by the lord of the castle to become a knight. He is a page. A page helps his lord dress and put on armor. He plays many training games that include wrestling, piggy-back wrestling, sword practice with blunt wooden swords and tiny round shields called bucklers, and lance practice on a rolling log pulled by two other pages toward a quintain (A quintain is a target on one end of a swinging board. On the other end is a bag full of sand. When the lance hits the target the rider has to duck or the bag of sand will strike him on the back or the head.). A page rarely ever learned how to read or write because it wasn’t thought to be very knightly. The ladies of the castle taught him table manners. The page waited on his lord and lady. It was his duty and privilege to accompany his lord and lady at all times. When his lord’s armor was rusty, the page rolled the armor in a barrel of sand so that the rust was gone. He was taught to be quick, graceful, and flexible. He received religious training from the chaplain (牧师). He sometimes received training-in-arms from the squires. Squires If the page showed promise, then at the age of fourteen, he became a squire. A squire is a Knight’s personal servant. In battle, a squire would bring his knight replacements