大学英语三级快速阅读.docVIP

Yao Says Games First, Babies Second ?? ?? Chinas newly wed basketball sensation, Yao Ming, said babies would take a back-seat to Olympic preparations as the host country began the one-year countdown to the 2008 Beijing Games.???? The 7ft 6in (2.26 meter) Houston Rockets centre, who wed his 6ft 2in basketballer girlfriend Ye Li at a private ceremony in Shanghai on Monday, was briefly caught off guard when Chinas Olympic hurdling （跨栏赛跑） champion, Liu Xiang, asked about his family plans on Tuesday.???? Having children...theres no plan at present. I will be concentrating on preparing for the NBA season and next years Olympics, Yao said in comments published on C on Wednesday.???? To participate in the Olympics in your home country, its an opportunity I will really cherish, Yao said.???? Yao also revealed that his wedding ceremony, at which dozens of security guards kept a massive media throng at bay outside a Shanghai hotel, was deliberately timed.???? Getting married on August 6 was to use the focus of the Olympics to divert attention away from my wedding, he said, keeping tight-lipped about honeymoon plans.???? On Wednesday, China marked the one-year countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympics which will start 8.08 p.m. local time on the eighth day of the eighth month. Eight, unsurprisingly, is a lucky number in China.???? The Custom of Drinking Tea in England Tea Clippers ???? In the early 1800s ships carrying tea from the Far East to Britain could take over a year to bring home their precious cargo. When the East India Company was given a monopoly （垄断） on the tea trade in 1832, they realized the need to cut the time of this journey. The Americans actually designed the first clippers （快速帆船）, or streamlined, tall-masted vessels, but the British were close behind. These clippers sped along at nearly 18 knots （航速单位） by contemporary accounts — nearly as fast as a modern ocean liner.???? So great was the race for speed that an annual competition was begun for clippe