Example 2
1 On a cold spring afternoon, while walking home from school, I detoured through the playground at the end of the alley. I saw a group of old men, two seated across a folding table playing a game of chess, others smoking pipes, eating peanuts, and watching. I ran home and grabbed Vincent’s chess set, which was bound in a cardboard box with rubber bands, I also carefully selected two prized rolls of life savers. I came back to the park and approached a man who was observing the game.
2 “Want to play?” I asked him. His face widened with surprise and he grinned as he looked at the box under my arm. “Little sister, been a long time since I play with dolls,” he said, smiling benevolently. I quickly put the box down next to him on the bench and displayed my retort.
3 Lau Po, as he allowed me to call him, turned out to be a much better player than my brothers. I lost many games and many life savers. But over the weeks, with each diminishing role of candies, I added new secrets. Lau Po gave me the names. The humble servant who kills the king and more.
4 there were also the fine points of chess etiquette. Keep captured men in neat rows, as well-tended prisoners. Never announce “Check” with vanity, lest someone with an unseen sword slit your throat. By the end of the summer, Lau Po had taught me all he knew, and I had become a better chess player.
5 a small weekend crowd of Chinese people and tourists would gather as I played and defeated my opponents one by one. My mother would join crowds during these outdoors exhibition games. She sat proudly on that bench, telling my admirers with proper Chinese humility, “is luck”.
6 A man who watched me play in the park suggested that my mother allow me to play in local chess tournaments. My mother smiled graciously, an answer that meant nothing. I desperately wanted to go, but I bit back my tongue. I know she would not let me play among strangers. So as we walked home I said in a small voice that I didn’t want to play in the local tournament. They would have American rules. If I lost, I would bring shame on my family.
7 During my first tournament, my mother sat with me in the front row as I waited for my turn. I frequently bounced my legs to unstick them from the cold metal seat of the folding chair. When my name was called, I leapt up. My mother unwrapped something in her lap. It was her chang, a small tablet of red jadewhich held the sun’s fire. “is luck,” she whispered, and tucked it into my dress pocket. I turned to my opponent, a fifteen-year-old boy from Oakland.
8 As I began to play, the boy disappeared, the color ran out of the room, and I saw only my white pieces and his black ones waiting on the other side. “Blow from the South,” it murmured. “The wind leaves no trail.” I saw a clear path, the traps to avoid. The wind blew stronger. “Throw sand from the East to distracthim. “Check,” I said.
1- When the boy detoured through the playground at the end of the ally, he saw a couple of …….. :
a. Old men
b. young boys
c. old women
d. children
2- The name of the narrator’s brother is …………….. .
a. Jack
b. Vincent
c. Lau Po
d. Stan
3- The boy ran home to grab his brother’s ……………… .
a. table
b. chess set
c. cardboard
d. ball
4- In the passage the words life savers means : a kind of ………………. .
a. game
b. candy
c. chess
d. doll
5- The boy played chess in the park against a man called ………………… .
a. Stan
b. Vincent
c. Lau Po
d. Jack
6- When a player takes an opponent’s playing piece, that piece is called a :
a. check
b. man
c. captured man
d. falling man
7- By the end of ………………. , Lau Po taught the boy all he knew.
a. Winter
b. Spring
c. Summer
d. Autumn
8- When a person wins a game of chess, he or she says :
a. Captured man
b. lose
c. check
d. die
9- To bite back one’s tongue means to :
a. Keep quiet
b. talk
c. argue
d. leave
10- The boy didn’t want to play in the local tournament because they have ……………………. .
a. Spanish rules
b. Asian rules
c. American rules
d. Chinese rules
11- The boy’s mother used her chang to give him ……………… .
a. bad luck
b. luck
c. money
d. magic
12- The opposite of the word defeat is ………………….. .
a. victory
b. lose
c. draw
d. surrender
13- The synonym of the word defeat is ………………………. .
a. win
b. try
c. beat
d. decrease
14- The synonym of the word opponent is ………………….. .
a. friend
b. colleague
c. challenger
d. oppression
15- The meaning of the word slit is ………………….. .
a. cut
b. burn
c. kill
d. harm