Most mornings, Marcus Jackson is up by 6:15. A fourteen-year old in Harry Potter-style glasses, he wastes little  36     before rushing down the stairs of his home. As Mom    37    breakfast, he heads straight for a kitchen drawer and    38    out a Pingpong paddle and ball. For the next five minutes, Marcus practices serves off the refrigerator.

    “ I can hit the ball really   39    so that the other person hardly even sees it fly    40    the table,” he says. He’s so good at his game that he holds the number-one ranking in table tennis for boys under 15 in    41    .

He    42    his success to a set of practice that goes    43    morning contests with his parents’ Kenmore refrigerator. Since he was six-and-a-half years old, Marcus has spent two hours a day, six days a week,   44    with his dad, Morris, who won the national table-tennis    45    in 1988. He also receives lessons from Cheng Yinghua and Jack Huang, two former Chinese National Team members.

    When Marcus was eight, he    46    himself to be a force in the sport by winning the United States Table Tennis Association National Championships (Under-ten). Since then, his talent has led him all over the country for competitions. Along the way, he has learned how to deal with    47    as well. “ I know when to step back if I get    48    ,” Marcus says. He’s also    49    a bit of the true spirit of sports. During a match last year, when he was up 8 to 0, his dad flashed him a    50    ---- a quick move of his thumb over the shoulder----to let Marcus know he    51    allow his opponent(对手) to score    52    once. At 10 to 0, Marcus finally gave    53    a score. He took the next point, for an 11-to-1 victory.

    Apart from table tennis, Marcus enjoys Game Boy, basketball and swimming. The straight---- A student hopes to study electrical engineering at an Ivy League colleges when he gets    54    . In the meanwhile he has two athletic goals: “   55    in the 2008 Olympics in China and beating my dad on a regular basis.”

36. A. energy	B. strength	C. time	D. ability
37. A. eats	B. makes	C. has	D. orders
38. A. pulls	B. pushes	C. turns	D. reaches
39. A. directly	B. gently	C. strongly	D. hard
40. A. on	B. across	C. from	D. through
41. A. the world	B. China	C. America	D. Europe
42. A. owes	B. regards	C. compares	D. treats
43. A. beyond	B. for	C. over	D. after
44. A. fighting	B. training	C. challenging	D. advancing
45. A. praise	B. admirer	C. title	D. pride
46. A. got	B. turned	C. changed	D. proved
47. A. the match	B. pressure	C. the ball	D. victory
48. A. puzzled	B. sad	C. nervous	D. excited
49. A. made up	B. turned up	C. kept up	D. picked up
50. A. signal	B. word	C. picture	D. pace
51. A. could	B. need	C. should	D. would
52. A. almost	B. at least	C. at most	D. already
53. A. in	B. away	C. out	D. up
54. A. taller	B. heavier	C. smarter	D. older
55. A. competing	B. winning	C. expecting	D. attending