- Read the text and choose the correct options.
Figure skater Katie Franks:
Just your ordinary teenager?
She loves fizzy drinks, chocolate biscuits, Harry Potter novels and ballet. She has two cats called Snowy and Blackie and she’s been skating since she was only four years old.
Meet Katie Franks, the 16-year-old high-school student and figure-skating champion. Katie has won numerous medals and is currently training for the World Figure Skating Championships later this year.
Amazed by her achievements so far, I ask her how she manages it all. ‘It isn’t easy,’ she admits, ‘but if you love something and are good at it, you want to do it.’
Katie trains twice a day, six days a week. Her first training session starts at 6.30 in the morning and lasts for about an hour. Her second is at 5.00 in the aftermoon and goes until 7.00. She tells me that to be able to compete she needs to train for three hours a day. ‘When does she study?’ I ask her.’ At weekends and after 9 every evening,’ she tells me.
She can’t eat whatever she wants and must also take ballet lessons. Does she ever miss being a regular teenager? ‘It’s very tiring but I enjoy it’, she says. ‘It may not be for everyone but I can’t imagine my life without skating’.
Surprisingly, Katie also has time to see friends and to enjoy her hobby, reading. But what happens if all this training does not produce the results she wants? What happens if she doesn’t do well or if she falls during her routine? ‘I try not to think about that. I’m a positive person and I know that on the day I will do my best’. ‘But you have to give up so much’, I tell her, ‘I don’t see it as a sacrifice’, she says. ‘I see it as a goal that I have set for myself. If I don’t win or if I do badly, I’ll try harder so that next time l’ll do better.’
Katie realizes she is an unusual teenager leading an unconventional life but she is a girl with a mission and she will keep at it until she reaches her goal.
1. What is the writer’s main purpose in writing the text? [To show how extraordinary Katie Franks’ life is.]
2. What does Katie say about her training sessions? [Her afternoon session is longer than the morning one.]
3. What does Katie say about her life? [She doesn’t want to change it.]
4. What is Katie’s attitude towards failure? [It makes her want to try harder next time.]
5. Which of the following would Katie say? [My aim is to succeed in my chosen sport.]