Упражнения уровня IELTS по английскому языку. № 55.

NEVER KNOWS WHEN HE'S BEAT

Lance Armstrong is a bicycle hero who succeeded in achieving what many people believed could never be done.

Only four months before his twenty-fifth birthday, Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with advanced cancer. The athlete underwent chemotherapy and worked hard to recover from his illness. In fact, he regained enough strength to continue training rigorously, and became an even stronger bicyclist than before his diagnosis.

To prove his victory over the disease, Armstrong has won the Tour de France, the most famous bicycle race in the world, in five consecutive years. His success has brought hope and inspiration to countless cancer patients around the world. Through his hard work and unwavering commitment, Lance has demonstrated that with enough determination, no obstacle is too daunting to be overcome.

Lance has faced similar challenges throughout his life. He wanted to be a football player but was told he lacked coordination. He decided to try swimming but his swimming skills were so weak that he was put in a group of younger swimmers. This was very embarrassing but he wanted to be successful and before long, he was put back in his own age group.

Lance finally made the swimming team and that was a lot of hard work. He had to practise swimming before and after school every day. His morning workout was from 5:30 am until 7:00 am and to get to the pool he had to ride twenty miles, which meant getting up before sunrise.

Despite all his hard work, Lance only managed fourth in the state in the 1,500 metre freestyle. So he switched to the triathlon, an event that combines swimming, biking and running. By the age of fifteen, he was entering triathlons to win money and won so many races that he made $20,000 in one year. That's good progress when only five years before he was in a swimming class with younger swimmers!

When Lance was a teenager he almost got killed while training on his new bike. Lance did not stop at a red light and got hit by a truck. He wasn't wearing a helmet and landed on his head. An ambulance took him to the hospital. He had a concussion and had to have stitches in his head.

In 1996, shortly after his 25th birthday, Lance had to face his biggest challenge. He was diagnosed with cancer. In order for him to fight this dreadful disease, Lance had to have some very uncomfortable treatments. The chemotherapy treatments made him weak, caused nausea, and hair loss. After several months of chemotherapy, the doctors told him that he had beaten the disease.

Lance worked very hard to regain his strength and was so successful that he decided to enter the Tour de France. However, teams didn't want to include him because they didn't believe that his cancer was cured. Fortunately, the US Postal team signed him up and he has gone on to win the Tour de France five times.

Even though doctors told Lance that he probably wouldn't be able to have a child because of his disease, four months after he won his first Tour de France, Lance and his wife, Kristin, had a baby boy, who they named Luke.

(1) Armstrong received strong medical treatment for his illness. T / F /
(2) He fully recovered from his medical problems. T / F /
(3) In his youth, success came to him easily. T / F /
(4) Lance lacked the determination to become a professional swimmer. T / F /
(5) As a teenager, he was not allowed to compete professionally. T / F /
(6) His accident was nobody's fault. T / F /
(7) He proved cycling teams and medical experts wrong. T / F /