邢唷>? 57?4欹)` 餜Y,bjbj€€20鈡鈡+TTTT8T `{*$hpE~~"TT5666TT8666vT| 癗攡U┰K0{}}},6^{dTTTTTT 癳俰鮛Lesson 21-25Lesson 211. However, boxing was very crude, for these were no rules and a prizefighter could be s_________ injured or even killed during a match.2. Though he was t__________ a prizefighter, Mendoza did much to change c______ prizefighting into a sport, for he brought science to the game. 3. In this day, Mendoza enjoyed t___________ popularity. He was a_________ by rich and poor alike.4. Mendoza rose to f_________ s_________ after a boxing match when he was only fourteen years old. 5.This attracted the attention of Richard Humphries who was then the most e__________ boxer in England. 6. The two men quarrelled b_________ and it was clear that the a_________ could only be settled by a fight. 7. Mendoza met Humphries in the ring on a later o__________ and he lost for a second time. 8. He earned e____________ sums of money and was paid as much as 100 for a single appearance. 9. Despite this, he was so e____________ that he was always in debt. After he was defeated by a boxer called Gentleman Jackson, he was quickly forgotten. 10. He was sent to prison for failing to pay his debts and died in p__________ in 1836.Lesson 22In many ways, this is un__________ for the poor actors who are required to go on repeating the same lines night after night. One would expect them to know their parts by heart and never have cause to f________. Yet this is not always the case.A famous actor in a highly successful play was once cast in the role of an aristocrat who had been i___________ in the Bastille for twenty years. One night, the gaoler decided to play a joke on his c_________ to find out if, after so many performances, he had managed to learn the contents of the letter by heart. The curtain went up on the final act of the play and r________ the aristocrat sitting alone behind bars in his dark cell. Just then, the gaoler appeared with the p_______ letter in his bands. It was simply a blank sheet of paper. The gaoler looked on e________, anxious to see if his fellow actor had at last learnt his lines. The noble stared at the blank sheet of paper for a few seconds. Then, s__________ his eyes, he said: 'The light is d______. Read the letter to me'. And he p_________ handed the sheet of paper to the gaoler. 20. Much to the aristocrat's a____________, the gaoler returned a few moments later with a pair of glasses and the usual copy of the letter which he p_____________ to read to the prisoner.Lesson 23People become quite i__________ when they try to decide what can be eaten and what cannot be eaten. If you lived in the Mediterranean, for instance, you would consider octopus a great d____________. You would not be able to understand why some people find it r____________. On the other hand, your stomach would turn at the idea of frying potatoes in animal fat the normally accepted p_________ in many northern countries. No creature has received more praise and a________ than the common garden snail. Cooked in wine, snails are a great l_________ in various parts of the world. There are c__________ people who, ever since their early years, have learned to a_________ snails with food. My friend, Robert, lives in a country where snails are d_________. As his flat is in a large town, he has no garden of his own. The idea never a___________ to me very much, but one day, after heavy shower, I happened to be walking in my garden when I noticed a huge number of snails taking a s______ on some of my prize plants. Acting on a sudden i__________, I collected several dozen, put them in a paper bag, and took them to Robert. Snails would, of course, be the main dish. I did not f__________ the idea and I r____________ followed Robert out of the room. To our d_________, we saw that there were snails everywhere: they had escaped from the paper bag and had taken complete p__________ of the hall! I have never been able to look at a snail since then.Lesson 24We often read in novels how a s__________ r___________ person or family has some terrible secret which has been c_______ from strangers for years. The English language possesses a v_______ saying to describe this sort of situation. The terrible secret is called 'a skeleton in the cupboard'. At some d_________ moment in the story, the terrible secret becomes known and a r____________ is ruined. The reader's hair stands on end when he reads in the final pages of the novel that the heroine, a dear old lady who had always been so kind to everybody, had, in her youth, p_______ every one of her five husbands.Instead of becoming a doctor, however, he became a successful writer of d__________ stories. He told me to u_______ my things and then come down to dinner. After I had s____________ my shirts and underclothes in two empty drawers, I decided to hang one of the two suits I had brought with me in the cupboard. I opened the cupboard door and then stood in front of it p__________. A skeleton was d___________ before my eyes. The sudden movement of the door made it s________ slightly and it gave me the impression that it was about to leap out at me. Dropping my suit, I d_______ downstairs to tell George. This was worse than "a terrible secret'; this was a real skeleton! But George was u____________. 'Oh, that,' he said with a smile as if he were talking about an old friend. 'That's Sebastian. You forget that I was a medical student once upon a time.'Lesson 25She serves as an i__________ reminder of the great ships of past. It marked the end of the great t___________ of ships with sails and the beginning of a new e________.In August, she was s_________ by a very heavy storm during which her rudder was t______ away. The Cutty Sark rolled from side to side and it became impossible to s______ her. A t___________ rudder was made on board from spare planks and it was fitted with great difficulty. Though the new rudder was fitted at t___________ speed, it was impossible for the Cutty Sark to win. She arrived in England a week after the Thermopylae. Even this was r__________, considering that she had had so many d_________. These is no doubt that if she had not lost her  4Z_7 B