Edward Patrick Eagan was born April 26, 1897, in Denver, Colorado, and his father died in a railroad accident when Eagan was only a year old. He and his four brothers were raised by his mother, who earned a small income from teaching foreign languages. Inspired by Frank Merriwell, the hero of a series of popular novels for boys, Eagan pursued an education for himself as well as an interest in boxing. He attended the University of Denver for a year before serving in the U.S. Army as an artillery lieutenant during World War I. After the war, he entered Yale University and, while studying there, won the U.S. national amateur heavyweight boxing title. He graduated from Yale in 1921, attended Harvard Law School, and received a Rhodes scholarship to the University of Oxford where he received his A.M. in 1928.
While studying at Oxford, Eagan became the first American to win the British amateur boxing championship. Eagan won his first Olympic gold medal as a light heavyweight boxer at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium. Eagan also fought at the 1924 Olympics in Paris as a heavyweight but failed to get a medal. Though he had taken up the sport just three weeks before the competition, he managed to win a second gold medal as a member of the fourman bobsled team at the 1932 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. Thus, he became the only athlete to win gold medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics. Eagan was a member of the first group of athletes inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983. Eagan became a respected attorney, serving as an assistant district attorney for southern New York and as chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission (1945 - 51). He married soap heiress Margaret Colgate and attained the rank of lieutenant colonel during World War II.
Question 39: What is the main idea of the passage?
A. Eagan's life shows how a wealthy student can achieve as much as a poor one.
B. Eagan's life shows that military experience makes athletes great.
C. Eagan's life shows that a man can be athlete and a well-educated person.
D. Eagan's life shows how easy it is to win two gold medals in different Olympic sports.
Question 40: The word "who" in paragraph 1 refers to_________.
A. Eagan's mother B. Frank Merriwell's mother
C. Eagan's brothers D. Eagan's father
Question 41: What is NOT TRUE about Eagan?
A. Eagan's mother was a foreign teacher.
B. Eagan's father passed away when he was only one year old.
C. After Eagan's father's death, his family had only 6 members left.
Question 42: Eagan got a scholarship for his_________.
A. amateur heavyweight boxing B. studying at Yale
C. A.M D. Olympic gold medal
Question 43: The word "attained" in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to_________.
A. defeated B. inducted C. achieved D. handed in
