【英语卷•2014届江苏省徐州市第一中学（徐州市）高三考前模拟（201405）】C2 D
DAVID Beckham didn’t make it. Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t hit it so big either. But Gareth Bale, 24, has become the most expensive soccer player in the history of the game.
Four years after the arrival of Ronaldo at a record cost of $125 million (765 million yuan) in 2009, Real Madrid is expected to pay $135 million for Bale. But how is it that Bale, who was playing left back and being benched (当替补) by his English Premier League team a couple of years ago, now attracts such a big deal?
As of years ago, the Welshman had played 24 matches for Tottenham Hotspur, and had never finished on the winning side once – a record for any Premier League player. Tottenham even privately considered selling him. “A player who had once looked a prodigy (神童) – as a 17-year-old Southampton full back, the youngest ever international for Wales – already appeared, at 20, on the way down,” wrote Tim Adams at UK’s The Observer.
Through all the humiliations (屈辱), Bale hung on. While he was injured and kept out of games, he worked hard to reinvent himself. Bale’s father Frank’s uncompromising (不妥协的) discipline had a great impact on his son.
When he returned from injury later that season, Bale had been transformed in the gym. In a Champions League match in 2010, he established himself as the so-called “Incredi-Bale” overnight
