Lesson Plan: Serena: A Winner On and Off the Court!
II. While Reading Tasks
Word Inference
- feat fēt| noun–an achievement that requires great courage, skill, or strength: the new printing presses were considerable feats of engineering.
- embark |emˈbärk| verb-(embark on/upon) begin (a course of action, esp. one that is important or demanding): he embarked on a new career.
- compete |kəmˈpēt| verb [ no obj. ]strive to gain or win something by defeating or establishing superiority over others who are trying to do the same: universities are competing for applicants |
- rival |ˈrīvəl|-verb (rivals, rivaling, rivaled; Brit.rivals, rivalling, rivalled) [ with obj. ]compete for superiority with; be or seem to be equal or comparable to: the efficiency of the Bavarians rivals that of the Viennese.
- incredible |inˈkredəbəl| adjective– impossible to believe: an almost incredible tale of triumph.
- accomplishment |əˈkämpliSHmənt| noun-something that has been achieved successfully: the reduction of inflation was a remarkable accomplishment.
- je ne sais quoi |ˌZHə nə sā ˈkwä| nouna quality that cannot be described or named easily: that je ne sais quoi that makes a professional. (ORIGIN French, literally ‘I do not know what.’)
- grace (graced) |grās| verb [ with obj. ]-do honor or credit to (someone or something) by one’s presence: she bowed out from the sport she has graced for two decades.
- contemporary |kənˈtempəˌrerē| noun (pl. contemporaries) a person or thing living or existing at the same time as another: he was a contemporary of Darwin.
- crap |krap| slang-noun– something of extremely poor quality. nonsense.
Source: New Oxford American Dictionary
Reading Comprehension: Word Recognition
Serena has competed in 60 Grand Slam singles tournaments since going pro. She has won 21 of them. This includes her relatively lean early years. (She won just a single Grand Slam title in her first four years: the 1999 U.S. Open.) Since 2002, she has won 20-of-46 tournaments she has entered. That’s 43 percent.
Serena’s all-time record against the current members of the WTA top 10 is 66-7, or a 90 percent winning percentage. She is winning 90 percent of her matches against the very best contemporary players.
She’s been an incredible doubles player, too: her and Venus Williams have paired up to win 13 Grand Slams (their first in 1999 and most recent in 2012) and three Olympic golds. Serena also has two mixed doubles Grand Slams dating back to 1999.
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