Growing up in Joilet，Illinois，in the 1930s，George Mikan often felt everyone was staring at him.Tall and awkward （笨拙的），with thick glasses，he tried to hide by lowering himself when walking and sitting.But someday，everyone would know his name，The Tall Kid.By age 16，Mikan made the high school basketball team.Now 6 feet 8 inches tall and broad-shouldered，his specialty was guarding the basket and blocking shots.
   At 6 feet 10 in a sport then dominated（主導(dǎo)） by much smaller men，George Mikan was the model for the dominating tall players of later decades.Towering over most of his competitors，he was one of the most effective scorers of his day，averaging 22.6 points over a professional career that lasted nine seasons.How dominant was Mikan？In his nine seasons，his teams won seven titles and in 1950 he was selected the greatest player of the half-century.
   One of the legendary stories about Mikan concerns a game played on Dec.13，1949，between the Lakers and the New York Knicks.The grand screen over Madison Square Garden read： "Geo.Mikan vs.Knicks".When Mikan walked into the locker room before the game，he found his teammates sitting around in their street clothes.One of them greeted Mikan by saying， "They're advertising you're playing against the Knicks，so go play them.We'll wait here."
   Mikan was so dominant that the NBA made two big rule changes during his career.They tried to make it more difficult for him to score by expanding the width of the key from 6 feet to 12 feet and they started the 24-second clock after a game in 1950，when the Fort Wayne Pistons decided that the only way they could win was to hold onto the ball and not let the Lakers have it.They ended up winning，19-18，in the lowest-scoring game in NBA history.
   Mikan was in the first class elected to the basketball Hall of Fame in 1959. "Frankly，without George Mikan，the Los Angeles Lakers would not be the organisation we are today，" Lakers owner Jerry Buss said.Magic Johnson also paid tribute to Mikan： "He started the championships.You've got to start with Mikan first before you name any Laker.He paved the way for all of us who came after him."

（1）How did Mikan react to his height before reaching 16.

D

D

A．Feeling proud.
B．Showing it off.
C．Taking its advantage.
D．Feeling ashamed.
（2）What can be learnt about Mikan from the text？

A

A

A．He made a successful scorer as a towering man.
B．He required the NBA to change its rules for his good.
C．He alone ever played against the Knicks for the Lakers.
D．He entered the basketball Hall of Fame in 1950.
（3）What can be inferred about the NBA rules？

C

C

A．Inefficient.
B．Steady.
C．Adjustable.
D．Perfect.