and then they competed in city and state competitions. Finally, the 50 state champions, along with the District of Columbia champion, descended upon Washington, D．C., last week for the ultimate showdown. After the 51 champions competed against one another, 12 went on to the finals. Then the field was narrowed to five. The final five had one last chance to "perform" a poem. The overall champ, Jackson Hille, a high school senior from Ohio, won a $20,000 scholarship.

　　The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation started Poetry Out Loud because they realized that hearing a poem performed is a different experience from reading it on a page.

　　It's not just a matter of saying the words in the right order. It's the tone of voice, the pauses, the gestures, and the attitude of the person performing that bring the words to life. "Each time we hear somebody recite a poem, we understand again what we found fresh and interesting about it，" says National Public Radio broadcaster Scott Simon, master of ceremonies for the finals. Hearing it in a new voice offers something new for the listener.

　　Not only do the people hearing poems have a new experience, memorizing and presenting poems helps the participants understand those poems in a new way. Another benefit of a competition such as Poetry Out Loud is that the participants learn public­speaking skills that can help them for life.

　　语篇解读：诗歌仅仅在书上阅读是远远不够的，通过朗诵和聆听，同一首诗歌会给人带来全新的感受。

　　1．From the first paragraph, we can know .

　　A．the Greeks were the first to write pomes

　　B．the Olympics used to start with poem reciting

　　C．poems were spread orally in the past

　　D．athletes were asked to recite poems before competing

　　解析：选C　推理判断题。从第一段中的"Long ago, poems were recited out loud instead of being written down."可知，在很早以前诗歌只是口头朗诵的，故可知当时诗歌的传播方式为口头传授，故选C。

　　2．How many rounds of competitions did the champions take before they went to Washington, D. C．？

　　A．Three.　　　　　　　　 B．Four.

C．Five. D．Six.