Question

There are people in Italy who can’t stand soccer. Not all Canadians love hockey. A similar situation exists in America, where there are those individuals you may be one of them who frown when somebody mentions baseball. Baseball to them means boring hours watching grown men in funny tight outfits standing around in a field staring away while very little of anything happens. They tell you it’s a game better suited to the 19th century, slow, quiet, and gentlemanly. These are the same people you may be one of them who love football because there’s the sport that values “the hit”.

By contrast, baseball seems abstract, cool, silent, still.

On TV the game is divided into a dozen perspectives, replays, close-ups. The geometry(幾何學) of the game, however, is essential to understanding it. You will view the game from one point as a painter does his subject; you may, of course, project yourself into the game. It is in this projection that the game affords so much space and time for involvement. The TV won’t do it for you.

Take, for example, the third baseman. You sit behind the third base and you watch him watching home plate. His legs are apart, knees flexed(彎曲). His arms hang loose. He does a lot of this. The skeptic(懷疑論者) still cannot think of any other sports so still, so passive. But watch what happens every time the pitcher throws: the third baseman goes up on his toes, flexes his arms or brings the glove to a point in front of him, takes a step right or left, backward or forward, perhaps he glances across the field to check his first baseman’s position. Suppose the pitch is a ball. “Nothing happened,” you say. “I could have had my eyes closed.”

The skeptic and the innocent must play the game. And this involvement in the stands is no more intellectual than listening to music is. Watch the third baseman. Smooth the dirt in front of you with one foot; smooth the pocket in your glove; watch the eyes of the batter, the speed of the bat, the sound of ball on wood. If football is a symphony of movement and theatre, baseball is chamber music, a spacious interlocking(連鎖) of notes, chorus（和聲）and responses.

1.The passage is mainly concerned with .

A. the attraction of baseball

B. the superiority of football

C. the different tastes of people for sports

D. the different characteristics of sports

2.Those who don’t like baseball may complain that .

A. it is only to the taste of the old

B. it is not exciting enough

C. it involves fewer players than football

D. it is pretentious and looks funny

3.The author admits that .

A. baseball may seem boring when watched on TV

B. football is more attracting than baseball

C. baseball is more interesting than football

D. baseball is too peaceful for the young

4.By stating “I could have had my eyes closed”, the author means (4th paragraph last sentence) .

A. The consequence was so bad that he could not bear to see it

B. The third baseman is so good at baseball that he could finish the game with eyes closed all the time and do his work well

C. Even if the third baseman closed his eyes a moment ago, it could make no difference to the result

D. The third baseman would rather sleep than play the game

 

Answer 1

1.A

2.B

3.A

4.C

【解析】

試題分析：文章主要談論了棒球這項體育運動。有人不喜歡看棒球比賽，他們認為棒球比賽很無聊，一點也不精彩。相比足球比賽的激情，棒球比賽顯得過于平靜。

1.Baseball to them means boring hours ...while very little of anything happens...On TV the game is divided into a dozen perspectives, replays, close-ups...baseball is chamber music, a spacious interlocking(連鎖) of notes, chorus（和聲）and responses”可知，文章主要談論的是棒球這項運動，故選A。

2.Baseball to them means boring hours watching grown men in funny tight outfits standing around in a field staring away while very little of anything happens...slow, quiet, and gentlemanly”可知，有的人覺得棒球無聊，是一種過時的運動。故選B。

3.It is in this projection that the game affords so much space and time for involvement. The TV won’t do it for you.”可知，親臨現(xiàn)場能夠給你足夠的參與空間和時間，而在電視上觀看棒球比賽，沒有一點參與感，故選A。

4. “Nothing happened,” you say.”可知，運動員做了一系列的動作之后，讓觀眾以為會像看足球比賽一樣看到什么精彩的內容，結果卻令人失望，他們根本就沒有行動，閉眼跟不閉眼沒有什么區(qū)別。故選C。

考點：體育類短文閱讀