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 yawn or even 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, gentlemanly. These are the same people you may be one of them who love
football because there.s the sport that glorifies “the hit”. By contrast, baseball seems abstract, cool,
silent, still. On TV the game is fractured into a dozen perspectives, replays, close ups. The geometry of
the game, however, is essential to understanding it. You will contemplate 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 dugout and you watch him watching home plate. His legs are
apart, knees flexed. His arms hang loose. He does a lot of this. The skeptic 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 bring 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 horsehide on wood. If football is a symphony of movement
and theatre, baseball is chamber music, a spacious interlocking of notes, chores and responses.
题目 1:
The passage is mainly concerned with ______.
A: the attraction of baseball
B: the different characteristics of sports
C: the attraction of football
答案 (A): the attraction of baseball
题目 1:
Those who don.t like baseball may complain that ______.
A: it is only to the taste of the old
B: it involves fewer players than football
C: it is not exciting enough
答案 (C): it is not exciting enough
题目 1:
The author admits that ______.
A: baseball is too peaceful for the young
B: baseball may seem boring when watched on TV
C: football is more attracting than baseball
答案 (B): baseball may seem boring when watched on TV
题目 1:
By stating “I could have had my eyes closed.” the author means (4th paragraph last sentence):
A: The third baseman would rather sleep than play the game.
B: Even if the third baseman closed his eyes a moment ago, it could make no difference to the result.
C: 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.
答案 (B): Even if the third baseman closed his eyes a moment ago, it could make no difference to the result.
题目 1:
We can safely conclude that the author ______.
A: likes baseball
B: hates football
C: hates baseball
答案 (A): likes baseball
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