VII.
Is Education Still an Important Part of Youth Athletics?
(1) Education is an important theme in youth athletics in the US. Young kids, energetic, noisy, uncontrollable, confined to class, yearn for the relative freedom of the football field, the basketball court, the baseball diamond. They long to kick and throw things and tackle each other, and the fields of organized play offer a place in which to act out these impulses. Kids are basically encouraged, after all, to beat each other up in the football field. Yet for all the chaos, adult guidance and supervision are never far off, and time spent on the athletic fields is meant to be productive. Conscientious coaches seek to impart lessons in teamwork, self-sacrifice, competition, gracious winning and losing. Teachers at least want their pupils worn out so they’ll sit still in reading class.
(2) By the time children start competing for spots on junior high soccer teams or tennis squads, the kid gloves have come off to some extent. The athletic fields become less a place to learn about soft values like teamwork than about hard self-discipline and competition. Competitiveness, after all, is prized highly by Americans, perhaps more so than by other peoples. For a child, being cut from the hockey team or denied a spot on the swimming is a grave disappointment—— and perhaps an opportunity for emotional or spiritual growth.
(3) High school basketball or football teams are places where the ethos of competition is given still stronger emphasis. Although high school coaches still consider themselves educators, the sports they oversee are not simple extensions of the classroom. They are important social institutions, for football games bring people together. In much of the US they are events where young people and their elders mingle and see how the community is evolving.
(4) For the best players, the progression from little league to junior high to high school leads to a scholarship at a famous college and maybe, one day, a shot at the pros. To all appearances, college athletes are student-athletes, an ideal that suggests a balance between the intellectual rigors of the university and the physical rigors of the playing field. The reality is skewed(倾斜) heavily in favor of athletics. One would have difficulty showing that major US college sports are about education. Coaches require far too much of players’ time to be truly concerned with anything other than performance in sport. Too often, the players they recruit seem to care little about school themselves.
(5) This was not always the case. Universities——Princeton, Harvard, Rutgers, Yale——were the birthplaces of American football and baseball; education——the formation of “character” —— was an important part of what those coaches and players thought they were achieving. In 1913, when football was almost outlawed in the US, the game’s most prominent figures traveled to Washington and argued successfully that football was an essential part of the campus experience and that the nation would be robbed of its boldest young men, its best potential leaders, if the game were banned.
(6) The idea that competitive sports build character, a western tradition dating from ancient Greece, has evidently fallen out of fashion in today’s US. Educators, now prone to see the kind of character shaped by football and basketball in dark light, have challenged the notion that college sports produce interesting people. Prominent athletes, such as boxer Muhammad Ali and basketball star Charles Markley, deliberately distanced themselves from the earlier ideal of the athlete as a model figure. Today’s US athlete is thus content to be an entertainer. Trying to do something socially constructive, like being a role model, will make you seem over-earnest and probably hurt your street credibility.
(7) When I was a kid, my heroes played on Saturdays: they were high school players and college athletes. Pro football games, broadcast on Sunday afternoons, were dull and uninspiring by comparison. After all, why would God schedule anything important for Sunday? You’ve got school the next day.
(8) Although I certainly couldn’t have articulated it at the time, I think I must already have sensed that throwing a ball or catching passes was a fairly pointless thing to be good at. In the grand scheme, it was a silly preparation for a job. Yet playing sports was not pointless; the point, however, was that you were learning something——a disposition, a certain virtue, a capacity of arduous endeavor——that might be of value when you later embarked upon a productive career as a doctor or a schoolteacher or a businessman. The optimism of those Saturday afternoons was infectious. I still feel that way today.
IV. In this section, there are ten incomplete statements, followed by four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and write the corresponding letter on your Answer Sheet. (10 points, 1 point for each)
55. According to the first paragraph, while playing football, basketball or baseball, young kids may ______.
A. freely beat each other up
B. form a new community easily
C. win or lose the game graciously
D. feel freer compared with attending classes
56. In much of the US, football games in high school are important ______.
A. social gatherings for young students
B. events for adults to guide young students
C. programs which help young students change
D. activities which help young students grow up
57. Paragraph 4 is most likely to tell that most US colleges attach more importance to ______.
A. intellectual rigors than to physical rigors
B. competition than to education in athletics
C. professional athletes than to student-athletes
D. performances than to characters built in sports
58. Football game was not banned in 1913, for______.
A. football had produced boldest young leaders for the American nation
B. football was an essential part of the campus experience at that time
C. the football celebrities convinced the government by sound arguments
D. the prominent figures of big name universities argued a lot with Washington
59. According to Paragraph 6, educators now______.
A. defy those who favor football and basketball
B. believe that college sports produce capable people
C. tend to overlook the fact that sports can build character
D. intend to emphasize the character built by football and basketball
60. When he was a kid, the author preferred football games played______.
A. by football pros
B. by football stars
C. by skillful players
D. by school players
61. In the author’s idea, the most important thing in youth athletics is to______.
A. build character
B. provide chances
C. develop good skills
D. cultivate personage
62. In this passage, “education” CANNOT be interpreted as______.
A. teaching about teamwork and self-sacrifice
B. creating disposition and making a certain virtue
C. producing daring young men and potential leaders
D. learning about self-guidance and supervision
63. It can be learned from the passage that education is ______ now.
A. not an important part of US youth athletics
B. still an important part of US youth athletics
C. more important than competition in sports
D. less important than competition in sports
64. In the last paragraph, the author thinks that ______ one’s future career.
A. sport skills are helpful for the success in
B. playing sports in childhood is useless for
C. skills developed in sports are meaningless for
D. the character developed in sports is beneficial for
V. There is one underlined part in each of the following sentences, followed by four choices A, B, C and D. Choose the one that is closest in meaning to the underlined part and write the corresponding letter on your Answer Sheet. (10 points, 2 points for each)
65. …, and time spent on the athletic fields is meant to be productive.
A. fertile
B. fruitful
C. effective
D. constructive
66. Teachers at least want their pupils worn out so they’ll sit still in reading class.
A. haggard
B. impaired
C. exhausted
D. distressed
67. Too often, the players they recruit seem to care little about school themselves.
A. enroll
B. enlist
C. engage
D. engross
68. Today’s US athlete is thus content to be an entertainer.
A. earn stardom
B. please himself
C. offer hospitality
D. amuse people
69.…and probably hurt your street credibility.
A. make you easily lose face in public
B. make you easily injured in the street
C. make you less popular with the fans
D. make you a man less reliable to the fans
VI. Translate the following sentences into Chinese and write the translation on your Answer Sheet. (10 points, 2 points for each)
70. They long to kick and throw things and tackle each other, and the fields of organized play offer a place in which to act out these impulses.
71. For a child, being cut from the hockey team or denied a spot on the swimming is a grave disappointment —— and perhaps an opportunity for emotional or spiritual growth.
72. For the best players, the progression from little league to junior high to high school leads to a scholarship at a famous college and maybe, one day, a shot at the pros.
73. The idea that competitive sports build character, a western tradition dating from ancient Greece, has evidently fallen out of fashion in today’s US.
74. Although I certainly couldn’t have articulated it at the time, I think I must already have sensed that throwing a ball or catching passes was a fairly pointless thing to be good at.
VII. Answer the following essay question in English within 80-100 words.
Write your answers on the Answer Sheet. (10 points)
75. Should education be an important part in youth athletics? Why or why not?
VIII. Translate the following sentences into English and write the translation on your Answer Sheet.(18 points, 2 points each for 76-80, 8 points for 81)
76．父母几乎都尴尬得不得了,抱歉得不得了。
77．有些人没能上大学,却比大学教授得到更多的教育,甚至比他们更聪明。
78．对电视最大的也是最有道理的批评是它尽可能去迎合多数的观众,却忽略了少数的观众和个别人的品味。
79．我正享受着在世界最好的大学学习的特权；家乡的黑人在抗议他们悲惨的境遇。
80．垂直分割市场至关重要。这使公司能够用其他公司不能提供的专门的服务定位特定的顾客。
81．我介绍这些背景情况是因为我认为要判定一个作家的写作动机,就得对其早年的经历有所了解。作家的题材总是由他所处的时代决定的,至少在我们这个动荡不安的时代是如此。