Passage Two
Questions 62 to 66 are based on the following passage.
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, and 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, closeups. 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.
62.The passage is mainly concerned with .
[A]the different tastes of people for sports [B]the different characteristics of sports
[C]the attraction of football [D]the attraction of baseball
63.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 [D]it is pretentious and looks funny
64.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 [D]baseball is more interesting than football
65.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 different 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
[D]The consequent was too bad he could not bear to see it
66.We can safely conclude that the author.
[A]likes football [B]hates football [C]hates baseball [D]likes baseball
Part ⅤCloze (15 minutes)
Directions: There are 20 blanks in the following passage. For each blank there are four choices marked [A], [B], [C] and [D] on the right side of the paper. You should choose the ONE that best fits into the passage. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Who won the World Cup 1994 football game? What happened at the United Nations? How did the critics like the new play? 67 an event takes place; newspapers are on the streets 68 the details. Wherever anything happens in the world, reports are on the spot to 69 the news.
Newspapers have one basic 70 , to get the news as quickly as possible from its source, from those who make it to those who want to 71 it. Radio, telegraph, television, and 72 inventions brought competition for newspapers. So did the development of magazines and other means of communication. 73 , this competition merely spurred the newspapers on. They quickly made use of the newer and faster means of communication to improve the 74 and thus the efficiency of their own operations. Today more newspapers are 75 and read than ever before. Competition also led newspapers to branch out to many other fields. Besides keeping readers 76 of the latest news, today’s newspapers 77 and influence readers about politics and other important and serious matters. Newspapers influence readers’ economic choices 78 advertising. Most newspapers depend on advertising for their very 79 .News papers is sold at a price that 80 even a small fraction of the cost of production. The main 81 of income for most newspapers is commercial advertising. The 82 in selling advertising depends on a newspaper’s value to advertisers. This 83 in terms of circulation. How many people read the newspaper? Circulation depends 84 on the work of the circulation department and on the services or entertainment 85 in a newspaper’s pages. But for the most part, circulation depends on a newspaper’s value to readers as a source of information 86 the community, city, country, state, nation, and world and even outer space.
67.[A] Just when [B] While [C] Soon after [D] Before
68.[A] to give [B] giving [C] given [D] being given
69.[A] gather [B] spread [C] carry [D] bring
70.[A] reason [B] cause [C] problem [D] purpose
71.[A] make [B] publish [C] know [D] write
72.[A] another [B]other [C] one another [D] the other
