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.』① 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.』② 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.
1. 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
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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.
5. We can safely conclude that the author ______.
A. likes football B. hates football
C. hates baseball D. likes baseball
詞彙與短語
1. dugout n. 棒球場邊供球員休息的地方
2. pitcher n. 投手
3. symphony n. 交響樂
4. chamber n. 室內
5. contemplate vt.沉思，注視
長難句解析
①【解析】此句的主幹是“Baseball?means?watching?”，其中“in funny tight outfits”用來修飾“grown men”,“standing?”和“staring”用來做“grown men”的定語。 【譯文】對於他們來說，棒球就是在無聊的幾個小時中幾個身著緊身衣的大人佇立在場地周圍沒事可做地東張西望。
②【解析】這是一個複合句，“goes up?”，“flexes?”“takes?”，“glances?”做“the third baseman”的並列謂語。 【譯文】但每當投球手擲出球的那一瞬間，你再看吧，三壘運動員腳尖點地，屈臂或把接球手套直指前方，左右移動步伐，或前或後，或許他還要越過場地盯著一壘球手的動作。
答案與詳解
【短文大意】本文主要講述壘球的特徵及欣賞。
1. D 主旨題。文章第一段簡述了人們對壘球所持的`偏見——認為它毫無活力、從容和緩，不像橄欖球那樣(禁止)迭起、令人激動。文章的第二、三、四、五段探討了壘球的根本特徵及欣賞角度，文章的最後一句話用一個比喻概括了壘球的魅力：“如果橄欖球是一曲交響樂的話，那麼，壘球中所表現出來的運動恰似一曲優美的室內樂。”可見，本文主要探討的是壘球的特點及其欣賞。 A不對，第一段也確實提到了不同觀眾對不同運動形式的偏好，但這只是用以引出對壘球的特徵及欣賞的討論。
