单选题 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 19 th 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 brings the glove to a point in front of him, takes a step fight 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 frontof 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.
单选题 The passage is mainly concerned with ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 文章主旨题。文章开篇简述了人们对垒球所持的偏见——认为它毫无活力、从容和缓,不像橄榄球那样高潮迭起、令人激动。接着在第二至五段探讨了垒球的根本特征及欣赏角度,文章的尾句用一个比喻概括了垒球的魅力。可见,本文主要探讨的是垒球的特点及其欣赏。故答案为D。
单选题 Those who don"t like baseball may complain that ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 细节事实题。根据题干关键词don"t like baseball与原文首段第四句中的boring对应进行定位。原文中的very little of anything happens与选项C中的not exciting enough对应。故答案为C。A项为:它只适合老年人的口味。注意:原文说的是适合20世纪的人的口味,二者意味不一样。
单选题 The author admits that ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 细节推断题。原文第二段第五句指出亲临棒球比赛现场能够给你足够的参与空间和时间,接着第二段尾句指出The TV won"t do it for you(电视做不到这一点),也就是说在电视上观看棒球比赛,没有一点参与感。故答案为B。
单选题 By stating "I could have had my eyes closed." (paragraph 4, last sentence), the author means ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 语义题。根据题干关键词I could have had my eyes closed与原文第三段尾句对应进行定位。第四段整个都在描述垒球场上的一个场景,根据“Nothing happened”可知,在那时他的准备做不做都不会影响比赛结果,这与选项B表达的意思一致。故答案为B。
单选题 We can safely conclude that the author ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 逻辑推断题。本文作者主要探讨了垒球的特征及欣赏,作者着重指出的是:只有根据垒球的特征来欣赏它,才能体会到它的魅力。在他看来,观察到垒球比赛中运动员的各种动作、垒球位之间的关系等是欣赏它的关键(第三段第二句)。只有从整体来把握它,才能看到每一个小的动作、每一个眼神乃至于“静止”的意义,也只有这样,才能全身心地投入比赛中,欣赏到它的魅力。可见,作者对垒球有很深的理解而且非常喜爱垒球。故答案为D。