阅读理解
Long after the 1998 World Cup was won, disappointed fans were still cursing the disputed refereeing (裁判) decisions that denied victory to their team. A researcher was appointed to study the performance of some top referees.
The researcher organized an experimental tournament (锦标赛) involving four youth teams. Each match lasted an hour, divided into three periods of 20 minutes during which different referees were in charge.
Observers noted down the referees'' errors, of which there were 61 over the tournament. Converted to a standard match of 90 minutes, each referee made almost 23 mistakes, a remarkably high number.
The researcher then studied the videotapes to analyze the matches in detail. Surprisingly, he found that errors were more likely when the referees were close to the incident. When the officials got it right, they were, on average, 17 meters away from the action. The average distance in the case of errors was 12 meters. The research shows the optimum (最佳的) distance is about 20 meters.
There also seemed to be an optimum speed. Correct decisions came when the referees were moving at a speed of about 2 meters per second. The average speed for errors was 4 meters per second.
If FIFA, football''s international ruling body, wants to improve the standard of refereeing at the next World Cup, it should encourage referees to keep their eyes on the action from a distance, rather than rushing to keep up with the ball, the researcher argues.
He also says that FIFA''s insistence that referees should retire at age 45 may be misguided, ff keeping up with the action is not so important, their physical condition is less critical.
单选题
The experiment conducted by the researcher was meant to ________.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】辨认事实题。题目询问调查者的实验目的是什么。根据第1段可知，球迷对裁判的裁决不满意，因此“A re searcher was appointed to study the performance of some top referees．一名研究员被指定对一些高级裁判的场上执法情况进行研究”，加上文中error一词的频频使用，可见，目的是分析裁判为何误判，即B项。
单选题
The number of refereeing errors in the experimental matches was ________.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】辨认事实题。题目询问在试验比赛中，裁判犯错误的次数如何。根据第3段“在90分钟的标准赛中，每个裁判犯几乎23个错误，这是一个remarkably high number”，与C项“相当出乎人们的意料”一致。
单选题
The findings of the experiment show that ________.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】辨认事实题。题目询问实验的结果显示了什么。A项“errors are more likely when a referee keeps Close to the ball”为第4段第2句“errors were more likely when the referees were close to the incident”的同义表达，故正确。该段尾句指出最佳距离为20米，而非越远越好，故B项错；根据第5段第1、2句，速度最好为每秒 2米，而非C项。
单选题
The word "officials'' ( Line 2, Para. 4) most probably refers to ________.