Text A
Long after the 1998 World Cup was won, disappointed fans were still cursing the disputed refereeing 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 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 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. If keeping up with the action is not so important, their physical condition is less critical.
The experiment conducted by the researcher was meant to ________.
根据文章第一段第二句“A researcher was appointed to study the performance of some top referees”， 可知这次实验的目的是通过模拟赛来分析 1998 年世界杯赛中裁判的判罚是否有误， 所以 A 是正确答案。 虽然 B 是实验本身， 也是作者以这次实验为例要说明的问题， 但并不是组织实验的目的。 故选 A。
The number of refereeing errors in the experimental matches was ________.
根据第三段最后一句话中的“a remarkably high number”可知此次实验的数据显示裁判出错的概率十分之高，选项 C“完全出乎意料之外” 符合题意， 文章并未涉及 A、 B、 D 三项。
The findings of the experiment show that ________.
根据第四段第二句“Surprisingly, he found that errors were more likely when the referees were close to the incident． ” 可以推断出在一定距离内， 裁判离球越近误判率就越高， 故 A 为正确答案。
The word “officials” (Line 2, Para. 4) most probably refers to ________.
根据文章上下文此处是说在裁判离事故距离近时犯错的几率会更大， 而当“officials” 判罚正确时。 他们距离犯规地点平均为 17 米。 显然， 此处的“official” 是指上文中出现的“referee”， 即裁判。
What is one of the possible conclusions of the experiment?
题目询问实验的结论可能是什么。 根据最后一段第一句可知， FIFA 让裁判在 45 岁时就退休是错误的决断，故排除 A、 C。 最后一段第二句说“如果不必紧跟着球员的话， 那么裁判的身体状况也就不那么重要了”，所以它的含义应为 B“在选择足球裁判时， 年龄并不是首要的考虑”。 D 为过度推理。