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

　　重點詞匯

　　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

　　長難句分析

　　①此句的主干是“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】對于他們來說，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這是一個復合句，“goes up„”，“flexes„”“takes„”，“glances„”做“the third baseman”的并列謂語。 【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，或前或后，或許他還要越過場地盯著一壘球手的動作。

　　答案與解析

　　本文主要講述壘球的特征及欣賞。

　　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征及欣賞角度，文章的最后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，那么，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征及欣賞的討論。

　　2. C 細節題。文章第一段指出：許多人不喜歡壘球，一提起壘球這些人就打哈欠甚至皺眉頭。對他們來說，看壘球意味著眼巴巴地觀望著身著運動裝(outfit)的人呆立在球場上，東瞧瞧西望望，很少有什么(激動人心的)事發生——沒意思透了。他們認為這樣的運動更適合上個世紀的人的口味，不像橄欖球那樣充滿

　　活力。 A意為：“它只適合老年人的口味。”注意：原文說的是適合上個世紀的人的口味，二者意味不一樣。 D意為：“它矯揉造作、滑稽可笑。”這與說它gentlemanly(具有紳士風度，矜持，即：沒有沖撞或拼搶)不一樣。

　　3. B 推斷題。第三段指出，在電視上，壘球運動被切換成不同角度的畫面，而且不斷地使用重放、特寫等電視制作技術，這破壞了該運動的整體運動感，使觀眾無法將自己投入(project)到運動中去，以體會到這種寓動于靜的運動之美。電視做不到這一點(The TV won’t do it for you)，因此，電視上的壘球比賽看上去(seems)孤孤單單、冷冷清清、沉沉靜靜、慢慢騰騰。C、D不對，作者僅指出了不同運動有不同運動的特征，并未說哪種運動優于哪種。參閱文章最后一句。

　　4. B 推斷題。第四段整個都在描述壘球場上的一個場景：拿三壘的運動員假設對方全投出好球，作好了一切準備，但是對方投出的并不是好球。所以在那時候他的準備做不做都不會影響比賽結果。他說本來可以閉上眼睛，意思就是B項所寫的。A、C、D都不符合作者的意圖。這道題需要完整地了解第四段內容才能作好選擇。

　　5. D 推斷題。在本文中，作者主要探討了壘球的特征及欣賞，作者著重指出的是：只有根據壘球的特征來欣賞它，才能體會到它的魅力。在他看來，觀察到壘球比賽中運動員的各種動作、壘球位之間的關系等是欣賞它的關鍵(第三段第二句)。只有從整體來把握它，才能看到每一個小的動作、每一個眼神乃至于“靜止”的意義，也只有這樣，才能全身心地投入比賽中，欣賞到它的魅力。可見，作者對壘球有很深的理解而且非常喜愛壘球。主要參考第三、四、五段。

　　“With the increase in the number of such advertisements, however, each advertiser within a certain group is competing with others in the same group for the reader’s attention”，故選項D正確。 Psychologists take opposing views of how external rewards, from warm praise to old cash, affect motivation and creativity. Behaviorists, who study the relation between actions and, argue that rewards can improve performance at work and school. Some other researchers who study various aspects of mental life, maintain those rewards often destroy creativity by encouraging dependence on approval and gifts from others.

　　The latter view has gained many supporters, especially among educators. But the careful use of small monetary rewards sparks in grade-school children suggesting that properly presented inducements indeed aid inventiveness, according to a study in the June Journal Personality and Social Psychology.

　　“If they know they're working for a reward and can focus on a relatively challenging task, they show the most creativity,” says Robert Esenberger of the University of Delaware in Newark. “But it's easy to kill creativity by giving rewards for poor performance or creating too much anticipation for rewards.”

　　A teacher who continually draws attention to rewards or who hands out high grades for ordinary achievement ends up with uninspired students, Esenberger holds. As an example of the latter point, he notes growing efforts at major universities to tighten grading standards and restore falling grades.

　　In earlier grades, the use of so-called token economics, in which students handle challenging problems and receive performance-based points toward valued rewards, shows promise in raising effort and creativity, the Delaware psychologist claims.

　　1. Psychologists are divided with regard to their attitudes toward ____.

　　A) the choice between spiritual encouragement and monetary rewards

　　B) the appropriate amount of external rewards

　　C) the study of relationship between actions and

　　D) the effects of external rewards on students' performance

　　2. What is the view held by many educators concerning external rewards for students?

　　A) They approve of external rewards.

　　B) They don't think external rewards.

　　C) They have doubts about external rewards.

　　D) They believe external rewards can motivate small children, but not college students.

　　3. According to the result of the study mentioned in the passage, what should educators do to stimulate motivation and creativity?

　　A) Give rewards for performances which deserve them.

　　B) Always promise rewards.

　　C) Assign tasks which are not very challenging.

　　D) Be more lenient to students when mistakes are made.

　　4. It can be inferred from the passage that major universities are trying to tighten their grading standards because they believe ____.

　　A) rewarding poor performance may kill the creativity of students’

　　B) punishment is more effective than rewarding

　　C) failing uninspired students helps improve their overall academic standards

　　D) discouraging the students anticipation for easy rewards is matter of urgency

　　5.Which of the following facts about “token economics” is not correct?

　　A) Students are assigned challenging tasks.

　　B) Rewards are given for good performances.

　　C) Students are evaluated according to the effort they put into the task.

　　D) With token economics, students’ creativity can be enhanced.

　　答案與解析：

　　1. D心理學家認為外界的獎勵對學生會有不同的影響。事實辨析題。根據文章第一句話“Psychologists take opposing views of how external re wards, from warm praise to old cash, affect motivation and creativity”可知，心理學家的分歧在于來自外界的獎勵對學生的積極性和創造性究竟有什么影響，故選項D正確.

　　2. C許多教育家對外界的獎勵持懷疑態度。文章第二段第一句話提到，后一種觀點得到了許多教育工作者的支持，從第一段中可知，后一種觀點是：獎勵會促使學生對別人的贊許和饋贈產生依賴心理，因此獎勵會破壞創造精神。由此可知，他們對獎勵的正面作用持懷疑態度。故選項C正確。

　　3. A根據文中的研究結果表明，教育家通過給予學生應得的獎勵來提高他們的積極性和創造性。文章第三段指出，給予學生恰當的獎勵，可使他們發揮更大的創造性，但如果對糟糕的表現也給予獎勵，或讓學生對獎勵有太多的期許，反而會扼殺創造性。故選項A正確。

　　4. B從文中可以得知，一些重點大學試圖加強等級標準，因為他們相信懲罰比獎勵更有效。事實辨析題。從文中第四段可知，許多大學之所以嚴格考試的評分標準，是因為“A teacher ... who hands out high grades for ordinary achievement ends up with uninspired students”。選項B 與此意相同。

　　5. C根據學生的表現對他們做出評價。事實辨析題。根據最后一段的意思，在這種獎勵制度下，要根據學生的表現對他們做出評價，而不僅僅是他們花費了多少精力來完成任務，故選項C正確。