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.

　　四級(jí)閱讀理解試題練習(xí)試題：

　　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

　　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

　　四級(jí)閱讀理解試題練習(xí)答案：

　　1. D主旨題。文章第一段簡(jiǎn)述了人們對(duì)壘球所持的偏見——認(rèn)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(dòng)。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(gè)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(xiàn)出來的運(yùn)動(dòng)恰似一曲優(yōu)美的室內(nèi)樂。”可見，本文主要探討的是壘球的特點(diǎn)及其欣賞。 A不對(duì)，第一段也確實(shí)提到了不同觀眾對(duì)不同運(yùn)動(dòng)形式的偏好，但這只是用以引出對(duì)壘球的特征及欣賞的討論。

　　2. C細(xì)節(jié)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(duì)他們來說，看壘球意味著眼巴巴地觀望著身著運(yùn)動(dòng)裝(outfit)的人呆立在球場(chǎng)上，東瞧瞧西望望，很少有什么(激動(dòng)人心的)事發(fā)生——沒意思透了。他們認(rèn)為這樣的運(yùn)動(dòng)更適合上個(gè)世紀(jì)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(gè)世紀(jì)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(fēng)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(yùn)動(dòng)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(shù)，這破壞了該運(yùn)動(dòng)的整體運(yùn)動(dòng)感，使觀眾無法將自己投入(project)到運(yùn)動(dòng)中去，以體會(huì)到這種寓動(dòng)于靜的運(yùn)動(dòng)之美。電視做不到這一點(diǎn)(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(duì)，作者僅指出了不同運(yùn)動(dòng)有不同運(yùn)動(dòng)的特征，并未說哪種運(yùn)動(dòng)優(yōu)于哪種。參閱文章最后一句。

　　4. B推斷題。第四段整個(gè)都在描述壘球場(chǎng)上的一個(gè)場(chǎng)景：拿三壘的運(yùn)動(dòng)員假設(shè)對(duì)方全投出好球，作好了一切準(zhǔn)備，但是對(duì)方投出的并不是好球。所以在那時(shí)候他的準(zhǔn)備做不做都不會(huì)影響比賽結(jié)果。他說本來可以閉上眼睛，意思就是B項(xiàng)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(nèi)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(jù)壘球的特征來欣賞它，才能體會(huì)到它的魅力。在他看來，觀察到壘球比賽中運(yùn)動(dòng)員的各種動(dòng)作、壘球位之間的關(guān)系等是欣賞它的關(guān)鍵(第三段第二句)。只有從整體來把握它，才能看到每一個(gè)小的動(dòng)作、每一個(gè)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?？梢姡髡邔?duì)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。