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 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 19th century, slow, quiet, and gentlemanly. These are the same people you may be one of them who love football because there’s the sport that values “the hit”.
By contrast, baseball seems abstract, cool, silent, still.
On TV the game is divided into a dozen perspectives, replays, close-ups. The geometry(几何学) of the game, however, is essential to understanding it. You will view 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 and you watch him watching home plate. His legs are apart, knees flexed(弯曲). His arms hang loose. He does a lot of this. The skeptic(怀疑论者) 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 right 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 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 ball on wood. If football is a symphony of movement and theatre, baseball is chamber music, a spacious interlocking(连锁) of notes, chorus（和声）and responses.
【小题1】The passage is mainly concerned with .A．the attraction of baseballB．the superiority of footballC．the different tastes of people for sportsD．the different characteristics of sports【小题2】Those who don’t like baseball may plain that .A．it is only to the taste of the oldB．it is not exciting enoughC．it involves fewer players than footballD．it is pretentious and looks funny【小题3】The author admits that .A．baseball may seem boring when watched on TV B．football is more attracting than baseballC．baseball is more interesting than footballD．baseball is too peaceful for the young【小题4】By stating “I could have had my eyes closed”, the author means (4th paragraph last sentence) .A．The consequence was so bad that he could not bear to see it B．The third baseman is so good at baseball that he could finish the game with eyes closed all the time and do his work wellC．Even if the third baseman closed his eyes a moment ago, it could make no difference to the resultD．The third baseman would rather sleep than play the gameA
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(答案→)A
解析：文章主要谈论了棒球这项体育运动。有人不喜欢看棒球比赛，他们认为棒球比赛很无聊，一点也不精彩。相比足球比赛的激情，棒球比赛显得过于平静。
【小题1】根据“Baseball to them means boring hours ...while very little of anything happens...On TV the game is divided into a dozen perspectives, replays, close-ups...baseball is chamber music, a spacious interlocking(连锁) of notes, chorus（和声）and responses”可知，文章主要谈论的是棒球这项运动，故选A。
【小题2】根据第一段“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...slow, quiet, and gentlemanly”可知，有的人觉得棒球无聊，是一种过时的运动。故选B。
【小题3】根据第三段“It is in this projection that the game affords so much space and time for involvement. The TV won’t do it for you.”可知，亲临现场能够给你足够的参与空间和时间，而在电视上观看棒球比赛，没有一点参与感，故选A。
【小题4】根据“ “Nothing happened,” you say.”可知，运动员做了一系列的动作之后，让观众以为会像看足球比赛一样看到什么精彩的内容，结果却令人失望，他们根本就没有行动，闭眼跟不闭眼没有什么区别。故选C。