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It’s not difficult to understand our desire for athletes to be heroes. On the surface, at least, athletes display a vital and indomitable spirit; they are gloriously alive _62_ their bodies. And
sports do allow us to _63_ acts that can
legitimately be described as _64_, thrilling,
beautiful, even noble. In a(n) _65_ complicated and disorderly world, sports are still an arena in which we can regularly witness a certain kind of _66_.
Yet there’s something of a _67_ here, for the
very qualities a society _68_ to seek in its heroes
selflessness, _69_ consciousness, and the
like----are precisely the _70_ of those which are
needed to _71_ a talented but otherwise unremarkable neighborhood kid into a Michael Jordan. To become a star athlete, you have to have an extremely competitive _72_ and you have to be totally focused on the development of your own physical skills. These qualities _73_ well make a great athlete, _74_ they don’t necessarily make a great person.
On top of this, our society reinforces these _75_ by the system it has created to produce
athletes---a system characterized by _76_ responsibility and enormous privilege.
The athletes themselves suffer the _77_ of this system. Trained to measure themselves perpetually _78 the achievements of those around them, many young athletes develop a sense of sociologist Walter Schafar has _79_ “conditional self-worth”. They learn very quickly that they will be accepted by the important figures in their lives---parents, coaches and peers as long as they are _80_ as “winner”. Unfortunately they become
_81_ and behave as if their athletic success will last forever.
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62. A) outside B) inside
C) besides D) beside
63. A) depict B) witness
C) distinguish D) concentrate
64. A) courageous B) rigorous
C) conspicuous D) gorgeous
65. A) increasingly B) constantly
C) successively D) respectively
66. A) glamour B) greatness
C) ambition D) charm
67. A) paradox B) paradise
C) galaxy D) shuttle
68. A) tries B) risks
C) tends D) endeavors
69. A) social B) communal
C) huge D) important
70. A) fabulous B) opposite
C) notorious D) intact
71. A) enforce B) transform
C) interact D) distract
72. A) enthusiasm B) aspire C) outlook D) view
73. A) may B) can
C) must D) should
74. A) so B) and
C) as D) but
75. A) vogues B) traits
C) insights D) instincts
76. A) refrained B) limited
C) avoided D) prohibited
77. A) amends B) surpluses
C) bonuses D) costs
78. A) against B) to
C) by D) in
79. A) titled B) termed
C) suppressed D) conceptualized
80. A) conceived B) perceived
C) affected D) effected
81. A) conceited B) reckless
C) unanimous D) spontaneous |
