Organized sports teach kids about discipline.

Sports and Education

Sports Are a Kind of Education

For many young people in my part of the world (suburban America), the first brush with organized athletics comes on a Saturday morning in early spring. The weather is getting warmer and the school year's end is imminent, and moms, sensing the approach of summer vacation and too much free time, pile us into the backs of minivans and drive us to our town's local sports and recreation center. In my hometown, Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, kids converge each year on the EHT Youth Organ Building, a cinderblock shack in the middle of a handful of baseball and football fields. There lines are waited in, forma filled out, birth certificates examined and photocopied, health insurance waivers furnished and signed. At the end of the morning, kids are signed up for little-league baseball and an instant summer of activities has been created. Then it's time to go to Burger King.

For parents seeking productive ways to occupy their children's time, summer sports leagues offer a convenient and time tested outlet for overabundant energy. In my case that meant baseball. America's pastime: nine weeks of pitched fastballs and sore elbows, grounders up the, middle, digging it out to first base. Shagging flies in the outfield and swatting mosquitoes in the infield. Then, after six innings, back to Burger King.

A couple of weeks after the signups at the cinderblock shack, we kids would be rounded up into teams and coached in the fundamentals of pitching, catching, hitting, and running bases. We'd be supplied with color-coded jerseys and mesh baseball caps, and then we would play a season's worth of games against one another. Playoffs would be held and champions crowned. At the end of the season an ail-star team of the league's best players would be assembled to play against the best teams from neighboring towns.

Back and forth across the country this system repeats itself from town to town and sport to sport with little variation. Some leagues have storied pasts: baseball's Little League or football's Pop Warner League. Some are newer. In cities it is often the Policemen's Benevolent Association or the YMCA that assumes the sponsorship role. Always, though, there is the underlying idea that organized sport is a valuable and productive use of a young person's time. Sports, in short, are a kind of education, teaching important life .skills that can't be learned in school.

Ideas about the educational value of sports vary widely. For some, sports foster the social development of young people, teaching kids how to interact with their peers outside the classroom. Sports teach kids what it means to compote—how to cope with losing, how to respond gracefully to success. Sports are about teamwork, how to work together toward a common goal. Sometimes they're about developing a sense of self-esteem. Sometimes they're simply about finding a healthy way to tire hyperactive kids out so they'll sit still in class or get to bed at a reasonable hour. Some bolder advocates claim that their games build character.

Given the prevailing educational undercurrent, it's no surprise that many kids' second brush with organized athletics takes place in a school. Junior highs and highs schools sponsor their own sports programs and field teams of football, basketball. soccer and tennis players. There the educational theme is given a more direct and tangible form. as squads of student-athletes travel around the state representing their schools on the field, court or diamond. Yet here, strangely enough, is where a bit of the educational component begins to niter. High school teams are necessarily more selective than their youth league predecessors. Tryouts are held and less promising players are cut. Coaches receive salaries, and there is an expectation that the teams they shape will win. In sum, there is a slight change in em

A．Y

B．N

C．NG

When Laura Langanki found extra towels in the laundry smelling lemony fresh, she never【C1】______ that meant her 13-year-old son was【C2】______ drugs. "We were【C3】______ three to four bottles of air freshener a week," says the 42-year-old nurse from Plymouth, Minn. "【C4】______ a fool, I thought my kid was becoming more nterested in personal【C5】______ "Instead, Jake was "huffing"--spraying the【C6】______ into towels and inhaling the fumes.【C7】______ his mother found out two years later, he was smoking pot, using acid and crystal met amphetamine, drinking alcohol, and snorting cocaine.

Laura had warned Jake not to【C8】______ illegal drugs when he was younger and felt sure he got the message. But according to a new U.S. News【C9】______ , even parents who believe they talk often with their kids about drugs can be【C10】______ . Of 700 parents and 700 teens surveyed, 1【C11】______ 3 parents claimed to talk about drugs "a lot" with his or her teen, while only 14 percent of teenagers felt they had frequent conversation on the【C12】______ with Mom or Dad.

That failure to communicate can have【C13】______ con sequences. In a 1999 survey of nearly 10, 000 parents and teens【C14】______ the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, teens who【C15】______ anti-drug messages at home were 42 percent 【C16】______ to use drugs. "This may sound like【C17】______ advice," says Steve Dnistrian, executive vice president of the group. "But hard numbers quantify that parental communication is the 【C18】______ most important thing we can do to prevent children using drugs." Indeed, parents received 【C19】______ vote of confidence from 63 percent of the teens polled by U.S. News,【C20】______ siblings, teachers, and friends.

【C1】

A．believed

B．dreamed

C．assured

D．thought

When Laura Langanki found extra towels in the laundry smelling lemony fresh, she never【C1】______ that meant her 13 year-old son was 【C2】______ drugs. "We were 【C3】______ three to four bottles of air freshener a week," says the 42-year-old nurse from Plymouth, Minn." 【C4】______ a fool, I thought my kid was becoming more interested in personal 【C5】______ "Instead, Jake was "huffing"—spraying the 【C6】______ into towels and inhaling the fumes. 【C7】______ his mother found out two years later, he was smoking pot, using acid and crystal met amphetamine, drinking alcohol, and snorting cocaine.

Laura had warned Jake not to 【C8】______ illegal drugs when he was younger and felt sure he got the message. But according to a new U. S. News 【C9】______ , even parents who believe they talk often with their kids about drugs can be 【C10】______ . Of 700 parents and 700 teens surveyed, 1 【C11】______ 3 parents claimed to talk about drugs "a lot" with his or her teen, while only 14 percent of teenagers felt they had frequent conversation on the 【C12】______ with Mom or Dad.

That failure to communicate can have 【C13】______ consequences. In a 1999 survey of nearly 10, 000 parents and teens 【C14】______ the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, teens who 【C15】______ anti-drug messages at home were 42 percent 【C16】______ to use drugs. "This may sound like 【C17】______ advice," says Steve Dnistrian, executive vice president of the group. "But hard numbers quantify that parental communication is the 【C18】______ most important thing we can do to prevent children using drugs." Indeed, parents received 【C19】______ vote of confidence from 63 percent of the teens polled by U. S. News, 【C20】______ siblings, teachers, and friends.

【C1】

A．believed

B．dreamed

C．assured

D．thought

听力原文：M: (19)You know I've been thinking about applying for a job in Germany. Well, I've got the details about different jobs and I'd like your opinion about which would be the best one to go for.

W: Where are the jobs?

M: (20)One's in Munich, one's in Frankfurt and the other one's in Hamburg.

W: Munich's supposed to be a very nice place.

M: Yes, it is, and it's also in a beautiful part of Germany, not far from the Alps.

W: That would be great for the kids they'd love to be able to go skiing at weekends.

M: But, one problem with Munich is that it's growing very fast. That means the cost of living will probably be very high.

W: (21)How is the salary of the job in Munich compared with the other jobs?

M: It's higher than the salary of the job in Frankfurt but lower than the one in Hamburg. The Hamburg job has the most responsibility. From the point of view of career progression that would probably be the best job for me.

W: Hamburg's the closest to Britain, too, so it would be easy to come back for long weekends and holidays.

M: That's right, and there's a regular ferry service which would save quite a bit on fares.

W: What about the cost of living in Germany as a whole? How is it compared with British?

M: Well, It's definitely higher than over here, but salaries are substantially higher, so we'd certainly be better off than we are now.

(20)

A．The comparison in costs of living between different countries.

B．The advantages and disadvantages of working in different places.

C．Where to spend their forthcoming holidays.

D．Which university their eldest son should attend.