There are those who point with alarm at Americans' relative lack of interest in the world'

s most popular games, soccer, a sport many feel has important advantages over football and baseball. Football and baseball of their very nature prevent mass participation; their popularity must therefore bear some of the responsibility for turning America into a nation of spectators. The violence of football makes necessary specialized conditioning and elaborate equipment if injury is to be avoided; even so there are crippling accidents and deaths each year. Baseball (hardball, that is) is so difficult that few can participate; throwing a ball demands special talents and training, while hitting is also difficult that a game with unskillful players is hardly worth the bother. Soccer, on the other hand, is a game anyone can play and enjoy.

Since soccer's superiority in encouraging active participation is so obvious, and since soccer's ability to arouse intense feeling of identification among spectators is at least equal to football's, why has it failed to become a major sport on the professional and college level？ Soccer's worldwide popularity may be just what is keeping it from becoming popular. Baseball is also an international sport, played in Canada, Latin America, Japan, Korea and, in a minor way, Europe. There are professional leagues in the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Japan, but about all this the American public neither knows nor cares. Spectators here are interested only when American teams play other American teams. The major league baseball teams from Toronto and Montreal hardly destroy this generalization.

Relatively, the Americans are not interested in ___________ .

A．baseball

B．football

C．soccer

D．basketball