1. Comprehension

Interview: High School Sports

Which way of completing each of the following sentences agrees with the information given in the interview?

1. When compared with Germany, school sports in the U.S.

1. put much more emphasis on competitive sports.

2. are almost entirely organized by sports clubs.

3. consist of competitive sports and, equally important, P.E.

2. In P.E., students

1. do individual sports only.

2. can choose between team and individual sports.

3. have to go through a general fitness program.

3. The popularity of the basketball team at QHS

1. has traditionally been strong.

2. has recently been matched by the girls' volleyball team.

3. is strongly dependent on its success.

4. The basketball games are important for the school because they

1. attract large audiences.

2. attract new students.

3. improve the school's finances.

5. At QHS 'Blue Devils' is the name of

1. the school's teams.

2. the mascots.

3. the basketball team's following.

6. The cheerleaders' function is

1. to stimulate the players during the games.

2. to create a stimulating atmosphere in order to support their team.

3. to please the audience through their appearance and performance.

7. The community supports the basketball team by

1. having large posters printed for every game.

1. attending the home games.

2. frequently accompanying the team to tournaments outside of Quincy.

8. When a successful team returns from a tournament,

1. it is enthusiastically welcomed by the community.

2. it parades along the mall on an old fire truck.

3. it first goes to the gym to celebrate its success.

9. The members of the basketball team are

1. popular unless they get too arrogant.

2. as popular with the girls as the cheerleaders are with the boys.

c) unpopular because they are too arrogant. 10. The coach of the basketball team

1. is a local, celebrity as long as the team is successful.

2. will lose his coaching job if he is not successful.

3. cannot be fired as a coach.

2. Text Analysis and Comment

Sports in America: Colleges and universities

1. Why does Michener consider the American college and university sports system unique?

2. Where is Michener critical of the system?

3. What role do sports play in American society?

4. The author uses the rhetorical device of comparison. Give examples and show what function they serve.

5. "... I sort of get sick to my stomach when some faculty committee issues a statement that my boys should be scholars first and athletes second. Any self-respectin' man with his head screwed on right must realize that football consumes so much of a boy's time, fall, winter, spring and summer, that he

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simply ain't got time to be a scholar too. If we didn't have a supply of snap courses, and cooperatin' professors who know the score, ain't no way my boys could stay in school. We hire them to play football, and we pay them well to do it, and it's only after their eligibility is used up that they got time to be scholars." (A university football coach, quoted from Michener, Sports in America, p.228)

In the light of this quotation, what would you suggest to solve the problem?