Many critics consider that far more stress is placed on achievements in athletics than in

the academic sphere. We're told that it's 【C1】______ to compel boys with no athletic 【C2】______ to spend hours of misery on the playground, when, if 【C3】______ to themselves, they would occupy their time far more usefully in some 【C4】______ hobby. The 【C5】______ to this argument, no doubt, 【C6】______ the simple assumption that every non-athlete has some good hobby. It's not true; 【C7】______ even if it were, other hobbies are no substitute for being out, exercising the muscles and having 【C8】______ with our human beings.

【C9】______ the youthful idolizing of athletes, which tends to upset a boy's 【C10】______ of values and may do 【C11】______ harm to the objects of this hero-worship, 【C12】______ a very different matter.

The schoolboy 【C13】______ may suffer through being surrounded at an early age with feint 【C14】______ of artificial light. From preparatory school to university his career is a 【C15】______ procession. Then he becomes a future legend, one of the great products of the school that is proud to call him her son although 【C16】______ may have taught him nothing except to play football. Not until he hangs up his 【C17】______ does he realize his true value--or the lack of it. It'd be better for everybody if this artificial glory were 【C18】______ from games at an early stage.

For some devotees, sport is kind of religion, the sporting spirit is the finest attitude to face life, since its possessor is very conscious of his obligation to the 【C19】______ . The truth is that games have practically no effect on character. Games afford an opportunity for showing the spirit within; they are a 【C20】______ for virtue or for vice. It's for this reason that we should value them.

【C1】

A．tyrannical

B．bossy

C．beastly

D．inhumane