Don’t Take the Fun Out of Youth Sports
When I joined a private football league a few years ago, the sport meant everything to me. My coach(教练) said that I had lots of potential(潜力), and I became captain of my ___36___. That was before all the fun was taken out of ___37___.
At first, everyone on the team got ___38___ playing time. Then the team moved up to the top division after winning all its games, and the ___39___ started. Some parents, who had paid the coach extra so their daughters could have ___40___one-on-one training, got angry when she didn’t give them more playing time in our ___41___. The coach was replaced.
The new coach, however, took all the fun out of the game. All we did during practice was ___42___. I always wished to God that it would rain so we would not have the ___43___. Of course, all teams run drills; they are ___44___. But we ran so much that, afterwards, we had trouble ___45___. Younger people shouldn’t be doing exercises ___46___ for 18-year-olds.
I was very thin ___47___ I started football, but as a member of this team I wouldn’t eat much, because I was afraid of being too ___48___ to run. I feared making mistakes, and the added pressure caused me to make more than my usual ___49___.
Is all this pressure necessary? I ___50___ up leaving the football team. Four other girls did the same, and two of them stopped playing football completely. That’s ___51___, because they had so much potential. They were just burned-out with all the pressure they ___52___ from the coach or their parents.
I continued playing football at school and ___53___ my love for it. I joined a private team coached by my school coach. When I started playing ___54___ him, he told me I needed to relax because I looked nervous. After I ___55___ down, I played better. When you enjoy something, it’s a lot easier to do it well.
36. A. class     B. club    C. team   D. board
37. A. playing B. living  C. learning     D. working
38. A. great    B. equal  C. right   D. extra
39. A. business       B. struggle      C. attempt      D. pressure
40. A. free      B. private       C. good   D. basic
41. A. matches       B. courses       C. lessons       D. programs
42. A. jump    B. play    C. run     D. shoot
43. A. duty     B. meeting      C. operation    D. training
44. A. necessary     B. boring C. scientific    D. practical
45. A. speaking      B. moving      C. sleeping     D. breathing
46. A. used     B. intended     C. made  D. described
47. A. till       B. since   C. before D. because
48. A. full      B. tired   C. lazy    D. big
49. A. size      B. share   C. space  D. state
50. A. gave     B. kept    C. ended  D. picked
51. A. sad       B. shameful    C. silly    D. serious
52. A. received       B. suffered     C. brought      D. felt
53. A. reconsidered B. rediscovered      C. reformed    D. replaced
54. A. at  B. by      C. for      D. around
55. A. fell       B. stepped      C. slowed       D. calmed