Most young people enjoy some forms of physical activity. It may be walking, cycling or swimming, or in winter skating or skiing. It may be a game of some kind-foot-ball, hockey, golf, or tennis. It may be mountaineering(登山).
Those who have a passion for climbing high and difficult mountains are often looked upon with astonishment. Why are men and women willing to suffer cold and hardship, and to take risks on high mountains? This astonishment is caused probably by the difference between mountaineering and other forms of activity to which men give their leisure.
Mountaineering is a sport and not a game. There are no man made rules, as there are for such games as golf and football. There are, of course, rules of a different kind which it would be dangerous to ignore, but it is this freedom from man-made rules that makes mountaineering attractive to many people. Those who climb mountains are free to use their own methods.
If we compare mountaineering and other more familiar sports, we might think that one big difference is that mountaineering is not a “team game”. We should be mistaken in this. There are, it is true, no “matches” between “teams” of climbers, but when climbers are on a rock face linked by a rope on which their lives may depend, there is obviously teamwork.
The mountain climber knows that he may have to fight forces that are stronger and are powerful than man. He has to fight the forces of nature. His sport requires high mental and physical qualities.
A mountain climber continues to improve in skill year after year. A skier if probably past his best by the age of thirty, and most international tennis champions are in their early twenties. But it is not unusual for a man of fifty or sixty to climb the highest mountains in the Alps. They may take more time that younger men, but they probably climb with more skill and less waste of effort, and they certainly experience equal enjoyment.

46. Mountaineering involves everything EXCEPT ______________.
A) cold B) hardship C) risk D) astonishment
47. The difference between a sport and a game has to do with the kind of __________.
A) activity B) rules C) uniform D) participants
48. Mountaineering can be called a team sport because _________.
A) it is an Olympic event
B) teams compete against each other
C) mountaineers depend on each other while climbing
D) there are 5 climbers on each team
49. Mountaineers compete against __________.
A) nature B) each other C) other teams D) international standards
50. The best title for the passage is ___________.
A) Mountaineering Is Different from Golf and Football
B) Mountaineering Is More Attractive than Other Sports
C) Mountaineering
D) Mountain Climbers

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