It’s not difficult to understand our desire for athletes to be heroes. On the surface, at least, athletes display a vital and indomitable spirit; they are gloriously alive _62_ their bodies. And

sports do allow us to _63_ acts that can

legitimately be described as _64_, thrilling,

beautiful, even noble. In a(n) _65_ complicated and disorderly world, sports are still an arena in which we can regularly witness a certain kind of _66_.

Yet there’s something of a _67_ here, for the

very qualities a society _68_ to seek in its heroes

selflessness, _69_ consciousness, and the

like----are precisely the _70_ of those which are

needed to _71_ a talented but otherwise unremarkable neighborhood kid into a Michael Jordan. To become a star athlete, you have to have an extremely competitive _72_ and you have to be totally focused on the development of your own physical skills. These qualities _73_ well make a great athlete, _74_ they don’t necessarily make a great person.

On top of this, our society reinforces these _75_ by the system it has created to produce

athletes---a system characterized by _76_ responsibility and enormous privilege.

The athletes themselves suffer the _77_ of this system. Trained to measure themselves perpetually _78 the achievements of those around them, many young athletes develop a sense of sociologist Walter Schafar has _79_ “conditional self-worth”. They learn very quickly that they will be accepted by the important figures in their lives---parents, coaches and peers as long as they are _80_ as “winner”. Unfortunately they become

_81_ and behave as if their athletic success will last forever.

62. A) outside B) inside

C) besides D) beside

63. A) depict B) witness

C) distinguish D) concentrate

64. A) courageous B) rigorous

C) conspicuous D) gorgeous

65. A) increasingly B) constantly

C) successively D) respectively

66. A) glamour B) greatness

C) ambition D) charm

67. A) paradox B) paradise

C) galaxy D) shuttle

68. A) tries B) risks

C) tends D) endeavors

69. A) social B) communal

C) huge D) important

70. A) fabulous B) opposite

C) notorious D) intact

71. A) enforce B) transform

C) interact D) distract

72. A) enthusiasm B) aspire C) outlook D) view

73. A) may B) can

C) must D) should

74. A) so B) and

C) as D) but

75. A) vogues B) traits

C) insights D) instincts

76. A) refrained B) limited

C) avoided D) prohibited

77. A) amends B) surpluses

C) bonuses D) costs

78. A) against B) to

C) by D) in

79. A) titled B) termed

C) suppressed D) conceptualized

80. A) conceived B) perceived

C) affected D) effected

81. A) conceited B) reckless

C) unanimous D) spontaneous