Reading_for_the_Real_World_1_2nd_Ed

U N I T 9 Sports & Fitness 1

Cheating in Sports

Pre-Reading Questions

Think about the following questions.

1.How do you think professional athletes cheat?

2.Which sports are the most violent?

3.Who is usually to blame for cheating, players or coaches?

Vocabulary Preview

Match each word or phrase with the correct definition.

1.	ingenious	a. clever
2.	loophole	b. not earned; not merited
3.	opponent	c. a rival; an enemy
4.	single-mindedly	d. with all one’s attention or thought
5.	sluggish	e. slow; moving like a slug
6.	undeserved	f. a missing part of a rule allowing people to avoid the rule

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Cheating in Sports Track 33

Sports are about competition. The goal of every athlete, or every team, is to win. Unfortunately, two factors have been pushing American sports in an unhealthy direction. One of these factors is the obsession with

winning, no matter what the cost. The other factor is money. These two factors

5put extreme pressure on both players and coaches to focus single-mindedly on winning. This has resulted in a problem that is spreading and becoming more serious. That problem is cheating.

Of course, there are rules in all sports to penalize cheating. So coaches and

players have had to come up with ingenious ways to get around the rules.

10Getting a competitive edge, even unfairly, is seen as a “strategy” rather than cheating. Illegal acts are now even being accepted as part of the game. Coaches encourage players to cheat, or coaches simply look the other way when they know players commit illegal acts during games. And referees rarely do anything to discourage cheating, or they impose minimal penalties.

15	A professor of sports and recreation, Dr. James Frey, introduced the term,
	“normative cheating” to refer to the methods of cheating commonly used in
	sports today. This refers to strategies used to create conditions of some advantage
	over an opponent. These strategies do not actually break the
	rules. Instead, coaches and players have learned how to use
20	loopholes in the rules to gain a competitive advantage.
	There are many forms of normative cheating. In
	basketball, for example, it is common for a player to
	pretend to be fouled in order to receive an undeserved foul
	shot. In football, players are typically coached to use illegal
25	techniques to hold or trip opponents without referees noticing.

2factors --- things or situations that cause a result

3obsession --- extreme single-minded focus

8 penalize --- to punish

12encourage --- to support; to inspire

13referee --- a judge for a sport

14discourage --- to prevent by causing others to lose will or desire

14 impose --- to require; to demand

26	doctor --- to change or fix in an illegal way
37	recruit --- to seek new members
47	letter of the law --- the exact wording of the law

And in baseball, home teams often “doctor” their fields to suit their strengths and minimize the strengths of their opponents. For example, if a home team knows they will face a fast team, they will spread water or sand between

30bases to slow down the runners of the other team. Other techniques used by home teams to cheat include increasing the heat in the visitor’s locker room to make the athletes sluggish. And some schools even use psychological tricks such as painting the visitor’s locker room pink, a color said

35	reduce strength and make people less aggressive.
	Normative cheating extends to off-the-field areas of sports
	well. Colleges compete to recruit the best high school players in
	the country. Although there are rules about when and how often colleges can
	contact recruits, coaches are adept at bending these rules. For instance, it is

40against the rules to send newspaper clippings about a university sports team to players being recruited. However, if a newspaper clipping is attached to the back of a letter, it is technically OK, even if the letter has only one sentence.

Normative cheating has even crept into American high school sports. If a good athlete wants to play for a school far away from where he lives, he may

45move to the home of a relative or friend that does live near that school. That way, he technically lives within the school district of his new school. He has obeyed the letter of the law, but not the spirit.

Reading Time

_______ minutes _______ seconds

537 words

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Reading Comprehension

AMark each statement as either true (T) or false (F) according to the reading.

1.____ Both coaches and athletes are to blame for widespread cheating in sports.

2.____ Pink is a good color for a locker room.

3.____ Not all forms of cheating break the rules of sports.

4.____ There are rules against cheating in sports.

BChoose the best answer.

1.What is the definition of “normative cheating”?

a.Cheating by changing the rules

b.Cheating normally used to break rules

c.Cheating that gives an edge within the rules

d.Cheating that is easily noticed

2.Which is NOT an example of normative cheating?

a.Acting as if you have been hit by another player

b.Creating a bad atmosphere in another team’s area

c.Hitting another player on purpose to hurt the player

d.Hold or trip opponents without referees noticing

3.Which statement would the writer probably agree with?

a.Athletes who cheat should be banned from participating in sports.

b.Everybody cheats, and there is nothing we can do to stop it.

c.If cheating is not controlled, sports will suffer more and more.

d.Just because an action is technically not cheating doesn’t mean that it is OK to do.

CFor the next two questions, look for the answers in the passage and write them on the lines provided.

1.What is primarily responsible for the increase in cheating in sports?

______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

2.How has normative cheating made its way into high school sports?

______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

Summary

Fill in the blanks with the phrases from the list. Use each phrase only once.

normative cheating	cheating is illegal	loopholes in rules
a team might	undeserved foul shot	athletes and coaches

Because some 1 __________________ are single-minded and focused on winning no matter what the cost, cheating has become more common in sports. Of course, 2 _________________, so players and coaches have come up with ingenious ways to get around the rules. They have found 3 _________________

that allow them to cheat to get an advantage over opponents. This kind of cheating is called 4 _________________. One example of this kind of cheating is when a player pretends to be fouled in order to get a(n) 5 _________________. Or

6 _________________ set the heat very high in the opponent’s locker room to make players on that team sluggish during the game.

Vocabulary Extension

Here are six words that are related to the topic but are not in the reading. Fill in each blank with the best word from the list. Use each word only once.

spectators

umpires

tactics

leagues

injured

season

1.Baseball has __________, not referees.

2.The baseball __________ starts in early spring.

3.There were over 10,000 __________ at the stadium for the final game of the World Series.

4.Many sports have amateur and professional __________ that athletes play in.

5.The hockey player __________ his leg in the game.

6.Some teams use unfair __________ to try to win. For example, they try to hurt the other players so they can’t play as well.

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Supplemental Reading

Drugs in Sports

Track 34

The International Olympics Committee has established special rules banning drugs to enhance performance. However, some athletes are experimenting with new drugs that are difficult to detect.

The IOC forbids athletes from using steroids as strength builders. The most

5popular steroids are man-made forms of testosterone, a hormone already present in the body.

Another popular performance-enhancer is EPO. EPO, or Erythropoientin, regulates red blood-cell production. These cells deliver

oxygen throughout the body. The oxygen boost it provides

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15

20

can improve an athlete’s performance in a 20-minute run by thirty seconds. In a marathon, it could give an athlete a 4-minute advantage. EPO is dangerous because it can make the blood too thick for the heart to pump.

Human growth hormone, a third commonly used enhancer, is a naturally occurring amino acid which helps control growth from birth to adulthood. Genetically engineered HGH became available in 1985. Athletes use HGH to develop bigger muscles and then take steroids to strengthen the muscles. The drug is hard to detect because it passes out of the body in less than 45 minutes.

The newest wave of performance enhancement is through a blood substitute called Hemopure. The effect of using Hemopure is similar to the effect of EPO. However, there is no current test that can detect Hemopure in the blood.

Discussion

Discuss the following questions.

1.Do you think athletes should have the freedom of choice to use performance enhancing drugs? Why or why not?

2.Some say that mandatory drug testing is a violation of a person’s right to privacy. Do you agree or disagree?

U N I T 9 Sports & Fitness 2

Gi

Pre-Reading Questions

Think about the following questions.

1.Do you think that each person has a special energy inside them? Why or why not?

2.How can meditation or acupuncture help people?

3.What do you think gi is?

Vocabulary Preview

Match each word or phrase with the correct definition.

1.	build up	a. a strong attention or effort
2.	circulate	b. an uncomfortable feeling
3.	concentration	c. to do or attempt
4.	discomfort	d. very deep and quiet thought
5.	meditation	e. to collect; to be contained
6.	undertake	f. to move in a continuous way

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Gi	Track 35

What is gi? Gi means different things to different people. Some say that it is a force created by practicing breathing exercises. Some say that it is highly developed concentration. Still others say that it

is an electrical force that circulates within the body of all living creatures. Some

5even claim that gi is a person’s soul. Where does the idea of gi come from? Most information about gi comes from Asia. For thousands of years, the people of India have believed in this type of energy, which they call prana. According to Indian mystics, or holy men, highly developed prana can allow a man to equal

the physical strength of several men; letting him bend thick metal bars and lift

10 heavy objects. The Chinese call this force chi, the Koreans gi, and the Japanese ki. Regardless of the name, the traditional thinking in Asia is that this energy can

be used for health, relaxation, and self-defense. Special gi doctors in China, Korea, and Japan believe that gi travels through our body like cars on a highway. They believe that some types of pain are caused by gi not being able to flow smoothly,

2	force --- power; energy
8	mystic --- a person who practices religious rites
13	self-defense --- the act of protecting oneself when attacked by another
16	therapy --- a treatment

33 sensitive --- responding readily

35 actual --- real; existing

37brainwaves --- activity of the brain shown through electrical data

38electromagnetic --- related to electric and magnetic fields

40 practitioner --- a person who regularly does a specific activity 42 observe --- to see

20Sometimes these doctors are able to direct the gi from their own bodies into the bodies of their patients. Gi meditation, popular in China, teaches its followers to send their gi to the muscles of the heart, stomach, face, and neck. These are the places where stress builds up the most. These people believe that learning how to

direct their gi to these areas will help them relax and live longer, healthier lives. 25 Probably the most well-known examples of gi development can be found in

the area of martial arts. Exercises like hapkido, aikido and tai chi teach people to develop their gi for self-defense. The Shaolin Monks of Central China are known for their ability to control their gi and do amazing things with their bodies. They are able to bend heavy iron bars with their bare hands, touch their tongues to

30red-hot swords without injury, and endure freezing cold temperatures with no discomfort.

Can science prove the existence of gi? With modern computer technology and sensitive recording equipment, maybe it can. Researchers from the University of Southern California have been performing experiments to see if there are any

35actual physical changes in the bodies of people who undertake gi meditation, and they have found interesting results. By attaching special computers that measure brainwaves to the heads of gi meditation students, scientists have been able to

detect large increases of electromagnetic waves in their brains. Also, computerized brain scans show that people who do gi exercises use 25 percent more of their

40brain area than people who do ordinary meditation. Gi-gong practitioners are also able to direct energy to different parts of their body. This energy can be observed on special machines used to record body heat.

Is gi meditation helpful? Is gi real? Whether science says it is or not, many

	people throughout Asia have no doubt about its existence or its healthy benefits.
45	Maybe the only way to know for sure is to try for yourself!
	Reading Time _______ minutes _______ seconds 562 words

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Reading Comprehension

AMark each statement as either true (T) or false (F) according to the reading.

1.____ People have known about gi for a long time.

2.____ Most of the information about gi is from North America.

3.____ Using gi, people may be healthier, more relaxed, or more powerful.

4.____ Gi is only located in our brain.

BChoose the best answer.

1.What is known about gi?

a.Only Asian people have it.

b.It has been completely proven by scientific experiment.

c.Gi can be used for health and self-protection.

d.Not many people believe in it.

2.According to the reading, what is probably true?

a.If gi circulates freely in our body, we feel healthier.

b.Gi is our soul.

c.It takes a long time to develop gi.

d.Gi is unknown in the West.

3.According to this reading, in which country was gi first known?

a.Korea

b.China

c.India

d.Japan

CFor the next two questions, look for the answers in the passage and write them on the lines provided.

1.What ability do Shaolin monks have because of their control of gi?

______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

2.What is the scientific evidence for gi?

______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________