問題詳情

五、 閱讀測驗: 20%，每題 2 分。An unnamed member of the media argued with me about having machines instead ofumpires call balls and strikes in baseball so that the strike zone would be 100 percentconsistent. I immediately struck back with an argument about the psychology of baseball. Themental battle between the pitcher and the batter ultimately determines the type of pitchesthrown, the placement, and the order of pitches. Both pitcher and batter must adjust to theumpire’s strike zone as well as adjust to each other throughout the course of a game. Whilewe all get frustrated about the changing whims of umpires and their strike zones, psychologyand a player’s ability to mentally adjust is part of what makes one player better than another.More importantly, it’s part of the game. Teams have already begun to integrate an umpire’stendencies into their daily scouting reports, a revolutionary way of accepting that umpires areall different and adjusting accordingly.“So when a poor call is made at the end of a game, it shouldn’t matter?” the writer thenasked. Obviously, officiating is not perfect. In any sport. The NBA and NFL use instant replayin certain instances, but calls like pass interference and personal fouls are still subject to areferee’s discretion. For things that can be clearly defined, like an out-of-bounds line orreleasing a basketball before time expires, instant replay should be used. Baseball is the sameway. I agree that it should be used for clearly defined things, such as foul balls or closecalls at first base. However, balls and strikes? No way. The writer essentially answered hisown question when he asked, “How can you challenge balls and strikes when there isn’t adefined strike zone?”Well, you can’t. The strike zone varies between individual batters. The current strikezone is defined as “that area over home plate the upper limit of which is a horizontal line atthe midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lowerlevel is a line at the bottom of the knees. The Strike Zone shall be determined from thebatter’s stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball.” What does “prepared toswing” mean? What if the batter shifts the height of his stance as he’s about to swing? Howdoes one even determine at what point a batter begins a swing? Every player is different andgoes into his swing differently. The rules are vague enough that an umpire must use his ownjudgment, something he has done for over a century. Call me sentimental, but I like keepingtradition. Sure, there are things that need to change as we become more technologicallyequipped to deal with bad calls and as the sport evolves, but using a machine to determineballs and strikes in a uniform strike zone is not one of them.It’s not to say that umpires get free reign. The Zone Evaluation (ZE) system replacedQuesTec last year as a major tool in evaluating an umpire’s performance. MLB is trying toenforce a more unified strike zone with this technology. The ZE technology is not the same asthe rectangle graphic that televisions use. Umpiring supervisor Steve Palermo called thegraphic phony and inaccurate, and only effective at stirring up controversy. On top of all ofthat, players don’t even want machines to replace umpires. Philadelphia Phillies pitcher ColeHamels said that umpires were already consistent enough while Jamie Moyer said hepreferred no monitoring system, to preserve the human element of umpiring.Yes, the human element. Part of the reason why we play and watch sports is to bond withothers who enjoy doing the same. Sports bars have their best business on game nights becausepeople like to drink beer and interact with other people whether in camaraderie or jest. Thesame goes for umpires, players, and managers. Part of our entertainment is watching LouPiniella go insane arguing a call or watching Bobby Cox get ejected time after time. We wantemotion, passion, and humanity. For anyone who would rather watch a machine blink red fora strike, please crawl back in your hole and research the words “social interaction.”
34. What of the following best describes the passage?
(A) Still humane baseball games.
(B) Baseball games in digital era.
(C) Replacement of human umpires.
(D) Human and machines in baseball games.

參考答案

答案：A
難度：適中0.5
統計：A(0),B(0),C(0),D(0),E(0)

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