Exercise One

A. dominate

B. heat

C. intentional

D. example

E. prefer

F. departs

G. throw

H. opposes

I. justifiable

J. reaction

The dictionary meaning of the term "opponent”is “enemy”; one who___1___your interests.” Thus, when a player meets an opponent, he or she may tend to treat that opponent as an enemy. At such times, winning may___2___one's intellect, and every action, no matter how gross, may be considered___3___. I recall an incident in a handball game when a referee refused a player's request for a time out for a glove change because he did not consider them wet enough. The player proceeded to rub his gloves across his wet T-shirt and then exclaimed, “Are they wet enough now ?”

In the___4___of battle, players have been observed to___5___themselves across the court without considering the consequences that such a move might have on anyone in their way. I have also witnessed a player reacting to his opponent's___6___and illegal blocking by purposely hitting him with the ball as hard as he could during the course of play. Off the court, they are good friends.Does that make any sense ? It certainly gives proof of a court attitude which___7___from normal behavior.

Therefore, I believe it is time we elevated the game to the level where it belongs, thus a(n)___8___to the rest of the sporting world. Replacing the term“opponent"with “ associate”could be an ideal way to start.

The dictionary meaning of the term “associate” is “colleague”,“friend”, "companion”. Think for a moment! You may soon see and possibly feel the difference in your___9___to the term "associate”rather than“opponent.”

Exercise Two

A. characteristics

B. particular

C. uniquely

D. parallels

E. products

F. relate

G. structured

H. associate

I. removed

J. influences

The social sciences explore human society past and present, and the way human beings behave. They include sociology, which investigates the way society is___1___and how it functions, as well as psychology, which is the study of individual behavior and the mind. Social psychology draws on research in both these fields. It examines the way society ___2___ people's behavior and attitudes.

Another social science, anthropology, looks at humans as a species and examines all the___3___that make us what we are. These include not only how people___4___to each other but also how they interact with the world around them, both now and in the past. As part of this work,anthropologists often carry out long-term studies of___5___groups of people in different parts of the world. This kind of research helps to identify characteristics that all human beings share and those that are the___6___of local culture, learned and handed on from generation to generation.

The social sciences also include political science, law, and economics. Although far___7___from the world of the physical sciences, all these fields can be studied in a scientific way. Political science and law are___8___human concepts, but economics has some surprisingly close ___9___ with ecology. This is because the laws that govern resource use, productivity, and efficiency do not operate only in the human world, with its stock markets and global corporations, but in the nonhuman world as well.

Exercise Three

A. stretches

B. incomprehensible

C. total

D. estimates

E. carrying

F. currently

G. influence

H. contrast

I. conclusion

J. barely

The rise of English is a remarkable story. When Julius Caesar landed in Britain nearly two thousand years ago, English did not exist. Five hundred years later, English, ___1___to modern ears, was probably spoken by about as few people as___2___speak Cherokee (an American Indian language)--and with about little___3___. Nearly a thousand years later, at the end of the 16th century, when William Shakespeare was in his prime, English was the native speech of between five and seven million English people and it was, in the words of a contemporary, “of small reach, it___4___no further than this island of ours.”

Four hundred years later, the___5___is extraordinary. Between 1, 600 and the present, in armies, navies, companies, and expeditions, the speakers of English--including Scots, Irish, Welsh, American, and many more--traveled into every corner of the globe, ___6___their language and culture with them. Today English is used by at least 750 million people, and___7___half of those speak it as a mother tongue. Some ___8___ have put that figure closer to one billion. Whatever the___9___, English at the end of the 20th century is more widely scattered, more widely spoken and written than any other language has ever been. It has become the language of the planet, the first truly global language.