马鞍山市2014高考英语阅读理解、动词短语精讲讲练（21）及答案
“Tear them apart！” “kill the fool！” “Murder the referee (裁判)！”
These are common remarks one may hear at various sporting events. At th e time they are made, they may seem innocent enough. But let’s not kid ourselves. They have been known to influence behavior in such a way as to lead to real violence. Books have been written about the way words affect us. It has been shown that words having certain meanings may cause us to react in ways quite foreign to what we consider to be our usual behavior. I see the term “opponent” as one of those words. Perhaps the time has come to delete it from sports term.
The dictionary meaning of the term “opponent” is “enemy”， or “one who opposes your interests.” Thus, when a player meets an opponent, he or she may tend to treat that opponent as an enemy. I remember 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 went away to rub(磨擦) his gloves across his wet T－shirt and then screamed, “Are they wet enough now？”
In the heat of battle, players have been observed to throw themselves across the court without considering the effect that such a move might have on anyone in their way. I have also witnessed a player reacting to his opponent’s intentional and illegal blocking by hitting him with the ball as hard as he could during the course of
