―Five ? Four ? Three ? Two ? One ? See ya! ‖ and Chance McGuire, twenty-five, is airborne off a 600 –foot concrete dam in Northern California. In one second he falls 15 feet, in two seconds 60 feet, and after three seconds and 130 feet, he is flying at 66 miles an hour. McGuire is a practitioner of what he calls the king of all extreme sports. BASE—an acronym for building, antenna, span (bridge) and earth (cliffs)—jumping has one of the sporting world’s highest fatality rates: in its 18-year history, forty –six participants have been killed. Yet the sport has never been more popular, with more than a thousand jumpers in the United States, and more seeking to get into it every day. It is an activity without margin for error. If your chute malfunctions, don’t bother researching for a reserve—there isn’t time. There are no second chances. Still, the sport may be a perfect fit with the times. Americans may have more in common with McGuire than they know or care to admit. America has embarked on a national orgy of thrill seeking and risk taking. The rise of adventure and extreme sports such as BASE jumping, snowboarding, ice climbing, skateboarding, and paragliding is merely the most vivid manifestation of this new national behavior. The rising popularity of extreme sports speaks of an eagerness on the part of millions of Americans to participate in activities closer to the edge, where danger, skill, and fear combine to give weekend warriors and professional athletes alike a sense of pushing out personal boundaries. According to American Sports Data Inc., a consulting firm, participation in so-called extreme sports is way up. Snowboarding has grown 113 percent in five years and now boasts nearly 5.5 million participants. Mountain hiking, skateboarding, scuba diving—their growth curves reveal a nation that loves to play with danger. Contrast that with activities such as baseball, touch football, and aerobics, all of which were in steady decline throughout the 1990s. The pursuits that are becoming more popular have one thing in common: the perception that they are somehow more challenging than a game of touch football. ―Every human being with two legs and two arms is going to wonder how fast, how strong, how enduring he or she is,‖ says Eric Perlman, a mountaineer and film maker specializing in extreme sports. ―We are designed to experience or die.‖ Questions 1—3 Complete the following sentences with information given in the passage in a maximum of 4 words for each blank. 1、 _______ rates doesn’t stop people from getting into BASE jumping every day. 2、 The rise of extreme sports manifests the national behavior of _______ and ________. 3、The combination of fear, skill and danger gives both amateurs and professionals a sense of ______. Questions 4—5 Choose the best answer according to the passage. 4、 Which of the following activities reveals a nation that loves to play activities closer to the edge? A. Touch football. B. Baseball. C. Scuba diving. D. Aerobics.5、 What does Eric mean by saying ―We are designed to experience or die‖? A. Life with great challenges is a meaningful one. B. Life without great experiences is very common.C. People may die while doing extreme sports. D. Extreme sports are essential parts of human life.