Sports Reading 2

Vocabulary (5 Minutes)

Directions: Try to guess the meaning of the highlighted words based on your knowledge of English. In each set of words, underline the two words that have similar meanings to the words in bold letters on the left. Use your dictionary if necessary. The first one has been done for you.

1.      hereditary

a. genetic

b. inherited

c. environmental

2.      tough

a. delicate

b. demanding

c. strong

3.      devastated

a. cynical

b. crushed

c. desolate

4.      depression

a. dejection

b. gloom

c. thrill

5.      controversial

a. debatable

b. agreeable

c. disputable

6.      choked up

a. filled with tears

b. unable to speak

c. unable to breathe

7.      sober

a. dry

b. intoxicated

c. abstinent

8.      donor

a. supplier

b. receiver

c. giver

9.      swig

a. gulp of a liquid

b. drink of a liquid

c. smell of a liquid

Rapid Reading Warm-Up (30 Seconds)

Directions: The exercise below has 25 problems that will help you read faster. You will have only 30 seconds to finish. You will probably not finish all 25 problems, but you are to work as quickly as you can. Be careful not to make any error, so read rapidly but carefully. In this exercise, there are six words: one word to the left of the line and five to the right. Read the word on the left and then find it among the five words to the right. Once you have found it, circle it.

Example

raft

rift

rate

raft

rote

reef

1.      genes

jeans

gene

genes

games

gender

2.      family

familiar

families

fame

family

famed

3.      drinker

drunker

drinks

dunker

drank

drinker

4.      played

player

played

plays

prayed

planed

5.      named

names

name

named

tamed

naming

6.      hitter

hotter

hitting

hatter

litter

hitter

7.      catcher

catheter

catchers

caught

catches

catcher

8.      great

grate

grit

great

grunt

grotto

9.      lived

lever

liver

loved

lived

live

10.  tired

tried

trunk

tires

tired

toured

11.  meal

mail

male

meal

mile

meals

12.  wrong

wrung

wring

rung

wrong

wrongs

13.  loved

laved

loved

lover

lived

loves

14.  escape

escaped

escapes

escargot

escape

capers

15.  body

booty

buddy

body

bodies

baddy

16.  knee

knew

need

knee

know

kneed

17.  retired

retired

retiring

retires

retread

return

18.  weeks

week

weak

wrecks

reeks

weeks

19.  tried

trial

tries

trays

tired

tried

20.  during

daring

during

touring

purring

darts

21.  time

tine

tame

time

thyme

tune

22.  boys

buoys

bays

buys

bores

boys

23.  proud

pride

prune

prove

proud

prayed

24.  wishes

washes

wants

wishes

whoosh

wish

25.  about

above

abort

abound

absolve

about

First Reading (3 Minutes for Preview – 3½ Minutes for Reading)

Directions: Starting with the first sentence of the passage, read as quickly as you can for three and a half minutes. Circle the last word you read when the time is up.

Second Reading (3½ Minutes)

Directions: Starting with the first sentence of the passage, read as quickly as you can for three and a half minutes. Circle the last word you read when the time is up.

Third Reading (3½ Minutes)

Directions: Starting with the first sentence of the passage, read as quickly as you can for three and a half minutes. Circle the last word you read when your teacher tells you to stop reading.

Fourth Reading (3½ Minutes)

Directions: Starting with the first sentence of the passage, read as quickly as you can for three and a half minutes. Circle the last word you read when the time is up.

Line

No

Word

Count

 

 

 

 

5

 

 

 

 

10

 

 

 

 

15

 

 

 

 

20

 

 

 

 

25

 

 

 

 

30

 

 

 

 

35

 

 

 

 

40

 

 

 

 

45

 

 

 

 

50

 

 

 

 

55

 

 

 

 

 

60

If alcoholism is hereditary, if it’s in the genes, then I think mine came from my mother’s side of the family. Her brothers were all alcoholics. My mother, Lovell, and my father, Mutt, weren’t big drinkers. Dad would buy a pint of whiskey on Saturday night and put it in the icebox. Then every night when he came home from working eight hours in the lead mines of Oklahoma, he’d head for the icebox and take a swig of whiskey.

My dad loved baseball, played semi-professional ball on the weekends and was a tremendous St. Louis Cardinals fan. In fact, he named me after Mickey Cochrane, the Hall of Fame catcher for Philadelphia and Detroit who was a great hitter. Dad had high hopes for me. He thought I could be the greatest ballplayer who ever lived, and he did everything to help me realize his dream.

Even though he was dog tired after long days at the mine, Dad would still pitch batting practice to me in the backyard when he got home from work, beginning from the time I was four years old. My mother would call us to dinner, but the meal would wait until Dad was finished instructing me from the right and left sides of the plate. Dad was a tough man. If I’d done something wrong, he could just look at me – he didn’t have to say anything – and I’d say, “I won’t do it no more, Dad.” I loved my father although I couldn’t tell him that, just like he couldn’t tell me.

I joined the Yankees at 19. The following spring, when Dad died of Hodgkin’s disease at age 39, I was devastated, and that’s when I started drinking. I guess alcohol helped me escape the pain of losing him.

God gave me a great body to play with, and I didn’t take care of it. And I blame a lot of it on alcohol. Everyone likes to make the excuse that injuries shortened my career. Truth is, after I’d had a knee operation, the doctors would give me rehab work to do, but I wouldn’t do it. I’d be out drinking … Everything had always come naturally to me. I didn’t work hard at it.

After I retired at 37, my drinking got really bad. I went through a deep depression. Billy Martin, Whitey Ford, Hank Bauer, Moose Skowron (my Yankee teammates), I left all those guys, and I think it left a hole in me … We were as close as brothers. I haven’t met anyone else I’ve felt as close to.

I never thought about anything serious in my life for a continuous period of days and weeks until I checked into the Betty Ford Center. I’ve always tried to avoid anything emotional, anything controversial, anything serious, and I did it through the use of alcohol. Alcohol always protected me from reality.

You are supposed to say why you ended up at the center. I said I had a bad lived and I was depressed. Whenever I tried to talk about my family, I got all choked up. One of the things I really messed up, besides baseball, was being a father. I wasn’t a family man. I was always out, running around with my friends. My son Mickey Jr. could have been a wonderful athlete. If he had had my dad, he could have been a major league baseball player. My kids never blamed me for not being there. They don’t have to. I blame myself.

During my time at the Betty Ford Center, I had to write my father a letter and tell him how I felt about him. It only took me 10 minutes to write the letter, and I cried the whole time, but after it was over, I felt better. I said that I missed him, and I wish he could have lived to see that I did a lot better than my first season with the Yankees. I told him I had four boys – he died before my first son, Mickey Jr., was born – and I told him I loved him. I would have been better off if I could have told him that a long time ago.

Dad would have been proud of me today, knowing that I’ve completed treatment at Betty Ford and have been sober for three months. But he would have been mad that I had to go there in the first place.

For all those years I lived the life of someone I didn’t know: a cartoon character. From now on, Mickey Mantle is going to be a real person.

Epilogue

As one of Mickey Mantle’s last wishes, he wanted to establish a donor awareness program, called “Mickey’s Team,” at Baylor Hospital in Texas, where he received a liver transplant. He planned to tape a series of public service announcements for the program and even invented a slogan before he died: “Be a hero, be a donor.” Mickey’s painful problems have inspired a twofold increase in the number of people requesting donor cards. “That program,” says Mickey Jr., “will probably be the biggest thing he’s going to be known for.”

By Mickey Mantle (from Sports Illustrated)

 

 

 

57

 

 

 

105

 

 

147

 

 

 

204

 

 

250

 

 

 

298

 

 

344

 

 

 

399

 

 

 

459

 

 

 

501

 

 

546

 

 

 

604

 

 

657

 

 

705

 

 

744

 

 

 

 

796

 

 

 

846

 

862

Reading Comprehension (20 Minutes)

Directions:  Circle the letter next to the statement that best answers the following questions.

1.       On line 8, “tremendous” means _____.

a.       great

b.       tiny

c.       famous

2.       On line 14, “pitch” means _____.

a.       tar

b.       catch

c.       throw

3.       On line 17, “tough” refers to _____.

a.       strict

b.       lenient

c.       hard

4.       On line 20, “that” means _____.

a.       I loved him

b.       I had committed a mistake

c.       I had worked hard

5.       On line 22, “that” means _____.

a.       when I was 39

b.       after my father died

c.       after I joined the Yankees

6.       On line 23, “escape” means _____.

a.       run away

b.       face

c.       avoid

7.       On line 25, “blame” means _____.

a.       criticize

b.       hold responsible

c.       think badly of

8.       On line 29, “deep” means _____.

a.       intense

b.       subconscious

c.       well-hidden

9.       On line 33, “continuous” means _____.

a.       ruined

b.       definite

c.       uninterrupted

10.   On line 34, “checked into” means _____.

a.       examined

b.       verified

c.       registered at

11.   On line 40, “messed up” means _____.

a.       littered

b.       ruined

c.       succeeded at

12.   On line 41, “running around” means _____.

a.       jogging

b.       spending time

c.       acquainting

13.   On line 52, “proud” means _____.

a.       egotistical

b.       swollen

c.       pleased

14.   On line 59, “transplant” means _____.

a.       remove

b.       operation to replace (an organ)

c.       uproot

15.   On line 60, “slogan” means _____.

a.       motto

b.       adage

c.       cliché

16.   On line 61, “hero” means _____.

a.       superman

b.       sandwich

c.       champion

17.   Mickey Mantle’s father _____.

a.       had a drinking problem

b.       had played for the St. Louis Cardinals

c.       had confidence in his son’s abilities

18.   Based on the reading, you can logically infer that Mickey Mantle liked to go out with his friends because _____.

a.       they had many things in common

b.       they were his family

c.       he was disappointed with his family

19.   If Mickey Mantle’s father had known about his son’s alcoholism, _____.

a.       he would have been very disappointed

b.       he would have been angry with him

c.       he would have made him get treatment much sooner

20.   Mickey Mantle entered the Betty Ford Center because _____.

a.       he tried to avoid anything emotional

b.       he did not want to do anything controversial

c.       he was an alcoholic

21.   The main idea of paragraph 1 is _____.

a.       alcoholism is hereditary

b.       if alcoholism is hereditary, Mickey Mantle inherited the genes from his mother

c.       Mickey Mantle became an alcoholic because his father drank every Saturday

22.   A good title for this reading would be _____.

a.       Learning to Play Baseball

b.       My Time in a Bottle

c.       The Betty Ford Center