Most young people enjoy some form of physical activity. It may be walking, cycling or swimming, or in winter, skating or skiing. It may be a game of some kind: football, hockey, golf, or tennis. It may be mountaineering.
Those who have a passion for climbing high and steep mountains are often looked upon with astonishment. Why are men and women are willing to suffer cold and hardship, and to take risks on high mountains? This astonishment is caused probably by the difference between mountaineering and other forms of activity to which men give their leisure.
Mountaineering is a sport, not a game. There are no man-made rules, as there are for such games as tennis and football. There are, of course, rules of a different kind which it would be dangerous to ignore, but it is this freedom from man-made rules that makes mountaineering attractive to many people. Those who climb mountains are free to use their own methods.
If we compare mountaineering and other more familiar sports, we might think that one big difference is that mountaineering is not a “team sport”. Then we are mistaken in this. There are, it is true, no “matches” between “teams” of climbers, but when climbers are on a rock surface linked by a rope on which their lives may depend, there is obviously teamwork.
A mountain climber knows that he may have to fight forces that are stronger and more powerful than man. He has to fight the forces of nature. This sport requires high mental and physical qualities.
A mountain climber continues to improve his skills year after year. A skier is probably past his best by the age of thirty, and most international tennis champions are in their early twenties. But it is not unusual for a man of fifty or sixty to climb the highest mountains in Alps. They may take more time than younger men, but they probably climb with more skills than waste less effort.
Why is mountaineering not a game?

A．Because it is dangerous.

B．Because it has no man-made rules.

C．Because it is unfamiliar to many people.

D．Because so few people go in for this sport.

Mountaineering can be called a team sport because ______.

A．it is an Olympic event

B．teams compete against each other

C．there are five climbers on each team

D．mountaineering may depend on their opponents(对手) when in danger

Mountaineers compete against _____.

A．nature

B．high mountains

C．other mountaineers

D．international standards

The last paragraph mainly tells us that _____.

A．a mountaineer improves his skill constantly

B．a good mountaineer may be an elderly one

C．mountaineering is different from other sports

D．an elderly man climbs the highest mountains in Alps

In this passage the author intends to _____.

A．tell us to have sports

B．introduce us to sports

C．tell us to go mountaineering

D．introduce us to mountaineering