Exercise 1：
Last week’s announcement was premature by most people’s measurement—Jordan is 30 and at the height of his playing and earning power—but it was not, by his own account, taken hastily, or rashly. “This is, ” he said, with a rare stumble, “the perfect timing for me to walk away.”
After three championships with the Chicago Bulls, a second gold medal with the US team at the 1992 Olympics, Jordan felt his motivation slipping away. “I’m at the pinnacle,”he told a thronged press conference. “I just feel I don’t have anything else to prove.”
But this explanation may appear too simple to satisfy the skeptics, who have recently discovered that Jordan does not lead an untroubled private life. First came the allegation that he gambled—in a country where gambling is mostly illegal—and that his gambling was out of control. Then his father was shot dead on July 23.
Exercise:2：
１．Opera is expensive: that much is inevitable. But expensive things are not inevitably the province of the rich unless we abdicate society’s power of choice. We can choose to make opera, and other expensive forms of culture, accessible to those who cannot individually pay for it. The question is: why should we? Nobody denies the imperatives of food, shelter, defense, health and education. But even in a prehistoric cave, mankind
stretched out a hand not just to eat, drink or fight, but also to draw. The impulse towards culture, the desire to express and explore the world through imagination and representation is fundamental. In Europe, this desire has found fulfillment in the masterpieces of our music, art, literature and theatre. These masterpieces are the touchstones for the possibilities to which human thought and imagination may aspire;they carry the most profound message that can be sent from one human to another.
欣赏歌剧是一种奢侈的享受，你必须为此支付昂贵的票价。
然而只要我们不放弃社会的选择权，昂贵的东西就不一定只有富人才能享受。
如果愿意，我们完全可以使歌剧或其他昂贵的文化形式面向那些个人没有支付能力的普通大众。
但问题是我们为什么要这么做？没有人会否认人类需要吃、住、防卫、健康以及接受教育。
但是，即使是在史前时期的洞穴里，人们伸出手来不仅是为了吃饭、喝水或打仗，也可能是要去画画。
对文化的向往，以及通过表演来表达、探索世界是人类的基本愿望。
在欧洲，这种愿望在我们的音乐、艺术和文学杰作和戏剧作品中得到了体现。
这些杰作是试金石，通过它们可以看出人类的思想和想象力可能达到的程度。
它们所包含的最为深刻的思想可以广为传播。