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  3. [A] Big money and ideas from musicians, soldiers and private-equity gurus are behind major medal hauls. [B] Yet the transformati

[A] Big money and ideas from musicians, soldiers and private-equity gurus are behind major medal hauls. [B] Yet the transformati

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问题 [A] Big money and ideas from musicians, soldiers and private-equity gurus are behind major medal hauls.
[B] Yet the transformation of Britain’s performance in the Olympics remains a remarkable tale.
[C] Britain not only has spent huge amounts on achieving Olympic success but also has been meticulous in how the funding is used.
[D] But success for the elite has come at a time of falling sports participation in Britain, with the decline greatest among the poor.
[E] The model has been unashamedly ruthless, concentrating on disciplines with the best medal prospects while ditching losers.
[F] UK Sport has borrowed from a wide array of fields in pursuit of an edge.
[G] Yet cash alone cannot explain all of Team GB’s success: for the 2012 games, South Korea and Japan spent over three times more than Britain and had worse returns.
    It seems hardly an auspicious time to release a book on Britain’s Olympic success. Numerous scandals—accusations of bullying, sexism and failure to keep proper records of drugs—are engulfing British Cycling, a symbol of national glory. 【B1】______ In 1996, Britain’s "team of shame" came 36th in the medal table, below Algeria, Ireland and North Korea. At the London games of 2012, Team GB (as the United Kingdom’s squad is officially known) won 65 medals, up from 15 in 1996. Britain performed even better in Rio last year, winning 27 golds and 67 medals in all, finishing second, above China, in the overall medal table, defying the trend of host nations’ sliding down the tables in the following games.
    These hauls have been a triumph for detailed and ambitious planning, as Owen Slot, a sports writer for The Times, explains in an engaging book. Huge spikes in cash have helped. Across Olympic and Paralympic sports, UK Sport, Britain’s funding body, spent ￡69m ($89m) on Sydney 2000 but almost ￡350m on Rio 2016. 【B2】______.
    UK Sport adopts the mindset of an investor seeking the best returns wherever they can be found. 【B3】______. Even among the sports that do receive funding, cash is diverted to a tiny coterie of elite athletes: the ￡21m allocated to swimming before Rio was focused on nine "Golden Children". Before Rio 2016, Liam Tancock, Britain’s best male swimmer of recent times, lost his funding largely because he would turn 31 before the games—past his prime.
    Mr. Slot’s attention to detail turns up some fascinating facts. East German-style national talent-scouting programmes were created, producing Olympic medallists from those who had never previously played the sport—in the process debunking a widespread notion that 10,000 hours are needed to achieve excellence in a skill. Coaches were hooked up to heart-rate-variance monitors, to understand how to manage their stress levels better, and Team GB’s managers analysed the optimal way to coach athletes of different sexes. Teams engaged parents about the best techniques for nurturing high-performance athletes. The British Olympic Association made its first reconnaissance mission to Brazil, to find ideal hotels and training facilities, six years before Rio 2016.
    【B4】______ Music schools and military special forces were asked for advice on spotting talent and performing under pressure, and an expert in turning around flagging businesses, borrowed from a private-equity firm, helped improve British shooting’s meagre performance. Mr. Slot’s book is written in conjunction with Simon Timson and Chelsea Warr, two of Team GB’s directors of performance, who contribute a brief summary of lessons after each chapter. Their input is double-edged: it ensures that the book provides an unrivalled look inside UK Sport’s medal-factory, but may also keep Mr. Slot from tackling some subjects with complete independence.
    The increased investment in the Olympics and the subsequent bonanza of medals, may have given Britain a reason to hold its head high. 【B5】______ For all the successes, the question lurking beneath this book is an uncomfortable one. In an era of austerity and impoverished grassroots sport, has the price of these medals been too great?
【B5】
选项
答案D
解析 空格上文指出，对奥运会投资的不断增加以及随之而来的奖牌潮，可能会让英国有了昂首挺胸的理由。下文提出了在财政紧缩，而且大众对体育兴趣了了的情况下，对奥运奖牌投资的质疑。由此可知，空格内容应与空格前内容构成转折，与下文内容构成顺接关系， D项指出，然而，精英的成功恰逢一个英国体育参与率下降的时代，并且穷人的参与率下降程度最大，故为正确答案。
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