At the end of his workday in steamy midtown Manhattan, Joel Terry craves relaxing outdoors. But these days, instead of starting

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问题     At the end of his workday in steamy midtown Manhattan, Joel Terry craves relaxing outdoors. But these days, instead of starting his hour-long commute home to the mellow shore town of Long Branch, New Jersey, Terry stops at an unlikely source of nature: downtown Manhattan.
    There, he boards a sailboat and is soon tacking against the winds of New York Harbor. Terry, 37, who works in retail finance, is a newly minted member of the Manhattan Sailing Club, one of an increasing number of community sailing clubs across the country. Dozens of its sailboats sit in the North Cove marina, bobbing among mega-yachts near the World Financial Center. But sailing these days doesn’t have to mean blue blazers, clubhouse dining rooms, and strict rules of etiquette. Next to multimillion-dollar yachts, and in the shadow of shiny towers housing financial giants Goldman Sachs and American Express, members socialize on plastic lawn chairs while drinking beers.
    "Sailing has had the reputation of being an expensive, elitist sport, but it really isn’t," says Jack Gierhart, executive director of U. S. Sailing, the governing body for the sport. With more than 550 community sailing programs across the United States, these open-to-the-public and mostly nonprofit clubs account for the recent revival of a pastime whose popularity has declined since its heyday in the 1970s and ’80s, when sailing was an elegant alternative to motorized boats during the energy crisis. The number of these organizations has risen 10 percent over the past three years, according to Gierhart.
    The pastime has also suffered what could be described as a branding problem. "Sailing has traditionally been portrayed as being just for rich white people, and yachting has such a snooty reputation," says Charlie Nobles, executive director of the American Sailing Association, which certifies instructors and students. "The average age of yacht-club members 10 years ago was 50. Now it’s 60. They’re not getting replacement members. The challenge we have today is how to get youth interested. "
    To that point, a less formal atmosphere and social friendship are big selling points for these sailing clubs, especially in young professional Manhattan. The Manhattan Sailing Club hosts "full moon" parties on the floating bar it runs next to the Statue of Liberty, where members have a view of the new One World Trade Center on one side and New Jersey sunsets on the other. In the winter, it organizes annual trips where members can island-hop in the Caribbean.
    While promoting the social side of sailing may be the key to attracting people to the sport, the appeal of speeding along the open water tugs at something more fundamental. " It’s an amazing feeling, using the wind and tide to propel your boat forward," says Terry. "It clears your mind, and you’re just in that moment. "
For Joel Terry, sailing is more likely to be

选项 A、a good way to relax himself.
B、a chance to be close to nature.
C、a door to join the higher-class.
D、a sport to make him fit and healthy.

答案A

解析 事实细节题。根据题干关键词Joel Terry定位到前两段。第一段中提到特里下班后非常希望到户外去放松一下,第二段第一句说他下班后去进行帆船运动。由此可知,帆船运动对于特里来说是一种很好的休闲方式,因此选[A]。第一段第二句中提到an unlikely source of nature:downtown Manhattan,由此可知,曼哈顿市中心并不是贴近自然的地方,故排除[B];第二段最后一句提到了俱乐部的成员们坐在塑料椅子上聊天、喝啤酒,可见,对于Joel来说,帆船运动并不是进入上层社会的手段,故排除[C];文章中没有提及帆船运动对于Joel身体健康的影响,故排除[D]。
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