Most young people enjoy physical activities, walking, cycling, football, or mountaineering.
These who have a passion 【26】______ climbing high and difficult mountains are often 【27】______ with astonishment. Why are men and women 【28】______ to suffer cold and hardship, and to 【29】______ on high mountains？ This astonishment is caused, probably, by the difference between mountaineering and other forms of activities 【30】______ which men give their leisure.
There are no man-made rules, as there are for 【31】______ games as golf and football. There are, of course, rules of different kinds which it would be dangerous to 【32】______ , but it is this freedom from man-made rules 【33】______ makes mountaineering attractive to many people. Those who climb mountains are free to use their own 【34】______ .
If we 【35】______ mountaineering with other more familiar sports, we might think that one big difference is 【36】______ mountaineering is not a "team work". However, it is only our misunderstanding. There are, in fact, no" matches" 【37】______ "teams" of climbers, but when climbers are on a rock face linked by a rope on which their lives may 【38】______ , obviously, there is teamwork.
A mountain climber knows that he may have to fight with natural 【39】______ that are stronger and more powerful than man. His sport requires high mental and 【40】______ qualities.
A mountain climber 【41】______ to improve On skill Year after year. A skier is probably past his best by the age of thirty, and most international tennis champions 【42】______ in their early twenties. But it is not 【43】______ for men of fifty or sixty to climb the highest mountains in the Alps. They may take more 【44】______ than younger men, but they probably climb with more skill and less 【45】______ of effort, and they certainly experience equal enjoyment.
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