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20. After reading the following selection, write an argumentative passage supporting one of these conclusions: (1) Thrilling and dangerous recreational activities make life more meaningful. (2) Thrilling and dangerous recreational activities do not make life more meaningful. High-Risk Recreation? If This Is the Cure, It's Better to Keep the Ulcer by Susan Trausch OK, who put my name on the "High-Risk Recreation" mailing list? Very funny. I laughed so hard the lawn chair folded up on me. That's about as "high risk" as things get around here, unless the grass is wet around the badminton net. But somehow those clowns a Nike Communications in New York figured they had a candidate for the Great Barrier Reef, aka "the Mount Everest of scuba diving." Even funnier is that they thought their new guide to thrills and chills around the world would be "perfect for your readers" because "those who enjoy intense physical and mental challenges" know that "high-risk recreation has clearly become the antidote for stress in the '90s." Thanks, Doc, but is this is the cure, I'll stick with the ulcer. I may not have the latest newspaper survey, but I'd bet serious money that most readers of the op-ed pages do not want to unwind by swimming with moray eels. If they do, they can just go downtown and find some politicians. Scary fish are a big draw at "the Mount Everest of scuba diving," where swimmers can also meet tuna, giant groupers, shark, sea snakes, barracuda, manta rays, and wahoos. Wahoos, yes¾ we are definitely talking wahoos in this little booklet that makes boot camp sound like a vacation. "Dear Sports Enthusiast," it begins. "Fasten your seat belt!" Maybe they thought they were writing to Mario Andretti. Or Eddie the Eagle. Or the president of Bungee Jumpers International. "You are about to embark on a first-class tour of the very best locations in the world for participating in the most dynamic high-risk sporting activities¼ It is for the discriminating few who seek out ways to conquer their self-imposed limitations and push themselves beyond their perceived boundaries." Keep in mind that they are writing to a person who once sailed a Sunfish into a bridge stanchion. It was a self-imposed limitation all right. The kid in the passenger seat thought so too. He jumped overboard, screaming, "We're all gonna die!" That and the windsurfing lesson in the bay full of jellyfish pretty much quenched the old thirst for adventure. People who think they can sell me a Class V rapids ride in a rubber tub should get out of marketing before they hurt someone, namely their clients. What sane person would want to hang glide (I could end that sentence right there) in Owens Valley, which is "known for being turbulent, especially in June and July, and has been responsible for flipping hang gliders"? We are invited to rock climb "Death's Head Mask," and bicycle along "The Slickrock Trail." Skiing is supposed to be irresistible on "narrow tree runs" and the "4,139-foot vertical drop of the world's most challenging and intimidating mountain" in Jackson Hole. The booklet was sponsored by a manufacturer of sports watches, but it reads more like something from Jack Kevorkian. I could almost see the good doctor telling talk show hosts that he had developed a special program for his more active clients. He might read from Page 8: "Known as the world's wildest river, the Bio-Bio¼ is only for the most experienced and truly brave." Or, "Gore Canyon was rated Class VI (unraftable) until 1985¼ " Sort of puts James Watt in perspective. "I don't like to paddle, and I don't like to walk," the former interior secretary once said. After taking a motorized trip down the Colorado, he proclaimed: "There is no way you could get me on an oar-powered raft on that river." I hear you, Jim. Give me an indoor pool and a pair of water wings. Give me a hammock that doesn't swing too fast. Give me no adrenaline with my fun because then it becomes too much like terror. Give me a break, Nike. Take my name out of the computer and give it to the American Association of Retired Persons. |