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. "
The parties and trips the Manhattan Sailing Club hosts aim to

选项 A、provide the members with field training.
B、offer the members a chance to enjoy the sports.
C、form a casual social atmosphere among the members.
D、give the elderly members a different experience.

答案C

解析 推理判断题。根据题干关键词parties and trips定位到第五段。第四段提到帆船俱乐部今天所面临的挑战是如何让年轻人对其感兴趣,而第五段一开头就说“不太正式的氛围和社交友谊是这些帆船俱乐部的大卖点,在年轻的专业人士扎堆的曼哈顿尤其如此”,因此,曼哈顿帆船俱乐部才会组织一些聚会或出游的活动,借此吸引年轻人加入。由此可知,这些活动的目的在于在会员中形成一种随意而友好的社会氛围,因此选[C]。第五段第二句提到“满月”聚会时,说成员们可以欣赏美丽的风景,可见,这样的聚会不是以训练为目的的,故排除[A];第五段中并没有提到让会员们在聚会中从事帆船运动,故排除[B];也没有提到聚会和旅行过程中对上年纪的会员有什么特殊的安排,故排除[D]。
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