Almost everybody knows that sports stars can be role models to high school students. But what many do not know is the effects they may have on our kids. Researchers now have made some important findings. The first effect that professional athletes can have on high schoolers is improving their personal character.

A fine example comes from a study through the Changing-Lives programme in the UK. The authors were able to conclude “athlete mentors (导师) are able to inspire kids, change their attitudes and help improve futures”. The study looked at mentor-pupil relationships in different middle and high schools. The mentors are successful sports people and the pupils are 2,701 students from 222 schools.

The findings were able to support the popular belief that sports stars can act as role models to inspire young people. The mentors visited students three times over the six-month period. During the visits, the mentors and pupils told each other about their own difficult problems that they had to face and deal with. This was a way for the pupils to see that the athletes were once just like them, and they too could solve their difficulties and achieve great things.

Another major effect is that professional athletes as role models can influence young people’s future aspirations (愿望). In a study carried out in the USA, 662 ninth-grade students (who began their first year of high school), were surveyed about their career aspirations. When students have a career aspiration, the researchers found, it may be determined by sources such as who their role models are.

In the study, students from every background were asked about their career goals, and whom they chose as their role models. The results included 41% of black young men, 25% of Latino young men, 7% of young black women, 5% of Latino young white women; all had role models of sport professional athlete.

【小题1】What effects do professional athletes have on high schoolers?

A．Promote their personal character.

B．Change the choices of their careers.

C．Strengthen the relationship with teachers.

D．Push ahead the success of their studies.

【小题2】What does the second paragraph mainly tell us?

A．The skills needed to become a professional athlete.

B．How to build the relationship between mentors and athletes.

C．A study about the influence film stars have on kids.

D．The mentors’ influence on the kids in different ways.

【小题3】What does the underlined word “them” in the third paragraph refer to?

A．Career aspirations.	B．The mentors.
C．Difficult problems.	D．The pupils.

【小题4】What does the final result of the study indicate in the last two paragraphs?

A．Students mostly choose sports athletes as their models.

B．Students don’t have more ideas about their career goals.

C．Both the young and the old like to become sports athletes.

D．Students often change their career aspirations during high school.