As the name suggests, alpine football, a variation of the world’s most popular competitive sport, is played on mountain slopes (斜坡) in order to make it more difficult.

Most competitive sports usually take place on level playing fields, but in the case of alpine football, one of the main conditions is that the field must be steep (陡峭的). It sounds totally impossible, but a group of football fans in the Austrian Alps claim that it’s the best way to play their favorite sport. They got the idea for alpine football during the 2014 World Cup, while watching a boring game and brainstorming for ways to make it more challenging.

“We were watching the games and found them very boring,” alpine football co-inventor Franz Mair said. “Then, Peppi Knunz, the other inventor of the sport, said to me, ‘The way they play isn’t hard enough and they should try running up and down our mountains. They’d soon be out of breath.’ And then we thought they might not even be able to play, but we would manage it!”

Flat ground is very hard to find in the Alps, so it’s most often used for more important things than playing football. Therefore, fans of the sport in such mountainous areas decided to turn lemons into lemonade and use the mountain slope to invent a new game. Now, locals take pride in only playing alpine football.

“Anyone can play on flat ground,” says Alois Gantner, trainer of the Supa BUrschis team. “In Montafon, we only play on the steepest slopes we can find.”

The rules of alpine football are the same as for the regular football, with the only difference being the need for strong legs and great energy to fight against gravity on the uneven field.

【小题1】What inspired the group of football fans to invent alpine football?

A．The mountainous area in the Alps.	B．Their great passion for football.
C．A boring game they watched.	D．A desire to compete in the World Cup.

【小题2】What might be the biggest challenge for alpine football?

A．Finding a suitable field.	B．Fighting against gravity.
C．Deciding on the game rules.	D．Keeping normal breath.

【小题3】How might Alois feel when saying the words in paragraph 5?

A．proud.

B．desperate.

C．helpless.

D．considerate.

【小题4】What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Alpine football shares most of the rules of regular football.

B．All the football matches don’t take place on level fields.

C．Both alpine football and regular football are popular in Montafon.

D．Flat ground in Alps is often used for important things like playing football.