PathFinder007 wrote:
Hi mikemcgarry
could you please provide your comments for option C?
what is wrong with option C. was between option B and C.
Thanks
Dear
PathFinder007,
I'm happy to respond.
We want to find a reason why ACL injuries would be more common in gymnasts than in NFL players. Here's the thing that is very tempting about (C). Ordinarily, we may think of a general "amateur" as someone less fit, less prepared for the activity, than a professional athlete would be. For example, if we compared professional athletes on, say, the Brazil national football team to folks who play amateur football for fun once or twice a month, there is no doubt that the professionals are in considerably better physical shape and are considerably less likely to incur injury than the amateurs are on the same move. These are the general associations with these words.
These general associations are not necessarily relevant here. The NFL players are some of the best in the world at American football, and they get paid for it. The motivation for someone playing American football is to get a big contract in the NFL. Anyone who plays American football who was not able to get a professional job was not good enough to quality for such a job. By the way the system is set up, the professionals are considerably more talented than the amateurs.
By contrast, as you may know, the rules of the Olympics explicit specify that the Olympics is a competition among amateurs. If a talented young athlete wants to compete in the Olympics, one of the many things that young athlete must do is
not join any team or professional organization, because if it she becomes a professional, she is automatically disqualified as Olympic athlete. Thus, the gymnasts that go to the Olympics are the best in the world, but they are amateurs, because of the rules of the Olympics.
Therefore, when we compare NFL players to Olympic gymnasts, in either case, we are talking about folks who are among the best in the world at their respective endeavors. In terms of their professional status, though, we are comparing apples and oranges. The NFL players are in an economic system that essentially forces them to become professionals if they want to compete at that high level, whereas the Olympic gymnasts are in a economic system that forces them to remain amateurs. This difference says nothing about their relative skill level. These are simply two different economic systems that do not reflect at all on the relative quality of the athletes.
In other words, it is purely an accident of history that these two athletic endeavors have evolved along different lines. NFL players are professionals and Olympic gymnasts are amateurs because of series of political & economic decisions made about the developments of these two athletic activities. This is an economic difference, and has absolutely nothing to do with how good or qualified or physically fit or injury prone the two groups of athletes are compared to each other. This difference is strictly irrelevant to the argument. Choice (C) is strictly irrelevant.
The fact that all Olympic athletes are amateurs because the rules of the Olympics require this of its participants---that is the kind of outside, real world knowledge you should have. You don't need to be an expert, but there are commonly known facts about real world events that everyone should know.
Does all this make sense?
Mike
_________________
Mike McGarry
Magoosh Test PrepEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. — William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)