Many critics consider that far more stress is placed on achievements in athletics than in the academic sphere. We’re told that it’s (31) to compel boys with no athletic (32) to spend hours of misery on the playground, when, if (33) to themselves, they would occupy their time far more usefully in some (34) hobby. The (35) to this argument, no doubt, (36) the simple assumption that every non-athlete has some good hobby. It’s not true; (37) even if it were, other hobbies are no substitute for being out, exercising the muscles and having (38) with our human beings. (39) the youthful idolizing of athletes, which tends to upset a boy’s (40) of values and may do (41) harm to the objects of this hero-worship, (42) a very different matter. The schoolboy (43) may suffer through being surrounded at an early age with feint (44) of artificial light. From preparatory school to university his career is a (45) procession. Then he becomes a future legend, one of the great products of the school that is proud to call him her son although (46) may have taught him nothing except to play football. Not until he hangs up his (47) does he realize his true value--or the lack of it. It’d be better for everybody if this artificial glory were (48) from games at an early stage. For some devotees, sport is kind of religion, the sporting spirit is the finest attitude to face life, since its possessor is very conscious of his obligation to the (49) . The truth is that games have practically no effect on character. Games afford an opportunity for showing the spirit within; they are a (50) for virtue or for vice. It’s for this reason that we should value them.