[2023·河南周口统考期末]A
As a hockey（冰球） parent, while watching my son play from Mite to Bantam, House League to Travel, I've learned that losing may be best for kids.
In his third season in 2019, my son's team never lost more than three straight games. It was a typically good youth hockey season. There was happiness, boasting, celebration, and pizza. He improved as a player, but did not much change as a person.
However, what happened the next year added its story to the legends of sporting incompetence. Not merely weak but prettily bad, this team lost 40 of their first 50 games, most of the defeats coming in the course of two losing streaks（连败）. For a time, I worried that these failures would kill my child's love of the game.
But that's not what happened. As bad as it got, the losing was clarifying. It weeded out the kids who were in it less for the game than the glory, leaving behind those with a real passion for the sport. A list of 17 of the team was cut down to 12.It was especially educational for the kids. It taught them a great truth of the world: For everyone good, there is someone better.
What's more, the kids were learning the game in a way that only losing can teach. Each player got to play everywhere, to learn and appreciate the role of every position on the ice. They kept an eye on their opponents too, studying the secret of their good performance. In an effort to break the record, they went back to basics, accepted the wisdom of the hockey ancients: If playing like a team, they can defeat a collection of all-stars; if doing small and unappreciated tasks well, they can get the goal.
This new team had character and could never be counted out, no matter the score. They had learned the most important lesson: You can lose without being beaten. They squeaked（勉强进入） into the state tournament, then made it all the way to the final, where the winner was decided in overtime（加时赛）. When they narrowly lost that game and went into the handshake line, it was not as runners-up but as a team that had been made into winners in the only way that will stick—by losing.
1. What does the author think about the son's team in the third season in 2019?
A. The team had a bad performance.
B. The team didn't live up to the author's expectations.
C. The team played typically well and won all the games.
D. The team didn't help with players' mental growth.
2. What does the underlined sentence “the losing was clarifying” in Para 4 mean?
A. The losing boosted the kids' teamwork.
B. The losing made the kids better understand hockey.
C. The losing helped the kids learn a great truth of the world.
D. The losing separated true players from those playing for glory.
3. What can be implied from the new team's experience?
A. They valued teamwork and details in a game.
B. They kept their winning strategies a secret.
C. They beat a team of all-star players.
D. They won the championship in the tournament.
4. What is the author's purpose in writing the passage?
A. To explore the benefits of losing.
B. To describe a team's road to success.
C. To offer some suggestions on getting over losing.
D. To make a comparison between winning and losing.
