An American game that has traveled well is basketball.     1    is now played by more than 250 million people worldwide in an     2    (organize) way, as well as by countless others in informal games. Basketball began in 1891, when a minister, called James Naismith,     3     (ask) to teach a class of young men in Springfield, Massachusetts.

The class was well known     4    being difficult to teach and Naismith was told to invent a new game     5     (keep) the young men busy. Then it     6     (be) winter and very cold outside. It needed to be a game that could be played indoors.

Naismith thought back to his childhood in Canada where he and his friends had played a game which had involved (需要) trying to hit     7     e big stone off a rock with smaller stones. He also remembered     8     (watch) rugby (橄榄球) players throw a ball into a box or fruit basket     9    had been raised up. Naismith made up the     10     (rule) for the game in less than an hour, Most of them still apply in some form today.