The moral high ground has always been female territory. Men, after all, lie and cheat and rob and pollute the environment and disproportionately populate the prisons, while women do their best to appreciate their good qualities. Some women, at least. But with the rise of feminism, the assaults on men’s moral probity have become more frequent, and the belief in their arrogance and lack of concern for anything but their own selfish ends has become a truism. It’s the men who are greedy. It’s the men who are disloyal. It’s the men who will do anything for money. It’s the men who are immature. In the world of sport, pouty male athletes are Whipping boys of talk radio. They have graced the cover of Sports Illustrate, and on the inside have been vilified for a litany d sins, among them greed, disdain for the fans who pay their exorbitant salaries, and a lack of respect for the game that the fans love and that has made them rich. Female athletes, on the other hand, have been placed on a pedestal--but it has been a pretty easy one to climb. For one thing, there hasn’ t been enough money to get greedy about. For another, there haven’ t been any fans. And for third, those who didn’t love the game had absolutely no reason to keep playing. But thanks to the rise of women’ s basketball, female basketball players are going to find themselves tempted by the same vanities that have seduced so many men- and though we know some will give in, we don’ t know how many. For women’s basketball to become a major sport in America, as opposed to a profitable one like arena football, something is going to be offered other than just pure skill. That something should be, and if fact will have to be, a different attitude, a purer sense of sport, than the men deliver. It may be asking too much of women to withstand the temptations that have sucked male athletes into prima donna poses, but then again it may be true that women have occupied the high moral ground for so long because they actually are more sensitive to what’s important in the long run. I honestly don’ t know how this drama will play out, but the process will tell us about more than just the fate of women’ s basketball. If women, who are steadily gaining more and more control in this world, ’can truly respond in a more reasoned way to the pull of power, then there is hope for the 21st century. But if women, as a gender, can do no hatter than men when given the chance, then in basketball as in life, we can only look ahead to more of the same. Women have occupied the high moral ground for so long because______.

A. they are more sensible to what’s wrong than men
B. they are more sensitive to what’s important in the long run than men
C. they are more sagacious to wrongdoings than men
D. they are more intelligent than men in some areas