When word got out that Doug Beardsley was introducing a new course this spring—' Hockey (冰球) Literature and the Canadian Psyche(精神) '—the 40 seats in the class were quickly taken. ESPN offered to fly him to New York for a TV chat show, and e-mail arrived from hockey fans and researchers from as far away as Texas and China. 'They think they can learn something about us as a nation by learning about the game, about Canadian people. They're right. ' says Beardsley. Students in Beardsley's class completed three research papers related to hockey. The reading list included famous works like The Divine Ryans by Wayne Johnston, The Good Body by Bill Gas ton and Les Canadiells by Rick Salutin. They are the kind of books that get at the true meaning of being Canadian. In Beardsley's words, hockey shows the very nature of the polite Canadian. 'I think that a long with this peace-sharing, gentle image comes a need for mayhem(混乱). So we invent the game and—whammo! —you get on the ice and it serves as a way of letting out those energies that we don't allow ourselves elsewhere. ' says Beardsley, who added that the reason the game needs to be played in winter is our form. of saying, 'Look, even up here in the frozen north we can turn this around and make it work for us. ' 'I'm talking about something larger than what happens on the ice and so is the course. ' What is the main purpose of the text?