The authors argue against the misconception that reading and listening are entirely passive activities, comparing them to receiving a blow, legacy, or court judgment. They assert that readers and listeners are more akin to active participants, like a catcher in baseball.
In Sentence 4, the authors, Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, use the examples of "receiving a blow or a legacy or a judgment from the court" to highlight a common misconception about the nature of receiving communication. The commonality in these examples lies in the passivity associated with receiving something external. The authors argue that the mistake people make is equating receiving communication with the passive reception of a blow, legacy, or judgment. In each case, there is an implication of being a passive recipient, akin to someone who simply receives without active participation.
By juxtaposing these examples, Adler and Van Doren aim to challenge the notion that reading and listening are entirely passive activities. They suggest that the reader or listener is not merely a passive recipient but, rather, is more akin to an active participant, drawing an analogy with a catcher in a baseball game who is engaged in the process of receiving and responding to the incoming communication or "pitch" from the writer or speaker.