Lesson 7 Winter sports

Read and translate the text. TEXT 6

Winter sport is a wide field; but despite the thrills of ice-hockey, the

fascinations on figure-skating, skiing dominates all, and above all, Alpine skiing.

Skiing is a symphony of snow, sun and movement; the air is champagne to the

lungs. No wonder skiing has conquered the world. It recruited millions of followers.

It made poor mountain villages and tiny townships into wealthy resorts. It built

hundreds of hotels, hostels, ski-lifts, funiculars, and cable-railways. It busied

steamships any time of year when 40 years ago nobody would voluntarily have

ventured out of doors, let alone have traveled if the journey were not absolutely

necessary.

Skiing comprises Alpine events, ski-jumping and cross-country events. The

Alpine events for women and men are slalom, giant slalom and downhill (race).

In the downhill race, where the aim is to get from top to bottom in the

quickest possible time, choosing the best course for the purpose, speeds above 50

m.p.h. are possible. In the slalom, competitors must weave their way through 40

flagged gates during their two runs.

The women's cross-country events accepted in the Olympics comprise a 10-

km race and 3 x 5-km (three-lady, 5-kilometer) relay. The men's events look like

this: a 15 km race, a 30-km race, a 50-km race, a 4 x 10-km (four-man, 10

kilometer) cross-country relay.

There are two more skiing events in which a participant is to display two

skills. The so-called Nordic combination combines jumping and a 15-km cross-country race.

The last but not the least is biathlon. Biathlon is a combination of cross-country

ski-running and rifle-marksmanship: a 20 km race, with each contestant

firing five shots at a single target on each of four rouges along the course. Every

target-miss will mean two minutes being added to the competitor’s time.

Cross-country skiing

Cross-country skiing is skiing in open country over rolling, hilly terrain. It

originated in Scandinavia as a means of travel as well as recreation. The skies used

are longer, narrower, and lighter than those used in Alpine skiing, and bindings

allow more heel movement. The standard lengths of international races range from

10 to 50 km (6.2-31 miles) for men and 5 to 30 km (3.1-18.6 miles) for women. It has been included on the Olympics program since the first Winter Olympics in 1924.

Slalom

It is an Alpine skiing event in which competitors race one at a time down a

zigzag or wavy course past a series of flags or markers called gates. The course is

carefully designed to test the skier's skill, timing, and judgment. A skier who

misses a gate is disqualified unless he or she returns and passes through it from the

proper side. Men's events use 55-75 gates, women's 45-65. The giant slalom has

characteristics of both slalom and downhill skiing; giant-slalom gates are wider

and set farther apart, and the course is longer than in the slalom. The super giant

slalom ("super-G") is closer to downhill; its course is steeper and straighter than

that of the other slalom events and features longer, more sweeping turns taken at

higher speed.

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