The Olympics

The Olympics have a very long history. They began in 776 BC and took place every four years for nearly 1200 years, at Olympia in Greece. They included many different kinds of sport: running, wrestling, the pentathlon (five different sports) and others.

Only Greek athletes were allowed to compete in games; women were not allowed to watch them or to take part. The Games took place every four years, and the time between each Games was known as an “Olympiad”.

In 394 AD the Games stopped and the temple at Olympia was destroyed. Fifteen hundred years later, in 1894 a Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin, invited people from fifteen countries to start the Olympic Games again. The first of the modern Games took place in Athens two years later, in 1896.

At the fourth Olympics, in 1908, in London, there were more than two thousand competitors, from twenty-two different countries. Since then, the number of athletes competing has become bigger each time. The international Olympic Committee at Lausanne, in Switzerland, decides where each Olympics will take place. They ask a city (not a country) to be the host: one city for the Winter Olympics and one for the Summer Olympics. Nearly 150 countries are members of the International Olympic Committee.

There is a lot of work in preparing for the Olympics. The host city should have very good sports stadiums and an Olympic village for the sportsmen to live during the games. Host cities often build new sports stadiums, hotels and other buildings. But when your city is asked to be the host for the Olympic Games, it is very good for it, don’t you think?

Note: host n – принимающая сторона

5.15 Rewrite these sentences to change them from active to passive.

1. Almost every boy in my region plays basketball.

2. Everyone admires Olympic champions.

3. Our country won ten medals in the last Olympic Games.

4. I’m afraid fewer young people will play sport in the future.

5. Over 20 million people watched the league championship final.

5.16 Match the sport star names with the sports: basketball,boxing, ice-hockey, tennis, football, car race driving, figure skating.

M. Ali, M. Tyson, M. Schumacher, M. Jordan, D. Beckham, M. Safin, M. Sharapova, I. Rodnina, V. Fetisov, A. Arshavin.

5.17 Read the following dialogue. What sports can they play or do at the camp?

– Hi, Ben. You look happy.

– I am. Jane, I’ve got some great news!

– Oh, what?

– Well, you want to keep fit, right?

– Yes, definitely!

– There’s this great camp for all the family. We can all keep fit together.

– That sounds good. Can you play tennis there?

– I don’t think so. But you can do lots of other things. You can dance or ride a horse, for instance.

– Oh, really? The kids love horses.

– Yes, and I can play volleyball there, too.

– Have they got a website?

– Yes, I got it here.

– Let’s get on the Internet and find out more.

5.18 Exam tasks. Prepare a monologue about a sport or a sportsman and a dialogue about your favourite sport.

5.19 Learn the following useful phrases.

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