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Recreational sport and games in the USA.
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Over the past quarter century recreational sport has become an increasingly large part of American life. Although the overall percentage of the population engaged in recreational sport is not markedly greater than before, those who are involved seem to be devoting more and more of their leisure time to various sporting activities. In addition to public facilities for such sports as tennis, golf, basketball, softball, swimming, etc. and private tennis and golf clubs, all sorts of fitness and health clubs continue to spring up all over the country. Many of these clubs have “high tech” machines for virtually every possible form of exercise and fitness training as well as space for aerobics, now one of the most popular forms of physical exercise in the US. There has also been a growth in the number of specialized clubs dealing with the martial arts.
There are some groups and clubs, such as runners and bicyclists, who do not necessarily need special facilities in which to train. Naturally, many Americans also pursue such activities as jogging, swimming, bicycling, skiing and skating on their own without any organizational involvement. Other popular sports for the individualist are surfing and wind surfing. For those who like the thrill and freedom of floating in air there is also gliding, hang gliding and sport parachuting.
Although sailing and yachting continue to be largely the domain of well-to-do private individuals, there are a few places where the public can rent small sail boats. Much more common though is the rental of rowboats and canoes at local, state and national parks. Horseback riding is also available to the public in many places. Equestrian sports such as dressage and jumping still remain the province of those who can afford the great expenses associated with these sports. And, needless to say, polo is also a sport for the few although it is possible polo will become more widely known as a spectator sport.
Racket sports have become extremely popular in recent years. Tennis remains very prominent among recreational pursuits. A game called racket ball has really caught on with the public and both indoors and outdoors racket ball courts have sprung up all over the country. Squash was originally found mainly in the northeast part of the US but is now slowly gaining a foothold in other parts of the country.
I. Answer the questions.
1. What are the most popular forms of physical exercises for the broad public in the US?
2. What groups and clubs do not need special facilities?
3. Are Americans engaged in sport?
4. What can you say about polo?
5. What racket sports have become popular in recent years?
II. Complete the sentences as in the text.
1. Naturally, many Americans also pursue….
2. … who can afford the great expenses associated with these sports.
3. Although the overall percentage of the population engaged in recreational sport ….
4. … there are a few places where the public can rent small sail boats.
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5. Many of these clubs have “high tech” machines….
TEXT 8
Sport in Australia.
The majority of Australians love sport. It’s part of their culture. This is helped by the good weather. Everyone knows that Australians are surf crazy but what else do they do?
Because Australia has so many lifeguards, they have their own competitions and demonstrate their skills. There are also Iron Man Competitions. Competitors have to swim, paddle a rescue boat then run along the sand.
Australian football is like eighteen-a-side football but you are allowed to throw the ball. It is played with an oval ball that players jump high in the air to catch. The game is famous for its fights on the pitch. There’s usually lots of injury time at the end.
The Henley-on-Todd Regatta is a boat race in Alice Springs with a difference; there’s no water! Specially designed boats race where the water used to be. If the riverbank actually fills with water, the race is cancelled!
Australians love watching racing. Speedway is very popular. So is horseracing. The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s most famous horse race and is watched by a large percentage of the population.
Australia hopes to do well in every Olympics. The AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) invests a huge amount of money in sport. Every year they search Australian schools for children who might be good at a particular sport. Then they spend millions of dollars training them. They test most schoolchildren and tell them what sports to concentrate on in the future.
I. Answer the questions
1. What can you say about the Australian football?
2. What is the Henley-on-Todd Regatta?
3. When is the race in the Regatta cancelled?
4. How do Australians choose future champions?
5. Do Australians love sport?
II. Complete the sentences as in the text
1. … invests a huge amount of money in sport.
2. … is watched by a large percentage of the population.
3. They test most schoolchildren….
4. … paddle a rescue boat then run along the sand.
5. … by a large percentage of the population.
TEXT 9
Olympic Games.
The tradition of Olympic Games runs back to Ancient Greece. We know that the first Olympic Games took place in the town of Olympia more than 2700 years ago.
There was no war in the country for these five days when sports competitions took place. It was a great athletic festival of wrestling, foot-racing, discus throwing and others. The Games were organized and held up to the year 393. Then for more then 1700 years nothing more was heard of the Olympiads.
The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896. They take place every fourth year. The Games cannot take place in a country, which is at war. That’s why there were no Olympic Games during the two world wars.
During the Olympic Games there are tournaments in many kinds of sport. Summer sport competitions take place in summer during the Summer Olympic Games. The Winter Olympic Games are now held two years before the Summer Games in a different country. Famous athletes are proud of participating in the Games. They compete in football, basketball, volleyball, boxing, weight-lifting, athletics, gymnastics and many other kinds of sport.
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At the Winter Olympic Games many teams from different countries take part in competitions in figure skating, skiing, freestyle, ice hockey and others.
The Olympic Games are very popular in this country. All lovers of sport watch the Games on TV and many of them watch the events live and support our national team.
I. Answer the questions
1. Where did the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece take place?
2. When were the first modern Olympic Games held?
3. Are famous athletes proud of taking part in the Games?
II. Say, if you agree or disagree, and why:
1. The Olympic Games are very popular in the world.
2. The Summer Olympic Games are more representative than the Winter Olympic Games.
3. Many countries are eager to host the Olympic Games.
TEXT 10
I. Read one of the texts and answer the questions after it.
Alexei Yagudin.
Yagudin’s mother Zoya was his first coach. She took Alexei to the local rink and taught him to skate at the age of 4. He was a small child and his mother heeded the advice of a doctor who said physical activity would lessen Alexei’s chance for illness. Yagudin developed as a skater under the tutelage of Aleksei Mishin starting 1994. At that time Mishin also coached 1994 Olympic champion Aleksei Urmanov and junior world champion Yevgeny Plushenko. Yagudin looked up to Urmanov from the start and often would travel and compete with the champion. The younger Plushenko would not compete at the same events as his training partners, but as he entered the senior ranks a natural rivalry emerged. Shortly after the Nagano Games Yagudin decided it was time for change and sought out legendary Russian coach T. Tarasova, who is based in the United States. They began working together in the summer of 1998, and Yagudin moved to New Jersey and recently to Newington, Connecticut.
Yagudin won three straight world titles from 1998 to 2000 – the first man to do so since Canada’s Kurt Browning did it from 1989-1991. Yagudin claimed his world title 15 days after he turned 18 to become the second –youngest men’s world champion in history (in 1963, Donald McPherson of Canada won nine days after his 18th birthday). Yagudin also won two European Championships (1998, 1999), one Grand Prix final (1999) and the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City (2002).
1. Who was his first coach?
2. Where did he develop as a skater?
3. Who were his main rivals?
4. Why did he decide to change his coach?
5. What titles did he win?
II.Put in the correct order as in the text.
1. Yagudin won three straight world titles from 1998 to 2000 – the first man to do so since Canada’s Kurt Browning did it from 1989-1991.
2. Yagudin developed as a skater under the tutelage of Aleksei Mishin starting 1994.
3. Shortly after the Nagano Games Yagudin decided it was time for change and sought out legendary Russian coach T. Tarasova, who is based in the United States.
4. Yagudin’s mother Zoya was his first coach. She took Alexei to the local rink and taught him to skate at the age of 4.
Larissa Lazutina.
Lazutina has won 11 world titles, her two most recent coming at the 2001 World Championships in Finland. She won the combined pursuit only after the original winner, Virpi Kuitunen of Finland, was disqualified after failing a doping test. She also was a member of the gold medal winning relay team.
After a disastrous performance at the 1997 World Championships in Trondheim, Norway, Lazutina said she thought of quitting and becoming a housewife in Odinzovo (near Moscow) with her husband and daughter. But after Russian team leader Lyubov Yegorova was disqualified for a failed drug test the Russian Ski Federation invited Lazutina to join the team. She joined but only on the condition that she would be allowed to train alone. She had a long history of personal differences with the team’s head coach A. Grishin. She did indeed train alone but she was cut off from the financial support enjoined by the national team. She got another sponsor and hired a personal coach A. Kravtsov who, together with her husband, also a professional skier, trained her.
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Salt Lake marked Lazutina’s fourth Olympic appearance. Upon her return to Russia from the Nagano Games, where she captured 5 medals (3 golds, 1 silver, 1 bronze), Lazutina was awarded the Hero of Russia medal - the country’s highest honor - for her Olympic performance. She had a total of seven Olympic medals up to 2002 dating back to the 1992 Albertville Games.
Lazutina said that the Olympic season (2002) was definitely going to be the last. She said: ”I took up skiing when I was 5 years old and after all these years my mind and body tell me it’s time to stop”.
1. How many world titles has Lazutina won?
2. What title was she awarded after the Nagano Games?
3. How did she train after the 1997 World Championship?
4. Is she going to continue her performance in sports?
II.Complete as in the text.
1. Lazutina has won …
2. After a disastrous performance at the 1997 World Championships in Trondheim, Norway, Lazutina said …
3. … marked Lazutina’s fourth Olympic appearance.
4. She had a total of …
5. Lazutina said that the Olympic season (2002) …
Pavel Bure.
Pavel Bure played junior hockey in his hometown Moscow. In 1987-1988 he made his soviet elite league debut with five games for CSKA Moscow. In 1988-1989 still a teenager Bure scored 26 points in 32 games. At season’s end he was named Soviet Rookie of the Year. After scoring 14 goals in 1989-1990 Bure scored 35 goals in just 44 Soviet elite league games in 1990-1991.
Nicknamed “The Russian Rocket” Bure was drafted 113th overall in the 1989 Entry Draft by the Vancouver Canucks. In 1991-1992 he traveled to North America and joined the Canucks for 65 games scoring 34 goals. He won the Calder Trophy for Rookie of the Year and finished first among the Canucks in goals, short-handed goals and game winning goals. The Canucks won the Smythe Division title and then made the second round of the playoffs, where Bure had six goals in 13 games. In 1992-1993 Bure followed up with a team best 60-goal, 110-point effort, participated in his first All-Star Game and led the Canucks to their second straight Smythe Division season title, contributing a franchise-record 101 points.
In 1998- 1999, after sitting out most of the season because of a contract dispute, Bure was traded to the Florida Panthers. He played only 11 games for the Panthers before suffering a season-ending knee injury. In 1999-2000 Bure returned and won inaugural Maurice Richard Trophy with a league-leading 58 goals and finished second in league scoring with 94 points. In 2000-2001, Bure won his second Richard Trophy with a league-best 59 goals and again played the All-Star Game.
Pavel Bure’s scoring touch has been feared both in the NHL – where he is a six-time All-Star – and on the Olympic ice. In Nagano, he led the Games tournament with nine goals as Russia earned the silver medal. He has led the NHL in goals scored three times.
1. Where did Bure play junior hockey?
2. What is his nickname?
3. What was the largest number of goals he scored during the season?
4. How many goals did he score in Nagano?
II.Put in the correct order as in the text.
1. In 2000-2001, Bure won his second Richard Trophy with a league- best 59 goals and again played the All-Star Game.
2. Pavel Bure played junior hockey in his hometown Moscow.
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3. Nicknamed “The Russian Rocket” Bure was drafted 113th overall in the 1989 Entry Draft by the Vancouver Canucks.
4. After scoring 14 goals in 1989-1990 Bure scored 35 goals in just 44 Soviet elite league games in 1990-1991.
5.. In 1987-1988 he made his soviet elite league debut with five games for CSKA Moscow.
III. Make up a story about your sports career using the following words and word combinations:
My name is; to be born; to do sports; to take up (swimming, figure skating, fencing, gymnastics etc.); at the age of; to have the first (second) ranking in; to be a (Candidate) Master of Sports of Russia; to be a member of some sports society (sports club); to participate in competitions; to show good results; to take part in national (European, World) championship; to be a three-time national champion; to win the tournament; to be a winner; to be a record-holder; to win a gold (silver, bronze) medal; to complete school; to be a first-year student; to work as a coach (a teacher of physical education); to study by correspondence; to become a coach in; to be hard-working, persistent and courageous.
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