The British and sport

Britain does not often produce sportsmen or sportswomen who are successful in world sporting championships, but it has been good at inventing sports and writing the rules of games.

Golf was first played in Scotland in the fifteenth century and the most famous golf club, Saint Andrews in Scotland, is still the most respected authority on golf in the world. Cricket was first played in England in the sixteenth century and its rules were written in the eighteenth century. The rules for lawn tennis were first written in 1875.

Nineteenth-century team sports, such as football, rugby and hockey, were first played in British public schools. The rules for all of these games were written between 1870 and 1890.

10. Give a talk on the topic “Sport in Great Britain”.

Unit 5 sport in the usa.

1. Practise the pronunciation of the following words from the text.

baseball, northern, rugby, to score, league, to exist, archery, excessive, to associate, to require, bicycle, to be worth.

2.Guess the meaning of the following international words. Consult a dictionary if necessary.

Baseball (n), basketball (n), rugby (n), popular (a), league (n), golf (n), tennis (n), aerobics (n), badminton (n), bowling (n), interest (n), athlete (n), national (a), hero (n), windsurfing (n), skate-boarding (n), kite surfing (n), triathlon (n).

Read and translate the text consulting the vocabulary in case of difficulty.

to be derived from – происходить;

to score points – набирать очки;

goal-line – линия ворот;

bat – бита;

excessive – чрезмерный;

faculty – преподавательский состав;

to compete – соревноваться;

long-distance running – бег на длинные дистанции;

Americans are very fond of sport. The most popular sports in the USA are football, which is played from April to October, baseball, played from September to December, basketball, played from October to April and ice-hockey, played in most northern cities from October to March.

American football is derived from the English game of rugby. It was started at Harvard University in 1870s. It is a game for the two teams of 11 men on the field. The object of the game is to have control of the ball and to score points by carrying it across the goal-line.

Baseball is a team game derived from the English game of cricket. It is played with a bat and a ball by two teams of 9 players each on a field with 4 bases. Baseball is the national game of the USA and it is very popular in Canada too.

Basketball is a game which nowadays is popular all over the world. It was invented in 1891. During the 1920s the first US league championship was organized. In the 1970s the American championship was divided into two leagues: the ABA (American Basketball Association), which does not exist any longer, and the NBA (National Basketball Association).

Some unusual kinds of sport were originated in America. They are: windsurfing, skate-boarding and beach volleyball, parasailing, kite surfing, triathlon and many others. Triathlon includes swimming, bicycle racing and long-distance running. Now these sports are becoming more and more popular in Europe and Russia.

Sport is a part of daily American life. Many Americans jog every day or play tennis two or three times a week. They go on ski trips and hunting expeditions that require weeks of planning and organizing. In the Americans` view, all these activities are worth the discomfort they may cause because they contribute to health and physical fitness. That’s probably why Americans are known as healthy nation.

There are a lot of activities which Americans take part in, such as golf, swimming, tennis, aerobics, wrestling, badminton, bowling, archery etc.

Americans` interest in sports seems excessive to many foreign visitors. Television networks spend millions of dollars to telecast sports events. Publications about sports are sold widely. In the US professional athletes can become national heroes.

Sports are also associated with educational institutions. High schools have coaches as faculty members, and school teams compete with each other.