Vicious and dangerous sports should be banned by law

When you think of the tremendous technological progress we have made, it's amazing how little we have developed in other respects. We may speak contemptuously of the poor old Romans because they relished the orgies of slaughter that went on in their arenas. We may despise them because they mistook these goings on for entertainment. We may forgive them condescendingly because they lived 2000 years ago and obviously knew no better. But are our feelings of superiority really justified? Are we any less bloodthirsty? Why do boxing matches, for instance, attract such universal interest? Don't the spectators who attend them hope they will see some violence? Human beings remain as bloodthirsty as ever they were. The only difference between ourselves and the Romans is that while they were honest enough to admit that they enjoyed watching hungry lions tearing people apart and eating them alive, we find all sorts of sophisti­cated arguments to defend sports which should have been banned long ago; sports which are quite as barbarous as, say, public hangings or bear-baiting.

It really is incredible that in this day and age we should still allow hunting or bull-fighting, that we should be prepared to sit back and watch two men batter each other to pulp on a boxing ring, that we should be relatively unmoved by the sight of one or a number of racing cars crashing and bursting into flames. Let us not deceive ourselves. Any talk of 'the sporting spirit' is sheer hypocrisy. People take part in violent sports be­cause of the high rewards they bring. Spectators are willing to pay vast sums of money to see violence. A world heavyweight championship match, for instance, is front page news. Millions of people are disappointed if a big fight is over in two rounds instead of fifteen. They feel disappointment because they have been deprived of the exquisite pleasure of witnessing prolonged torture and violence.

Why should we ban violent sports if people enjoy them so much? You may well ask. The answer is simple: they are uncivilised. For centuries man has been trying to improve himself spiritually and emotionally — ad­mittedly with little success. But at least we no longer tolerate the sight madmen cooped up in cages, or public floggings or any of the countless other barbaric practices which were common in the past. Prisons are no longer the grim forbidding places they used to be. Social welfare systems are in operation in many parts of the world. Big efforts are being made to distribute wealth fairly. These changes have come about not because hu­man beings have suddenly and unaccountably improved, but because posi­tive steps were taken to change the law. The law is the biggest instrument of social change that we have and it may exert great civilising influence. If we banned dangerous and violent sports, we would be moving one step further to improving mankind. We would recognise that violence is de­grading and unworthy of human beings.

Text 4.6

The Olympic Games

The Olympic Games were originally an ancient Greek religious festival in honor of Zeus, which was held in Olympia near Mount Olympus, the myth­ical home of the gods. The Games were first held in 776 BC. They were held every four years, in the middle of the summer. The festival was only held if there was peace throughout Greece. The ceremonies included contests in oratory, poetry, music and art, as well as in athletic skills like wrestling, throw­ing the javelin, and running.

The Olympic Games were an exclusively male festival. Women were not allowed to compete in the Olympic Games, or even to attend and watch them. The victors were traditionally crowned with olive leaves rather than with gold medals. Their importance in Greek life was so great that the Olympiad, the four-year interval between Games, was a main unit of the Hellenic calendar. To be a victor in the classical Olympic Games was a great honor not only for the athlete but also for his city.

The classical Games continued for over a thousand years. Factionalism and controversies over the status of competitors became so fierce and disrup­tive in later years that the Games were finally suppressed by the Roman Emperor Theodosius in AD 392 as a disturbance of Roman peace.

With growth of interest in sport in the 19th century, and the organization of annual and traditional sport competitions, especially between schools and universities, the idea arose of reviving the Olympic Games in the modern world. A Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was the enthusiast whose personal drive and initiative brought about the inauguration of the modern Olympic Games in 1896 with the participation of 311 athletes from thirteen countries, competing in nine sports.

At first, the modern Games were limited to men. Women first competed in the Games in 1910, playing golf, but real women's participation only began in Paris in 1924 with the inclusion of women's athletics in the program.

Winter sports were brought into the Olympic program through the organization of special winter Games, first held in France at Chamonix in 1924 with competitions in ice-hockey, speed skating, figure-skating, and skiing. These are still the basic events of the winter program, with the addition of bobsled and toboggan races.

The most impressive event of the opening ceremony of the Games is the taking of the Olympic oaths. First a representative athlete from the host coun­try, holding a corner of the Olympic flag, takes the following oath on behalf of all the participants:

"In the name of all competitors, I promise that we will take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honor of our teams."

After the representative athlete, a judge from the host country takes an oath on behalf of all those judging and officiating in the Games.

The Olympic flag has a motif of five interlocking rings on a white back­ground. The five rings represent five continents of the world and symbolize universal brotherhood. The six colors, the white of the background and the blue, yellow, black, green and red of the rings, represent the nations of the world, since every national flag contains at least one of these colors. The ceremonial embroidered flag, by the Olympic rules, must reside in the prin­cipal municipal building of the host city until the next Games.

The motto of the Games, "Citius, altius, fortius" (Latin — faster, higher, braver), puts the emphasis on personal winners — not team performance and achievements. Officially, there are individual and team winners but no win­ning countries; from the very beginning of the games, however, the press has made an unofficial count of the medals won by the sportsmen of each partic­ipating country and has kept an unofficial points score. Until the 1952 Olym­pics the United States teams dominated the Summer Games because of their strength in athletics, swimming and boxing. Since the Helsinki Games, when the USSR took part in them for the first time, competition in all events of the program has become keener, and one country has ceased to dominate: the US hold on first place was successfully challenged by the USSR and the German Democratic Republic.

Each Olympiad the size of the Olympic Games has been growing in the scale of competition, number of competitors and size of the audience watching them - live or on television. Huge stadiums accommodate tens of thousands of spectators, while television brings the scene directly to the homes of the whole world.

Text 4.7

Sports and Games in the USA and Great Britain

Games and competitions involving physical strength, skill, and endur­ance have interested people from the earliest times. Competitions involving physical prowess or simulated combat date from prehistoric times and prob­ably are as old as community life. Although most ancient peoples took part in such sports as boxing and wrestling, some developed organized sports. The American Indians, for example, played games resembling lacrosse, field hock­ey, and bowling and engaged in foot racing and horse racing. In the Middle Ages tournaments gained wide popularity. Jousting was a sport of the nobil­ity; the sport of the common people in England was archery.

The British invented and developed many of the sports and games played throughout the world; interest and participation have increased as a result of improved facilities, more time and widespread coverage.

Association football, one of the most popular sports, was first codified and developed in England during the 19th century. Now all countries hope to compete for the World Cup.

There are two types of rugby football - the 15-a-side Rugby Union played by amateurs and the 13-a-side Rugby League played mainly in the North of England by professionals.

The modern form of hockey was started in the 19th century by the Hockey Association of England.

Cricket, a summer sport, is played with a small ball covered with leather, a bat, and wickets, by two teams of eleven players each. It is known to have been played as early as the 1550s and is popular in most of the countries which were once a part of the British Empire, and in the countries which were temporarily occupied by the British military. So, besides England, Australia and New Zealand, cricket matches are held, for example, in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and \test Indies.

Golf originated in Scotland and the headquarters of the game is at St. Andrews on the East coast. The British Open Golf Championship is one of the world's leading tournaments.

Modern lawn tennis originated in England in 1872 and the annual Wim­bledon Championships, widely regarded as the most important of the world tennis events, were first held in 1877.

Boxing in its modern form dates from 1865 when the Marquess of Queens-berry drew up a set of rules rewarding skill and eliminating much of the bru­tality that had characterized prize-fighting.

Administered by the Jockey Club, horse racing takes two forms — flat (from late March to early November) and steeplechasing or hurdle racing (from August to early June). In flat racing, the horses run on level or flat ground; in steeplechasing they jump over obstacles (fences).

Britain has a large number of sailing events, one of the world's principal regattas being held each year at Cowes in the Isle of Wight. The rowing cal­endar includes the Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race, the Head of the River Race and the Henley Regatta, all held on the river Thames. Other important water sports include swimming and windsurfing.

Indoor games such as snooker, darts, squash and badminton are also popular.

In the middle of the 19th century the schools and colleges in England, followed by similar institutions in the United States, began a revival of athlet­ics that continues today. Now athletics forms an important part of the educa­tional system in the USA. There is a vivid distinction between amateur and professional sport in the US. Sportsmen (or athletes) engage in amateur ath­letics for fun, whereas participation in professional sports is generally done for money as well as pleasure. The Amateur Athletic Union of the United States and the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America control all amateur sports.

The principal amateur athletic sports in the US are college football and basketball. Other popular team sports include baseball, hockey and soccer. Among sports for individual competition are tennis, including table tennis, badminton and handball; combative sports, such as boxing, fencing and wres­tling; water sports, including swimming, diving and rowing; winter sports, such as skiing and skating; golf and bowling. The chief professional sports are major-league baseball, basketball and football; others include boxing, wres­tling, golf, tennis and hockey.

Text 4.8

Unusual Sports and Games

Curling is a popular sport in Canada. However, it probably started in Scotland or Holland around three hundred years ago. There are two teams with four people on each team in curling. The teams play on a sheet of ice that is 45 meters long and 4.3 meters wide.

Each player slides two heavy stones toward the "house" circle at the op­posite end of the ice sheet. The stones weigh almost twenty kilos. Each stone is flat on the top and bottom and has a handle on the top. The player swings the stone off the ice and it curls as it slides along.

While one player throws the stone, his teammates sweep in front of the stone. This smoothes the ice. The players believe that the stone travels faster on smooth ice. The captain of the team yells "Sweep!" and the teammates start sweeping the ice.

Lacrosse is another popular sport in Canada. It is one of the oldest organized sports in America. It is also popular in Britain and Australia. It was invented by Indians in northern New York and southern Ontario. They used it to train for war before Columbus arrived in the New World.

People play lacrosse outdoors. The lacrosse field is 70 meters long. At each end of the field there is a goal. There are ten players on each team. Each player hits a ball that is 21 centimeters around and weighs 140 grams. They try to hit the ball into the net as many times as possible. Lacrosse is a very fast game because the players can catch and pass the ball at high speed with their sticks.

Sumo wrestling is the national sport in Japan. Every year there are six tournaments, and millions of Japanese watch them on television.

Sumo is almost as old as the nation of Japan itself. Stories say there was wrestling over 2000 years ago.

Sumo wrestlers weigh from 100 to 160 kilos. One famous wrestler weighed І95 kilos. Sumo wrestlers do not look beautiful, and sumo wrestling is a very slow sport.

Sumo wrestlers start training when they are boys. They exercise to make their bodies strong. They also eat, eat, and eat.

Sumo wrestlers wrestle in a round ring with a sand floor. A wrestler loses the match if he leaves the ring or if any part of his body except his feet touch­es the floor. Each wrestler tries to push the other down on the floor or out of the ring.

People from other countries usually think sumo is very strange, but the Japanese love it.

The most recent unusual sport is the triathlon, which became popular in the US before spreading elsewhere. This most demanding sport came from a late-night discussion in a Honolulu bar in 1977 about which sport was the most exhausting: swimming, bicycle racing, or long-distance running. Some­one suggested that they all be put together. The result was the first triathlon, the "Ironman", in 1978, with 15 participants. This contest was a 3.9 kilome­ter ocean swim, followed immediately by a 180 kilometer bicycle race, and ending with a 42 kilometer run. Five years later there were already 1,000 such competitions throughout the US, and the triathlon is becoming more and more popular in Europe, too.

Text 4.9

Sports in the United States

In 1911, the American writer A. Bierce defined Monday as "in Christian countries, the day after the baseball game." Times have changed and countries, too. In the U. S. of today, football is the most popular spectator sport. Baseball is now in second place among the sports people most like to watch, except, that is, in Japan, where it has become the most popular sport.

What makes football in the U. S. so different from its Euro­pean cousins, rugby and soccer, is not just the size, speed, and strength of its players. Rather, it is the most "scientific" of all outdoor team sports. Specific rules state what each player in each position may and may not do, and when. There are hun­dreds of possible "plays" (or moves) for teams on offense and defense. Because of this, football has been called "an open-air chess game disguised as warfare." Those who do not understand the countless rules and the many possibilities for plays miss most of the game.

Baseball and football have the reputation of being "typically American" team sports. This is ironic because the two most popular participant sports in the world today are indeed Ameri­can in origin — basketball and volleyball. Today both basketball and volleyball are played everywhere by men and women of all ages. They are especially popular as school sports.

There is an enormous amount of live broadcasting of all dif­ferent types of sports events, professional and amateur, at state, national, and international levels. Americans are used to having baseball and basketball, college and professional football games, golf, tennis, and autoracing, swimming meets and its Olympics carries live and at full length. In season, college football games are shown live all day Saturday. On Sundays, there are live television broadcasts of the professional teams. Usually one or two games are broadcast throughout the land, and many others only to regions where the teams have most of their fans.

Hockey (ice hockey that is, other kind is largely a women's sport in the U. S.) baseball, football, and basketball are the "four major sports." Their seasons now often overlap. Some football games are still being played in January in the snow and ice. Pre­season baseball games start in warm, sunny regions like Florida and Arizona about the same time. In the fall of the year, all four come together. Some people think that having four very popular sports at the same time is "a bit much."

There are many other sports and sports activities in America which attract millions of active participants. Among them are golf, swimming, tennis, marathons, track and field, bowling, archery, skiing, skating, squash and badminton, rowing and sailing, weight-lifting, boxing and wrestling. Statistics reveal that swimming, bi­cycling, fishing, jogging, calisthenics or gymnastics, and bowling (in that order) are American's favorite participatory sports.

The question remains why so many sports are so popular in the U. S. One reason may be that the variety and size of America and the different climates found in it have provided Americans with a large choice of (summer and winter) sports. In addition, public sports facilities have always been available in great num­ber for participants, even in sports such as golf, tennis, or skat­ing. The fact that the average high school, too, offers its students a great variety of sports, often including rowing, tennis, wres­tling, and golf, may have contributes to the wide and varied interest and participation of Americans in sports. This, in turn, may explain why Americans have traditionally done well interna­tionally in many of these sports.

Another reason might be that Americans like competition, by teams or as individuals, of any type.

Text 4.10

SPORTS IN GREAT BRITAIN

The British are great lovers of competitive sports; and when they are neither playing nor watching games they like to talk about them, or when they cannot do that, to think about them.

The game particularly associated with England is cricket. Many other games which are English in origin have been adopted with enthusiasm all over the world, but cricket has been seriously and extensively adopted only in the former British Empire.

Organized amateur cricket is played between club teams, mainly on Saturday afternoons. Nearly every village, except in the far north, has its cricket club, and there must be few places in which the popular image of England, as sentimentalists like to think of it, is so clearly seen as on a village cricket field. A first-class match between English countries lasts for up to three days, with six hours' play on each day. The game is slow, and a specta­tor, sitting in the afternoon sun after a lunch of sandwiches and beer, may be excused for having a little sleep for half an hour.

For the greatest mass of the British public the eight months of the football (soccer) season are more important than the four months of cricket. The annual Cup Final match, between the two teams which have defeated their opponents in each round of a knock-out contest, dominates the scene; the regular "league" games, organized in four divisions, provide the main entertain­ment through the season and the basis for the vast system of betting on the football pools. Many of the graffiti on public walls are aggressive statements of support for football teams, and the hooliganism of some British supporters has become notorious outside as well as inside Britain.

Rugby football (or "rugger") is played with an egg-shaped ball, which may be carried and thrown (but not forward). If a Player is carrying the ball he may be "tackled" and made to fall down. Each team has 15 players, who spend a lot of time lying in the mud or on top of each other and become very dirty, but do ""Jot need to wear such heavily protective clothing as players of American football.

Golf courses (together with the bars in their club houses) are popular meeting places of the business community; it is, for ex­ample, very desirable for bank managers to play golf. There are plenty of tennis clubs, but most towns provide tennis courts in public parks, and anyone may play tennis cheaply on a municipal court. There are cheap municipal golf courses in Scotland but few in England.

The biggest new development in sport has been with long-distance running. "Jogging", for healthy outdoor exercise, needing no skill or equipment, became popular in the 1970s, and soon more and more people took it seriously. Now the annual London Marathon is like a carnival, with a million people watching as the world's star runners are followed by 25,000 ordinary people trying to complete the course.

Rowing has a great history in Britain, beginning in some schools and universities. Some regattas on the Thames have been spectacular social events for well over a hundred years, and to­day's best rowers have had international successes.

Cycling is a popular pastime, but few people take it up as a serious sport. Sailing and horse-riding are popular among those who can afford them, and some yacht races attract wider interest. Horse racing is a big business, along with the betting which sus­tains it.

Greyhound racing has had a remarkable revival in the 1980s, and by 1988 it accounted for about a quarter of all gambling.

The most popular of all outdoor sports is fishing from the banks of lakes or rivers or in the sea, from jetties, rocks or beaches. Some British lakes and rivers are famous for their trout or salmon, and attract enthusiasm from all over the world.

The British do not shoot small animals or birds for sport, though some farmers who shoot rabbits or pigeons may enjoy doing so. But "game birds", mainly pheasant, grouse and partridge, have traditionally provided sport for the landowning gentry.

Another sports, also associated through centuries with own­ership of land, is the hunting of foxes. The hounds chase the fox, followed by the people riding horses, wearing red or black coats and conforming with various rules and customs. There have been attempts to persuade Parliament to pass laws to forbid hunting, but none has been successful.

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES

Step 1. Exchange your points of view on the questions below. Work in groups.

1. What is the role of sport in the world?

2. What are the pros and cons of doing sports?

3. What is your favourite sport or game? Why?

4. What traits of character do sports develop in a person?

5. What is the difference between amateur and professional sports?

6. Why is doping in sports a serious problem? What are the side effects of it?

7. Why are extreme sports becoming more and more popular nowadays?

8. What kind of sports do you practice? Why have you chosen this particular sport?

9. When is it necessary to start taking up sport?

10. Why is sport considered to be a national obsession in Great Britain and the USA?

11. What are national sports in Belarus?

12. Why is much attention given to the development of sports in this country?

13. What role do PE lessons play in children’s physical development? What can you say about the quality of PE lessons at schools, colleges and universities?

14. Why is sport considered one of the most popular spare time activities in the world?

15. What kinds of sports are popular in the USA and Great Britain?

16. Why are sports clubs and fitness centres popular nowadays?

17. Why is participation in the Olympic Games the greatest wish of any sportsman?

18. What is the history of the Olympic movement?

19. What are the positive and negative consequences of the fans’ behaviour?

20. What role do coaches play in the lives of athletes?

21. What sports do you think are the most boring and ridiculous?

22. What are the most popular spectator and participatory sports in Belarus?

Step 2. Respond to the following statements reasoning your own opinion.

Professional sport has become big business these days.

Team sports are more popular than individual ones.

People prefer watching sports to practicing them.

Sport is an essential part of people’s daily life.

Taking up any kind of sport has many benefits.

Sport is a part of the process of growing-up.

Some athletes are disqualified for no particular reason.

Playing the game fair is the most important thing in a competition.

Competitions always result in fits of depression.

Sport is not being developed in developing countries.

Lawn tennis is the most expensive kind of sport.

Team games develop team spirit.

Summer sports are more popular than winter ones.

Fishing can’t be considered a kind of sport.

The main purpose of sport is enjoyment.

Cricket is a very long and strange game.

Great athletes always become national heroes.

Football and soccer are one and the same game.

Sport teaches how to win as well as how to lose.

Parents shouldn’t push their children in sport.

Sports for women differ from sports for men.

Step 3. Comment on the quotations below. Express your own attitude towards their essence.

1. “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph-but the struggle.” Pierre de Coubertin.

2. “Some people think football is a matter of life and death…I can assure them it is much more serious than that.” B.Shankly.

3. “Serious sport is war minus the shooting.” G. Orwell

4. “Sports do not build character. They reveal it” H. H. Brown.

5. “I want to have fun! I yelled one day. Training is hard work after all, I had trained my entire life.” N. Bobek

6. “Nearly all the sports practiced nowadays are competitive. You play to win, and the game has little meaning unless you do your utmost to win.” G. Orwell

Step 4. Make up stories using the following proverbs and sayings. The contents of the story should reveal the gist of the proverb/saying.

1. A sound mind in a sound body.

2. Practice makes perfect.

3. The race is got by the running.

4. Nothing risk, nothing win.

5. Perseverance performs greater work than strength.

6. Nothing succeeds like success.

7. Success is never blamed.

8. One man doesn’t make a team.

9. One attains the skill only by learning to do the thing.

Step 5. Read the beginning of the text and develop the idea touched upon in it.

Professional sport and amateur sport activities have nothing in common. In fact, they are antipodes. Wouldn’t it better to run, swim, play and do sports just for pleasure in order to keep fit and be in good shape instead of breaking records and getting high rewards? Professional sport needs certain sacrifices on the part of the sportsmen; a lot of devoted time to sport and lack of social life, enormous strength and stamina…

Step 6. Make up and act out conversations that would be appropriate in the situations below. Work in groups of 2 or 3.

1. You are a sports journalist who is going to interview the members of Belarusian National Lawn Tennis team. Inquire them about the way they prepare for championships and competitions, how sport has helped them to build their characters, how sport influences their lives in general, etc. Discuss the future of Belarusian sport with them.

2. You are the host of the radio programme “The World of Sport”. The topic of your discussion today is “Sport and Health.” You have invited a famous sports doctor who has worked with the National Gymnastics team. Discuss the consequences of traumas, injuries and doping for athletes. Ask him to be as specific as he can.

3. Your son has been practicing boxing for three years. Of course, your heart hurts when he comes home with a swollen eye or a bleeding mouth. But above all, you concerned about his aggressiveness which you are sure is the result of his practicing boxing. So, you’ve come to your son’s coach as you think that boxing does only harm to children. Discuss this problem with the coach who is obviously of the opposite opinion.

4. Two sports fans are sharing their impressions after a football match. One is delighted – his favourite team has won - the other is very much upset as his team has lost it.

Step 7. Arrange a group discussion on the problems suggested below.

1. Nowadays football has a reputation for attracting hooligans as well as fans. What are the causes of hooliganism among fans? How can it be reduced?

2. Violence in sport is a crime. It should be punished like any other form of violence. Give your arguments for and against it.

3. Children in sports: for fun? for health? for breaking records? What do you think about it?

4. Sport should only be professional. What is your personal attitude to this idea?

5. These days people take up risky sports. Can you explain why? Do you see any positive side in it?

6. Sports are very good for active relaxation and very important for our physical and mental health. No wonder they say “A sound mind in a sound body”. Do you agree with it? Give your reasons.

7. It is a well-known fact that many athletes use anabolic steroids to improve their performance in sports. Express your point of view on drug-taking in sport.

8. A great number of people consider that dangerous sports should be banned. Do you support them?

Step 8. Debate on the controversial statements. Work in two groups. One group should agree with the statements below and the other should disagree. Put forward the appropriate arguments and convince the members of the other group.

1. The only idea of competitions is to set up records.

2. People do professional sport only for the sake of money.

3. Sport has nothing to do with the health of a person.

4. Women shouldn’t participate in dangerous sports.

5. It’s not good to start practising sports at an early age.

6. Doping in sport should be made legal.

Step 9. Fulfill the following written assignments.

1. Write an advertisement of any extreme sport.

2. Write a letter to your American/British friend explaining the motives why you have taken up this or that sport.

3. Write an account of any national or international competition you have visited or watched on TV.

4. Write an argumentative essay on the topic “Sport wears out athletes’ bodies.”

5. Write an article to your local newspaper promoting the work of any sports club or fitness centre of your town/city.

6. In a personal letter try to persuade your pen-friend to give up professional sport.