Self-training Exercises

Exercise 1. Answer the following questions.

1. Have you been staying here for a month?

2. Has he been swimming long?

3. Since when has it been snowing here?

4. How long have you been watching TV?

5. How long has she been talking to her friend?

6. What has he been translating for an hour?

7. How long had you been studying English before you went to Great Britain?

8. How long had you been writing to him before you got an an­swer?

9. How long had she been waiting for you when you came?

10. How long will you have been flying by the time the plane lands?

Exercise 2. Put the verbs in brackets into the Present, Past or Fu­ture Perfect Continuous Tense.

1. We (play) tennis for 3 hours. 2. By the end of this year I (live) here for 20 years. 3. She (study) in London for a year. 4. By breakfast time she (sleep) for 8 hours. 5. When the bus arrived the tourists (wait) for it very long. 6. I looked at the watch. It was 11 o'clock. I (work) at the report for 4 hours. 7. They (sit) there for an hour when the taxi arrived. 8. She (wash) the dishes since the guests left. 9. I (look for) the key for half an hour already. 10. He (go) to this bar every Saturday for the last 5 years.

Exercise 3. Form the questions with the question word given.

1. The tourists have been traveling since last Sunday. (Since when)

2. She has been driving a car for 10 years. (How long)

3. He has been going in for body-building for 3 months. (Who)

4. She has been speaking on the phone since 10 o'clock. (What)

5.1 had been waiting for half an hour when the bus finally came. (How long)

УБ-3

Focus on Reading.

“The Olympic Games”

УЭ-1

Text a from the history of the olympic games

The Olympic Games are the oldest competition. They were originated by the Greeks long before our era.

While the origin of the Olympic Games is not known exactly, there is a historical record of the ancient games beginning in 776 B. C. Thereafter' they were held at four year intervals until 393 A. D., when they were abolished by the Roman emperor Theodosius after Greece had lost its independence. The ancient Olympiad was a festive time. For a period of about a month poets, sculptors, artists and historians made Olympia a cultural center; At first the program was confined to one day and consisted only of a single event — a race the length of the stadium Then a race of a half mile was added and later — an endurance race². Afterwards additional races, the discus throw, the javelin throw, the long jump, boxing, wrestling, the pentathlon, chariot racing and other events were added and the duration, including the religious ceremonies, was extended to seven days.³

Women were not allowed as competitors or spectators. Women got on the Olympic program after World War I, in a time of women's rights legislation in all fields.

Before the contests opened all the competitors and their families, the trainers and the judges swore a solemn oath⁴ to keep the competition clean and fair and to give just decisions.⁵

The games occupied such an important position in the life of Greece that time was measured by the four-year interval between them — an "Olympiad". The greatest honor then to be attained by any Greek was the winning of the simple branch of wild olive given to a victor in the games Kings competed alongside commoners; even the Roman emperor Nero sought Olympic honours.⁶ Winners became national heroes, musicians sang their praise and sculptors preserved their strength and beauty in marble. Their feats of skill and courage were recorded⁷ by the poets and writers of the time. The gracefulness and sportsmanship of the contestant and the method of winning were esteemed equally with⁸ the victory itself.

The earliest recorded Olympic champion is Coroibos of Olis, winner of an olive wreath in the stadium race of 170 m in 776 B. C. A long jump of 7.05 m by Chionis of .Sparta in the seventh century B. C. is a performance comparable with present-day club standards, though Chionis probably propelled himself with the aid of weights, a device not permitted by modern rules. Milon of Croton won six wrestling titles between 540 and 516 В. С.

After nearly 300 Olympiads the Roman Emperor Theodosius banned the Games. In 1896, after a lapse of 1,500 years, the Games were revived in Athens, Greece, and have been staged every four years since, except for interruptions caused by World War I and II. It was due to the efforts of the Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1853—1937) of France, a brilliant educator and scholar but not a athlete, that the Olympic games were revived.

He summoned an international conference at the Sorbonne, Paris, in 1894. Russia was among the 12 countries which decided, at an international congress on sports in 1894, to revive the Olympic Games and found the International Olympic Committee. Its representative was elected one of the 14 IOC members. The Winter Olympics were born in 1924 at Chamonix, France. Russian compe­titors have been competing in the Olympic Games since 1908.

Task 1. Study the following vocabulary notes.

1 thereafter — с этого времени

2 an endurance race — бег на выносливость

3. the duration . was extended to seven days время проведения (Олимпийских Игр) было увеличено до 7 дней.

4 swore a solemn oath — давали торжественную клятву

5 to give just decisions — принимать справедливые решения

6. Even the Roman Emperor Neron fought Olympia honors — даже Римский император Нерон боролся за Олимпийские награды

7. were recorded — были увековечены

8. were esteemed equally with — оценивались наравне с

Task 2. Read the translate the following international words without a dictionary.

Olympic, record, interval, emperor, Greece, festive, period, poet, sculptor, cultural, center, program, mile, discus, boxing, religious, ceremony, trainer, position, hero, musician, method, champion, modern, international, confe­rence, congress.

Task 3. Read the translate the text “From the History of the Olympic Games”