The history of ball games

The Ancient Greeks and Romans are known to have played many ball games. Some of these games involved the usage of balls, hands and feet. The Roman politician Cicero (106-43 BC) described the case with a man who had been killed in the barber’s shop when a ball was kicked into a window of the office.

Roman ball games were widely spread and a lot of people used to play air-filled balls in the fields and on the sport grounds. Documental evidence of physical activities resembling football and volleyball can be found in the Chinese military troops and existed between the 3rd century and 1st century BC.

The people described a popular sport practice known as the game where young men were kicking a ball using their hands and feet. The game originally called a kick-ball and involved the process of kicking a leather ball through a small hole in a piece of a silk cloth which was fixed on bamboo canes and hung about 9 inches above the ground.

During the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), ball games were standardized and many strict rules were established. Variations of this game were spread in Japan and all people liked the game. Later a feather-stuffed ball was replaced by an air-filled ball and the ball games had become professional games where people got money. Professional players were included in different teams. These different teams played with each other.

An official volleyball team is made up of six players who rotate through six playing positions: left forward, centre back and right back behind the front positions. The opening of the game is the serve (подача), which is made by the right back player. He continues to serve until the team loses possession of the serve. The ball must be played in the air and must be clearly hit. It may not be thrown or lifted. The game is played back over the net until one team fails to return the ball.

Vocabulary

ball games	игра с мячом
barber’s shop	парикмахерская
to serve	подавать (мяч)
to kick	бить ногой
resembling	напоминающий
on bamboo canes	бамбуковая палочка
silk cloth	шёлковая ткань
strict rules	строгие правила
feather-stuffed ball	набитый перьями мяч
to replace	менять

1. Раскройте скобки, употребив нужную видо-временную форму глагола.

1) You (to see) this match already?

2) He (to be) in the sport festival last year?

3) You (to play) the football?

4) You ever (to write) a letter to a sports coach?

5) I saw Tom yesterday but I (not to see) him today.

2. Преобразуйте предложения, употребляя конструкцию there is/there are.

Например: I see many players in the field.

There are many players in the field.

1) I see a man in the street.

2) We saw many trees in the resort.

3) The children have many games at school.

4) We see many sportsmen in the festival.

5) We have many Olympic Games in the world.

Помните, что вопросы к подлежащему образуются без вспомогательного глагола.

Например: My friend likes apples.

Who likes apples?

3. Задайте вопросы к подлежащему.

1) Somebody took active part in the competition. Who…?

2) She has found a new way to the skating rink. Who…?

3) My brother was among runners. Who…?

4) My sister is reading a magazine. Who…?

5) He likes to play football. Who…?

4. Напишите эти предложения в Present Perfect, не забудьте сделать соответствующие изменения.

1) She is the first year student of our faculty.

2) They are tired.

3) We are late.

4) The coach draws attention to elements of style.

5) In figure skating you must begin to skate very early.

6) He shouted at me in the morning.

7) I performed difficult exercises.

5. Перефразируйте данные словосочетания в предложениях, употребляя притяжательный падеж.

Например: The face of the girl is beautiful.

The girl’s face is beautiful.

1) The ball of the boy is nice.

2) The rooms of the girls were changed.

3) The game of these players is interesting.

4) He was a pupil of a famous coach.

5) The name of a player was Pele.

6) The boy is a younger son of my friend.

7) The book of a student.

6. Образуйте вопросы к предложениям, начиная с вопросительных слов в скобках.

1) The participants of international team are returning next week. (When?)

2) We are doing difficult exercises now. (What?)

3) The coach is teaching a young athlete to jump. (Who?)

4) They were still training when I entered the room. (What?)

5) He is coming tomorrow. (When?)

УРОК 6

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There are a number of references to traditional, ancient, or prehistoric ball games, which were played by people in many parts of the world. For example, in 1586, men from a ship commanded by an English explorer John Davis went ashore to play a form of football with (Eskimo) people in Greenland. Each match began with a signal when two teams were facing each other and began running with a ball, they attempted to kick the ball through each other team's line. The line was in the middle of the field.

The history of football games goes back almost as far as that of cricket. Here is a statement describing a set of rules.

“The players form two teams and the game is started when a person throws the ball into the air from half-way line that separates the teams. As soon as the ball is in the air, the players make a dash for it, the aim is to run with the ball and touch the ground upon a line behind the opponents”.

The game resulted from a famous afternoon at Rugby School in the early part of the nineteenth century, when William Ellis picked up a football team and made them professional players.

The team sport game that has the greatest spectators’ interest today began to take an organized form in 1890. It quickly became the most popular organized sport for participants and spectators.

In the early days in Russia the game was played, first of all, by the British among themselves and, a little later, by mixed teams of British and Russians. The Russian people were mainly students, cadets and clerks. In 1894, Harry Charnock, a general manager of Morozov’s mills, introduced a game called soccer or football among his workers. He wanted workers to change their lifestyle, connecting it with health and pleasure. At first it was played during Shrovetide when a lot of people gathered and made the boundary markers on the ground. They played a quick ball game and soon it became very popular in our country and known as a mob football.