Lesson 26 sport and games

People all over the world are fond of sports and games. That is one of the things in which people of every nationality and class are united. AH kinds of physical exercises are very useful to make our bodies strong enough to keep our selves fit and healthy.» Sport with its broad relevance to education, health, culture, work and politics* and its capacity to predispose people towards change may uniquely serve the purpose of nation-building and help foster national integration. After all, sport extends to and unites wider sections of the population than probably any other social activity, «it is easily understood and enjoyed cutting across economic, ethnic, religious and language barriers.'

The most popular outdoor winter sports are shooting, hunting, hockey. In the countries where the weather is frosty and there is much snow —«skating, skiing and tobogganing. Some people generally enjoy figure-skating and ski-jumping. It's so nice to go to the skating-rink on a frosty sunny day!

" Summer affords excellent opportunities for swimming, boating, yachting, cycling and many other sports. Among outdoor games football takes the first place in all countries of the world." The other games that have firmly established themselves in favour in different countries are golf, lawn-tennis, cricket, volley-ball, basket-ball and so on. Badminton is also very popular."

All the year round many people indulge in boxing, athletics, gymnastics and track and field events. Scores of young girls and women go in for calisthenics. Over last few years aerobics has become popular with young girls and women. It helps them to be slim, healthy and strong. The founder of this kind of sport was a world-famous American actress Jane Fonda. Being a great enthusiast of aerobics, she has been trying to initiate men and young women all over the world into this sport.

Among indoor games the most popular are billiards, table-tennis, draughts and some others, but the great inter­national game is chess. The results of chess tournaments are studied and discussed by thousands of enthusiasts in different countries.

So we may say that sport is one of the things that makes people kin.'

To cut the long story short, I should admit that everyone must do all he can to be healthy. Physically inactive people get old earlier than those who have plenty of exercises. I can add that good health is better than the best medicine. You have "A sound mind in a sound body", as the old Latin saying goes. The English proverb "Sickness in the body brings sickness to the mind" expresses a similar idea but from different point of view.

Word List:

to be fond of - любить, нравиться

to unite - объединять

to keep oneself fit and healthy - поддерживать форму и быть здоровым

to extend to - оказывать внимание, покровительствовать

social activity - общественная деятельность

outdoor winter sports - зимние игры на открытом воздухе

shooting - стрельба

hunting - охота

tobogganing - санный спорт

figure-skating - фигурное катаниe

ski-jumping - прыжки на лыжах

skating-rink - каток

to afford excellent opportunities for something - предоставлять

прекрасные возможности для чего-либо

yachting - парусный спорт

gliding - планерный спорт

to establish oneself in favour - быть в почете

lawn-tennis - теннис

to indulge in something (boxing, wrestling ) - увлекаться боксом,

борьбой

callisthenics - ритмическая гимнастика

enthusiast - энтузиаст

to initiate into something - приобщать к чему-то

tournament - турнир, спортивное состязание

to make somebody kin - делать кого-то близким

inactive - неподвижный, неактивный

to add - добавлять medicine - лекарство

A sound mind in a sound body - В здоровом теле - здоровый дух

point of view - точка зрения