Section 3. Memory Exercise

Ex.1. Train these phrases using "snowball” technique.

The 2012 Olympics

1. Bookmakers expect record gambling on the 2012 Olympics after the opening ceremony prompted a flood of bets on event mastermind Danny Boyle receiving a knighthood - and confusion over wagers laid on who would light the Olympic flame.

2. But in the end, seven young athletes selected by seven British Olympians lit the flame in unison, causing divides in the bookmaking ranks over how to handle the bet.

3. Chinese teenager Ye Shiwen smashed the world record to win the gold medal in the women's 400 metres individual medley on Saturday, while Australia were surprise winners in the women's 4x100 metres freestyle final.

4. The 16-year-old unleashed an incredible sprint over the concluding freestyle leg to stop the clock at four minutes 28.43 seconds and became the first woman to break a long-course world record since the ban on polyurethane bodysuits at the end of 2009.

5. World number one Roger Federer survived a scare in his opening Olympics singles match against Colombia's Alejandro Falla before prevailing 6-3 5-7 6-3 on a packed Wimbledon Centre Court to book his place in the second round.

6. The 17-time grand slam winner and top seed, seeking his first singles gold medal, had three match points in the second set but then suddenly crumbled, hitting shot after shot into the net.

7. Michael Phelps suffered his first Olympic defeat in eight years when he finished fourth behind Ryan Lochte in the final of the men’s 400 metres individual medley on Saturday.

8. Lochte added the Olympic gold medal to the world title he won in Shanghai last year when he cruised to a surprisingly lopsided victory in four minutes 05.18 seconds.

9. China's Wang Mingjuan extended a 10-year unbeaten international record to win gold in the first women's weightlifting event of the London Games, giving the Chinese female team a perfect start in their defence of four Olympic titles.

10. Wang, 26, eased to victory in the 48-kilogram weight division, lifting a combined total of 205kgs to the delight of the strong Chinese contingent in the 6,000-seat ExCel arena.

11. Mark Cavendish hit out at 'negative' riding from his rivals as Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov swept to victory in the Olympic road race.

12. Colombian Rigoberto Uran took silver with Norway's Alexander Kristoff coming home third to win the bronze medal eight seconds behind.

Ex.2. Quotes. Read, translate by memory (without consulting the text) and ask your partner to restore the initial phrase (he is not supposed to see the lines)

1. Sports do not build character. They reveal it. (Heywood Broun)

2. A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. (Wayne Gretzky)

3. All hockey players are bilingual. They know English and profanity. (Gordie Howe)

4. Wrestling is ballet with violence. (Jesse Ventura)

5. Baseball happens to be a game of cumulative tension but football, basketball and hockey are played with hand grenades and machine guns. (John Leonard)

6. Gold medals aren't really made of gold. They're made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts. (Dan Gable).

7. What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.(Ralph Marston)

8. A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.(Ayn Rand)

9. The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself. (Mark Caine)

10. Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later. (Og Mandino)

11. Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting. (George Orwell)

12. If only Hitler and Mussolini could have a good game of bowls once a week at Geneva, I feel that Europe would not be as troubled as it is.  (R.G. Briscow)

13. I think my favorite sport in the Olympics is the one in which you make your way through the snow, you stop, you shoot a gun, and then you continue on.  In most of the world, it is known as the biathlon, except in New York City, where it is known as winter.  ~Michael Ventre, L.A. Daily News

14. Men forget everything; women remember everything.  That's why men need instant replays in sports.  They've already forgotten what happened.  (Rita Rudner)

15. Sport is a theater where sinner can turn saint and a common man become an uncommon hero, where the past and the future can fuse with the present.  Sport is singularly able to give us peak experiences where we feel completely one with the world and transcend all conflicts as we finally become our own potential.  (George A. Sheehan)