Unit 1
How Do People Treat Sport Nowadays?
Today sport gains more and more popularity. The reasons for people for going in for sports are quite different. The youth wants to look
slim and pretty. The middle-aged enjoy living a healthy life, the elderly wish to live longer.
Sport nowadays is a multi-billion industry and politics is greatly involved in it.
At the same time, physical training and sport abound in contradictions and problems, thus solution to them are heatedly debated. Is there,
for instance, a relationship between the number of athletes and champions? Whom does society need more: an Olympic athlete or just a well-
developed individual? And what kind of relations are there between big-time sport and the so-called sport for everyone?
Look through the introductory part and supply the English equivalents for the following Russian ones. Write them down.
o набирать популярность
o выглядеть стройным
o многомиллиардная индустрия
o изобиловать противоречиями и проблемами
o жарко обсуждать
o профессиональный спорт
Answer the questions:
1. Why does sport gain popularity today?
2. What are the reasons people go in for sports?
3. Why is sport considered to be a multi-billion industry?
4. Which questions are heatedly debated in connection with sport? Give possible answers to them.
The variety of sports is obvious. A sport can be defined as an organized, competitive and skillful physical activity, which
requires commitment and not to forget fair play. Each of the sporting activity is governed by a set of rules. There are a few
factors, which have a role to play, that includes physical capabilities, as well as skills of the competitor, to determine the outcome
of the sporting activity. In the physical activity, there is movement of people and objects, like balls, etc. Each of the games,
played all over the world has its own history of origin and these games have also come a long way from the time they started in
different parts of the world. With a number of sports played all around the world today and with the arrival of satellite television,
these sports are also watched all around the world. Hence, arises the question which are the popular sports in the world. It is very
much possible, that each individual will come up with his topmost popular sports in the world, depending on their favorites.
When we talk about popular sports the world over, it is imperative to understand, that some sports are played regionally and
are not well-known in all parts of the world. However, there are other sports that have become popular, as they are played in more
parts of the world. The popularity is decided depending on a number of factors, which include number of fans, number of people
playing the said game, worldwide facilities for the game, tournaments or matches held all over the world, merchandise used, etc.
Exercises
CHECK YOURSELF!
Use "play" with any competitive game that you can play, "go" with activities that can be done alone, and "do" with
groups of related activities.
Exercise 1. Decide between "do", "go" or "play". Sometimes the verb needs to be conjugated or put in the infinitive or
gerund form.
1. He used to _____ jogging every day when he was at university.
2. I love _____ a good game of chess from time to time.
3. She _____ gymnastics for over five years now.
4. This summer we _____ windsurfing every day on our vacation.
5. He's quite the athlete. He _____ basketball, baseball and hockey, too.
6. My wife _____ horse riding twice a week.
7. Why don't we _____ a set of tennis?
8. Some people think that _____ aerobics four times a week is the best possible way of keeping fit.
9. His idea of the perfect summer holiday is to rent a sailboat and _____ sailing between the islands of the Tuscan
archipelago.
10. He _____ athletics for his local track club.
We use many various types of equipment and clothing to play different sports.
Exercise 2. Decide whether the sport is played with the following types of equipment and clothing. Some of the words are
used more than once:
ball, puck, racket, stick, piece, paddle, gloves, board, bat, cleats, pads (knee-pad, shoulder-pad, etc.), clubs, saddle, suit
American Football: _____
European Football: _____
Tennis: _____
Chess: _____
Swimming: _____
Horse Racing: _____
Ice Hockey: _____
Boxing: _____
Volleyball: _____
Athletics: _____
Baseball: _____
Ping Pong: _____
Racketball: _____
Squash: _____
Golf: _____
Sports take place on/in all sorts of different areas.
Exercise 3. Decide whether the sport is played on/in the following areas. Some of the words are used more than once:
court, rink, table, course, field, ring, pitch, board, track, ring, field, pool
American Football: _____
European Football: _____
Tennis: _____
Chess: _____
Swimming: _____
Ping Pong: _____
Horse Racing: _____
Ice Hockey: _____
Boxing: _____
Volleyball: _____
Athletics: _____
Motor Racing: _____
Cricket: _____
Baseball: _____
Racketball: _____
Squash: _____
Ice Skating: _____
Golf: _____
