Hang Gliding The Sport of the 1980s

Hang gliding, like windsurfing, comes from America. The person who thought of this sport, Francis Rogallo, got the idea when he was watching space capsules falling towards the sea. The capsules had a sort of wing which helped them to go more slowly until they reached the sea.

But this idea isn't as new as you might think: in the fif­teenth century, Leonardo da Vinchi drew pictures of a hang glider; it was a sort of kite which could carry a person.

The modern hang glider can go with the wind or against it, and the pilot can change direction by moving the control bar. Hang gliders rise and fall with the movements in the air — near lulls, for example, they usually go up.

All over the world, these giant butterflies are becoming more and more popular, as people discover the fun of flying. (From "Modern English International". Mozaika, 1984, No. 264)

b) What do you know of the kinds of sport which recently appeared! Describe them and say what attracts people in them.

XIII. Act out the following situations:

1. Two friends are talking after a football match. One is happy — his favourite team has won; the other is not as his team has lost the match.

2. Imagine a dialogue between two sports fans about their favourite sports.

3. A friend of yours claims to be an "all-round sports­man". Once you call on him and find him surrounded by a thick cloud of cigarette smoke. You have a talk with him.

4. It's Sunday afternoon. In a few minutes, there will be a football match on TV, while on another channel there will be a fashion show. Argument between husband and wife.

5. You are in the hall of your institute. You are an ardent athlete and like to get up at sunrise, at which your room-mate is grumbling. You try to make him do at least his morning ex­ercises.

XIV. Translate into English:

1. Я, кажется, знаю этого человека. Он был когда-то отличным бегуном, а теперь он тренирует молодых спортсменов. 2. Неужели правда, что он не принимал участия в игре на кубок? — Да, ему не повезло; накануне игры он слег с воспалением легких 3. Я едва мог поверить своим ушам, когда мне сказали, что команда нашего института выиграла со счетом 6:0. 4. Напрасно вы торопились. Соревнования не состоятся из-за плохой погоды. 5. Он был страш­но расстроен, когда ему сказали, что его команда проиграла. 6. Моя старшая сестра занимается художественной гимнастикой уже три года. 7. Я рад, что сегодняшняя игра закончилась вничью. Мы могли проиграть, многие из нас не в форме. 8. Соревнования по легкой атлетике еще не начались. 9. Кем был установлен по­следний мировой рекорд по ярыжкам в высоту?

XV. a) Translate the text into Russian:

The Football Match

Something very queer is happening in that narrow thor­oughfare to the west of the town. A grey-green tide flows sluggishly down its length. It is a tide of cloth caps.

These caps have just left the ground of the Bruddersford United Association Football Club. To say that these men paid their shilling to watch twenty-two hirelings kick a ball is merely to say that a violin is wood and catgut, that "Ham­let" is so much paper and ink. For a shilling the Brudders­ford United A.F.C. offered you Conflict and Art; it turned you into a critic, happy in your judgement of fine points, ready in a second to estimate the worth of a well-judged pass, a run down the touch line, a lightning shot, a clear­ance kick by back or goal-keeper; it turned you into a parti­san, holding your breath when the ball came sailing into your own goalmouth, ecstatic when your forwards raced away towards the opposite goal, elated, downcast, bitter, tri­umphant by turns at the fortunes of your side, watching a ball shape Iliads and Odysseys for you; and what is more, it turned you into a member of a new community, all brothers together for an hour and a half, for not only had you es­caped from the clanking machinery of this lesser life, from work, wages, rent, doles, sick pay, insurance cards, nagging wives, ailing children, bad bosses, idle workmen, but you had escaped with most of your mates and your neighbours, with half the town, and there you were, cheering together, thumping one another on the shoulders, swopping judge­ments like lords of the earth, having pushed your way through a turnstile into another and altogether more splen­did kind of life, hurting with Conflict and yet passionate and beautiful in its Art. Moreover, it offered you more than a shilling's worth of material for talk during the rest of the week. (From "Good Companions" by J. B. Priestley. Abridged)

b) Comment on the extract:

1. Explain the words: "To say that these men paid their shilling to watch twenty-two hirelings kick a ball is merely to say that a violin is wood and catgut, that "Hamlet" is so much paper and ink." 2. Explain the words: "For a shilling the Bruddersford United A.F.C. offered you Conflict and Art." 3. What, in the author's opinion, does football give people? 4. Do you agree with the author in that? What do you think about such games as football and hockey and the secret of their popularity?

XVI. a) Study the text and search for some arguments in favour of sport. Summarize the text:

How Healthy Are You?

Check your knowledge.

What sort of shape are you in? Are you the sort of person who goes for a run each morning, or are you the other kind who gets out of breath when reaching for a cigarette?

Maybe you have a lot of energy. You go to work or school, you make decisions all day, you do extra work at home. Exer­cise? You don't have enough time — why bother anyway?

Well, the answer to that question is your body design. Human beings weren't built for sitting at a desk all day: your body is constructed for hunting, jumping, lifting, running, climbing and a variety of other activities. If you don't get the exercise that your body wants, then things can go badly wrong. Your mind works all day, and your body does noth­ing: the results can vary from depression to severe illness to early death.

Not a very cheerful thought, and of course the natural reaction is "It's not going to happen to me." Maybe, maybe not. Here are two ways of looking after yourself: firstly, by seeing if you are doing the right sort of exercise, and secondly by seeing if you have the right kind of diet.

(From "Modern English International". Mozaika. 1984, No. 263)

b) Persuade your partner to start practising sport immediately.

c) Speak on: 1. the role of sport in modern life; 2. sport as part of school and college life.

XVII. Role-playing.