ptPjNrUiRy

Student B: Cover the left-hand column. Listen to Student A. Rephrase the in-

formation in your own words, using the cues listed and the introductory expres-

sions below. The first one has been done for you. Then switch roles after state-

ment 7.

* In other words, ...

* So, ...

* What you’re saying, then, is ...

* I didn’t quite catch that. Did you mean ...

8.The British Open Golf Championship is one competitions of the world’s leading tournaments.

9.For the greatest mass of the British public soccer

the eight months of the football season are more important than the four months of cricket.

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2. Read the text and answer the questions after the text.

The British are great lovers of competitive sports; and when they are neither playing nor watching games they like to talk about them, or when they cannot do that, to think about them. The British invented and developed many of the sports and games played throughout the world, interest and participation having increased as a result of improved facilities, more leisure time and widespread television coverage. Independent governing bodies draw up rules for individual sports, arrange events, select national teams and promote international links. Government assistance to sport is channelled through independent sports councils which award grants to governing bodies and administer a number of national sports centres. Many sports receive financial sponsorship from commercial organisations.

The game particularly associated with England is cricket. Many other games which are English in origin have been adopted with enthusiasm all over the world, but cricket has been seriously and extensively adopted only in the former British Empire. Cricket, a popular summer sport, is known to have been played as early as the 1550s, the laws of the game being reframed by the Marylebone Cricket Club, which was founded in the eighteenth century.

Professional cricket is played between 17 county teams, and international matches take place between England, Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.

Organized amateur cricket is played between club teams, mainly on Saturday afternoons. Nearly every village, except in the far north, has its cricket club, and there must be few places in which the popular image of England, as sentimentalists like to think of it, is so clearly seen as on a village cricket field. A first-class match between English counties lasts for up to three days, with six hours’ play on each day. The game is slow, and a spectator, sitting in the afternoon sun after a lunch of sandwiches and beer, may be excused for having a little sleep for half an hour.

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Association football, one of the most popular sports, was first codified and developed in England during the nineteenth century. The four national teams take part in international tournaments.

For the greatest mass of the British public the eight months of the football (soccer) season are more important than the four months of cricket. The annual Cup Final match, between the two teams which have defeated their opponents in each round of a knock-out contest, dominates the scene; the regular “league” games, organized in four divisions, provide the main entertainment through the season and the basis for the vast system of betting on the football pools. Many of the graffiti on public walls are aggressive statements of support for football teams, and the hooliganism of some British supporters has become notorious outside as well as inside Britain.

There are two types of Rugby football – the 15-a-side Rugby Union played by amateurs and the 13-a-side Rugby League played mainly in the north of England by professionals and amateurs.

Rugby football (or “rugger”) is played with an egg-shaped ball, which may be carried and thrown (but not forward). If a player is carrying the ball he may be “tackled” and made to fall down. Each Rugby Union team has 15 players, who spend a lot of time lying in the mud or on top of each other and become very dirty, but do not need to wear such heavily protective clothing as players of American football.

Golf probably originated in Scotland and the headquarters of the game, the Royal and Ancient Club, is at St Andrews on the east coast. The British Open Golf Championship is one of the world’s leading tournaments.

Modern lawn tennis originated in England in 1872 and the annual Wimbledon Championships, widely regarded as the most important of world tennis events, were first held in 1877.

Golf courses (together with the bars in their club houses) are popular meeting places of the business community; it is, for example, very desirable for bank managers to play golf. There are plenty of tennis clubs, but most towns provide tennis courts in public parks, and anyone may play tennis cheaply on a municipal court. There are cheap municipal golf courses in Scotland but few in England.

The modern form of hockey was started in the nineteenth century by the Hockey Association of England.

Boxing in its modern form dates from 1865 when the Marquess of Queensberry drew up a set of rules rewarding skill and eliminating much of the brutality that had characterised prize-fighting.

The biggest new development in sport has been with long distance running. “Jogging”, for healthy outdoor exercise, needing no skill or equipment, became popular in the 1970s, and soon more and more people took it seriously. Now the annual London Marathon is like a carnival, with a million people watching as the world’s star runners are followed by 25,000 ordinary people trying to complete the course.

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Rowing has a great history in Britain, beginning in some schools and universities. The rowing calendar includes the Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race, the Head of the River Race and the Henley Regatta, all held on the River Thames. Some regattas on the Thames have been spectacular social events for well over a hundred years, and today’s best rowers have had international successes.

Britain has a large number of sailing events, one of the world’s principal regattas being held each year at Cowes in the Isle of Wight. Other important water sports include swimming and windsurfung.

Cycling is a popular pastime, but few people take it up as a serious sport. Sailing and horse-riding are popular with those who can afford them, and some yacht races attract wider interest. Horse racing is a big business, along with the betting which sustains it.

Administered by the Jockey Club, horse-racing takes two forms – flat racing (from late March to early November) and steeplechasing and hurdle racing (from late August to early June). The best-known flat races include the five classics – the Derby, the Oaks, the Two Thousand Guineas, the One Thousand Guineas and the St Leger. The Grand National, dating from 1837, is the bestknown steeple-chase. Greyhound racing had a remarkable revival in the 1980s, and by 1988 it accounted for about a quarter of all gambling.

The most popular of all outdoor sports is fishing from the banks of lakes or rivers or in the sea, from jetties, rocks or beaches. Some British lakes and rivers are famous for their trout or salmon, and attract enthusiasm from all over the world.

The British do not shoot small animals or birds for sport, though some farmers who shoot rabbits or pigeons may enjoy doing so. But “game birds”, mainly pheasant, grouse and partridge, have traditionally provided sport for the landowning gentry.

Another sport, also associated through centuries with ownership of land, is the hunting of foxes. The hounds chase the fox, followed by the people riding horses, wearing red or black coats and conforming with various rules and customs. There have been attempts to persuade Parliament to pass laws to forbid hunting, but none has so far been successful.

Britain pioneered facilities for sports for disabled people; the world’s first sports stadium for the disabled, opened in Stoke Mandeville Hospital in 1969, is used for international sports events.

(From: “Sport. Пособие по развитию навыков устной речи”. C. 29–31)

Answer the following questions:

1.Why have interest and participation in sport increased recently?

2.In what ways is sport financed in Britain?

3.What game is particularly associated with England?

4.Where has cricket been seriously adopted?

5.How long does a first class cricket match between English counties last?

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6.Where and when was association football first codified and developed?

7.What are the highlights of the football season?

8.Why are British football fans often accused of bringing their country into disrepute?

9.What is the difference between soccer and rugby?

10.What are the two types of Rugby football?

11.Where did golf probably originate?

12.Where did modern lawn tennis originate?

13.Can golf be described as an upper-class sport? Why? (Why not?)

14.When and how did boxing in its modern form appear?

15.What is the annual London Marathon like?

16.Where did the history of rowing in Britain begin?

17.What important events does the rowing calendar include?

18.Which of the following sports could be described as the most democratic one – cycling, sailing or horse-riding? Why?

19.What activities are associated with horse racing and greyhound racing?

20.What is the most popular outdoor sport?

21.What is the British attitude to hunting?

3. Work in small groups of 3 or 5, take turns to retell the text, using the questions in Exercise II as a plan and switching the language from English into Russian, then back to English.

II.

1. You are going to read the article about bandy. Have you heard of this game? Have you played it? What do you know about it?

Read the article and find all the words and phrases (including opinion adjectives) that the author uses to speak of bandy. Then discuss the questions after the text with your group mates.

The Wonderful World of Russian Bandy

By Mark Adomanis

It’s hockey, it’s ice, but it’s not ice hockey. Welcome to one of Russia’s oldest yet least known sports.

One of the most ancient and traditional Russian sports – bandy.

The sport, which most closely resembles field hockey on ice, is said to have originated among the monks medieval Russia. As the rivers next to their monasteries froze, legend has it, the holy men took to the ice with sticks and a ball. Peter the Great was said to be an enthusiast, with the waterways of St. Petersburg offering a natural winter arena for the game, and the USSR was the driving force behind the establishment of a World Championship and an internationally agreed set of rules in the 1950s. Since then the USSR won 14 gold medals – including an unbroken winning streak from the first contest in 1957 through to Sweden’s success in Kha-

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barovsk in 1981 – with post-Soviet Russia adding a further eight and going for a hat-trick of wins this time after winning last year’s final against the Swedes. Not surprisingly, then, fans refer to the game as ‘Russian Hockey’.

To the uninitiated there can seem little difference between bandy and ice hockey. After all, both are team sports played on ice and both involve skating around with sticks trying to direct an object into a goal. But there are several crucial factors that place bandy closer to field hockey and soccer rather than its winter cousin. First, the playing area is much larger – closer to a football field than a hockey rink – and as a result there’s room to play 11-a-side on a field bounded by a low board that, unlike the boards on a hockey rinks, isn’t fixed. The goal lines represent the end of the playing area, so it’s impossible to go behind the net but it’s common to see attacks launched from set piece corners. It’s a limited-contact sport: there’s no checking allowed, and little scope for physical power to give players an advantage. By contrast, speed is the key physical attribute – the players wear long-bladed skates more like speed-skating gear than hockey books. Using a ball that rolls true at all times, rather than a puck that can bounce unpredictably depending on whether it lands flat or on its edge, also affects the dynamics of the game.

All this has an impact on tactics. With little scope to bounce the ball off the edges of the playing area and no way of simply barrelling over opponents, passing needs to be accurate and there are greater opportunities for players to demonstrate skilful stickwork. Games between well-matched teams can combine the fast-paced, end-to-end action of ice hockey with the sophisticated passing game of a leading soccer team.

The differences between bandy and ice hockey have also helped to inform the clash of styles between Russia and North America in the smallsides game. Ice hockey in the western sense only came to the USSR after the war: Dynamo Moscow set up the first team in 1946 as Soviet sports chiefs looked for a way to take on the west in a game that, unlike bandy, was part of the Olympic movement. But the spirit of bandy, with limited contact, an emphasis on accurate passing and individual flair and no option of ‘dump-and-chase’ play down the boards left a deep legacy on how the six-a-side game was played over here. The ‘tic-tac-toe’ passing game with which the Soviets bamboozled the hockey world, and the solo flair that characterizes the best Russian players in today’s NHL both have roots that can be traced back to the mass conversion of bandy stars to hockey players after World War II.

An unfortunate side-effect of that conversion was the loss of interest in bandy across Russia. The starts of the World Championships are some-

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times overshadowed by the on-going KHL play-offs. Attendances in the Russian Superleague, rarely reach the numbers seen at hockey games – partly because many teams still play outside in often painfully frosty conditions, but also because media attention is often elsewhere. Russia’s big games at the 10,000-seater Yerofey Arena in Khabarovsk may well get close to a sell-out crowd, especially when the old rivalry with Sweden is renewed, but it’s hard to imagine more than a few hundred fans arriving at many of the group stage games. A long-term lift might arrive if the Winter Olympics goes to Kazakhstan and the hosts make bandy a demonstration sport for the first time since 1952, but for now it remains a niche interest.

And that, for many Russophiles, is perhaps part of its charm. A game that is highly watchable, defiantly obscure and tied up with a set of local rituals and traditions is a far cry from the slick sporting entertainments that dominate so much of the modern mainstream.

(Abridged from: http://readrussia.com/2015/03/28/ the-wonderful-world-of-russian-bandy/)

2. Answer the following questions:

1.Why is bandy considered a traditional Russian sport? Why is it called “Russian Hockey”? What is the history of bandy in Russia?

2.How is this game played? How does it differ from ice hockey?

3.How does the author of the article explain the loss of interest in bandy across Russia?

4.What could contribute to the revival of interest in bandy in Russia according to the author’s opinion? Do you agree?

5.Do you think the author is fond of watching bandy? What makes you think so? Find the proof in the text.

3. Read more about the rules of bandy. Translate the Russian words in English. What rules of bandy are similar to football?

Like football, bandy is normally played in спортивныe таймы of 45 minutes each, there are eleven игроков on each team, and the bandy field is about the same size as a football поле. It is played on ice like ice hockey, but like field hockey, players use bowed клюшки and a small round ball. Two teams of 11 players each compete to get the ball into the other team’s ворота using клюшки, thereby забить гол.

The game is designed to be played on a rectangle of ice the same size as a football field. Bandy also has other rules that are similar to football. Each team has 11 players, one of whom is a вратарь. The правило оффсайда is also employed. A goal cannot be забит from a stroke-in or goal throw, but unlike football, a goal cannot be scored directly from a stroke-off or угловой удар. All free strokes are “direct” and allow a goal to be scored without another player touching the ball.

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The team that has scored more goals at the end of the game is the winner. If both teams have scored an equal number of goals, then, with some exceptions, the game is a ничья.

The primary rule is that the players (other than the вратари) may not intentionally touch the ball with their heads, hands or arms during play. Although players usually use their клюшки to move the ball around, they may use any part of their bodies other than their heads, hands or arms and may use their коньки in a limited manner. Heading the ball results in a пятиминутное удаление.

A variant of bandy, rink bandy, is played to the same rules but on a field the size of an хоккейное поле and with fewer people on each team.

4. Read the text below and say what other countries bandy has historical links with. Use the text to prove your answer. What other countries is bandy popular in?

Russian monastery records dating back to the 10th to 11th centuries record games which may be ancestors of bandy. A game that could be recognized as essentially modern bandy was played in Russia by the early 18th century, although the rules used differed from those invented in England at a much later date. In modern times, Russia has held a top position in the bandy area, both as a founding nation of the International Federation in 1955 and fielding the most successful team in the World Championships. Russians see themselves as the creators of the sport, which is reflected by the unofficial title for bandy, “Russian hockey” (русский хоккей).

The name “bandy” comes from Britain, which has played an important role in the sport’s development. Bando, a game played in Wales in ancient times, is similar to bandy. It was played throughout the country in varying forms and is still found in some areas. The earliest example of the Welshlanguage term bando occurs in a dictionary by John Walters published in 1770–94. The game became particularly popular in the Cynffig-Margam district of the Vale of Glamorgan where wide stretches of sandy beaches afforded ample room for play. As a winter sport, British bandy originated in the Fens of East Anglia where large expanses of ice formed on flooded meadows or shallow washes in cold winters, and skating was a tradition. Members of the Bury Fen Bandy Club published rules of the game in 1882, and introduced it into other countries. The first international match took place in 1891 between Bury Fen and the then Haarlemsche Hockey & Bandy Club from the Netherlands (a club which after a couple of club fusions now is named HC Bloemendaal). The same year, the National Bandy Association was started in England.

Old names for bandy are hockey on the ice or hockey on ice. Since the mid-20th century the term bandy is usually preferred to prevent confusion with ice hockey. The sport is known as bandy in many languages though there are a few notable exceptions. In Russian bandy is called “Russian hockey” (рус-

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ский хоккей) or more frequently “hockey with a ball” (xоккей с мячом) while ice hockey is called “hockey with a puck” (xоккей с шайбой) or more frequently just “hockey”. In Finnish the two sports are distinguished as “ice ball” (jääpallo) and “ice puck” (jääkiekko). In Estonian and Hungarian, bandy is also called “ice ball” (jääpall and jéglabda, respectively), although in Hungarian it is more often called “bandy”.

The first national bandy league was started in Sweden in 1902.

National federations exist in over 30 nations, including Afghanistan, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Belarus, Canada, Czech Republic, People’s Republic of China, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Somalia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the United States.

As a precursor to ice hockey bandy has influenced its development and history – mainly in European and former Soviet countries. While modern ice hockey was created in Canada, a game more similar to bandy was played initially, after British soldiers introduced the game in the 19th century. At the same time modern ice-hockey rules were formalized in British North America, bandy rules were formulated in Europe. A cross between English and Russian rules developed, with the football-inspired English rules dominant, together with the Russian low border along most of the two sidelines.

With football and bandy being dominant sports in parts of Europe, it was common for sports clubs to have bandy and football sections, with athletes playing both sports at different times of the year. Some examples are English Nottingham Forest Football and Bandy Club (today known just as Nottingham Forest F.C.) and Norwegian Strømsgodset IF andMjøndalen IF, with the latter still having an active bandy section.

Both bandy and ice hockey were played in Europe during the 20th century, especially in Sweden, Finland, and Norway. Ice hockey became more popular than bandy in most of Europe mostly because it had become an Olympic sport, while bandy had not.

(Abridged and edited from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandy)

5. What other traditional or regional Russian sports do you know? Which are popular in the country? Prepare a short report about any of these: lapta, gorodki, Russian Pyramid, sambo or any other traditional or regional Russian sports. Compare the sports with the help of the questions below.

In your report cover the following points:

–the origins of the game;

–the rules, traditions;

–the popularity of this sport (age, gender, geographical factors).

Which of the sports you have spoken about is the most popular one? Attracts the greatest media attention/ has the most complicated rules/ the longest history in Russia?

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III.

Jigsaw Reading

1. Discuss the following questions with your group mates.

1.What do you know about baseball and cricket?

2.What countries are they popular in? Are these sports popular in Russia? Can you explain the reasons for their popularity/unpopularity?

3.Have you ever played them? Have you ever watched them?

4.Why do you think many people find cricket and baseball incomprehensible?

2.Together look at the words and phrases below that are related to baseball and cricket, use the dictionaries and translate them into Russian.

Bat, batting, fielding, a mitt, a pitcher, a batter, an innings, foul territory/lines, a pitch, a wicket, a bowler, a fielder, a batsman, a kit, to score runs.

3.Now translate at sight the following chain of Russian-English words and phrases.

“Подающий” игрок; foul lines; воротца (калитка); batting; полевой игрок; a pitch; экипировка; mitt; подача мяча; fielding; игрок, отбивающий мяч; batter; подающий/мечущий игрок, bat, зарабатывать очки («пробежки»).

4.Translate the sentences, using the words above.

1.Игра в крикет проходит на поле, на торцах которого находятся дере-

вянные калитки.

2.В рамках каждой подачи мяча в крикете подающий игрок в поле команды бросает мяч игроку, отбивающему мяч в команде противни-

ка, через всю длину питча.

3.Крикет-один из национальных английских видов спорта, в котором используется бита и мяч.

4.Бэтсмен в крикете пытается отразить бросок таким образом, чтобы мяч достиг границ поля или улетел достаточно далеко от противников, что позволило бы бэтсмену перебежать в другой конец питча.

5.В случае успеха и при соблюдении некоторых других условий команда

бэтсмена в крикете зарабатывает очки, «пробежки».

6.В каждой отдельной игре участвуют две команды, которые по очереди играют в нападении и защите.

7.В бейсболе игрок команды, играющей в нападении, называемый

«бьющим», встаёт на поле, держа биту, обычно сделанную из дерева.

8.Бейсбольный матч не может закончиться с ничейным счётом, дополнительные подачи назначаются до определения победителя (хотя есть исключения, например, в Японии и Южной Корее).

9.Основой бейсбола является противоборство питчера и бьющего. Питчер должен подать мяч так, чтобы бьющему было сложно оценить его траекторию и, соответственно, отбить; однако при этом питчер не должен ошибиться и послать мяч вне пределов страйк-зоны.

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