Sports in our Life

Sport is very popular in our country. It helps people to become strong and healthy. It is popular among young and old people. People all over the world are fond of sports and games.

Athletics is the most popular sport in Ukraine. People call it the queen of all sports. Athletics includes running and jumping.

The most popular winter sports are: skating, skiing, hockey. I like to skate and to ski very much. I can breathe fresh air. People enjoy shooting, hunting, figure-skating, ski-jumping, tobogganing. It’s so nice to go to the skating-rink on a frosty sunny day.

The children like to sledge in winter. I liked to sledge in my childhood.

The most popular summer sports are: swimming, rowing, cycling, track-and-field athletics, sailing, yachting. Various games, such as: football, handball, volley-ball, basket-ball, tennis are very popular too.

As for me, I like to ride a bicycle in summer. I like to play badminton, basket-ball, volley-ball very much. All these games help me to rest after my lessons or after a hard work. I like to swim in the lake in summer. I think that it is very useful for my health.

In my childhood I played hopscotch, hide-and-seek and other different games. I think that all these games were a little sport for me.

Now I try to do morning exercises every day. I visit my Physical training lessons at the College. We play different sports games there. We learn running, jumping, skiing there too. We have our Physical training lessons in the gymnasium. I enjoy my Physical training lessons very much.

I like also to play draughts, chess at home when the weather is bad.

Many students of our College go in for such kinds of sports as: athletics, gymnastics, tennis, volley-ball, swimming, boxing, football, basket-ball, skating, skiing, hockey, figure-skating and chess. They train themselves not only at our Physical training lessons, but also at sports schools or at sports sections. Many of them are very good sportsmen. They always take part in sports competitions which take place in our College. Our College basket-ball team took the first place in the competitions.

As for me, I do not take part in sports competitions because I am not very strong in running and jumping. But I like sports very much. My favourite kinds of sports are: volley-ball and figure-skating. I like to play volley-ball. I am fond of figure-skating. But I can watch it only on TV.

So, I can say that everybody must go in for sport to be strong and healthy. We must remember such proverb: health is better than wealth.

Sport helps people to keep in good health. If you go in for sports, you have good health and don’t catch cold. We must do morning exercises regularly.

 

Vocabulary:

to sledge – кататися на санчатах

hopscotch – гра в класи

hide-and-seek – хованки

 

Exercise 11. Answer the following questions:

1. What are the most popular summer sports?

2. What are the most popular winter sports?

3. What do you do during your Physical training lessons?

4. What kinds of sports do many students of our College go in for?

5. Where do they train themselves?

6. Where do they take part?

7. What games did you play in your childhood?

8. How does sport help people? Does it help them to keep in good health?

9. What are the most popular indoor games?

10. What are the most popular outdoor games?

11. What can you say about physical exercises?

 

Exercise 12. Which word does not belong in each group? Explain why.

Example: soccer, cricket, table tennis, rugby.

Table tennis - because the others are all played on a field or pitch.

1. swimming, skiing, sailing, canoeing.

2. running, motor racing, horse racing, sailing.

3. tennis, volleyball, badminton, baseball.

4. basketball, table tennis, rugby, cricket.

5. tennis, volleyball, basketball, American football.

 

Exercise13. Read and dramatise the dialogue:

A:What are the most popularsports in your country?

O:To my mind, football, hockey and chess.

A:And what kinds of sport do you go in for?

O:Well, as a matter of fact, I am fond of chess, football, basketball, tennis and a few others.

A.: Oh. are you? But what is your favourite kind of sport?

O.: Probably chess and football are the ones I like best.

A.: Shall we go to the football match next week?

O.: Sure. There will be a very interesting and important game. We really must go. What are the most popular sports in the UK?

A.: Cricket, boat racing, football, fishing, and swimming are the most popular in our country.

O.: Is fishing a sport?

A.: Yes. it is. Fishing or angling is very popular in the UK. There are over 1,000 official angling clubs in our country and their number is growing.

 

Exercise 14. Fill in the gap in front of each line with one of the verbs given in the
box:

1) How do we do these sports?

 

play	go	do

Athletics, gymnastics, baseball, chess, volleyball, tennis, football, ice hockey and cricket, windsurfing, sailing, motor racing, horse riding, swimming and jogging.

 

2) Where do we do/play these sports?

 

a board a field	a rink a court
a track a pool	a ring a pitch

 

1. On the____: tennis, volleyball.

2. On the____: athletics, motor racing.

3. On the____: ice hockey, speed skating, figure skating.

4. On the ____: swimming.

5. On the ____: cricket, baseball, soccer, football.

6. On the____: American football, cricket.

7. On the____: chess, checkers, draughts.

8. In the ____: horse riding.

9. We use____ to play baseball, ice-hockey and to do boxing.

10. We use___ to play volleyball and tennis.

11. We use ___to play tennis and squash.

12. We use___ to play ice hockey.

13. We use___ to play chess; checkers and draughts.

14. We use___ to play ice hockey.

15. We use___ to play cricket and baseball.

 

3) What equipment do we use to play these sports?