My attityde to sport

Sport is very important in our life. We are introduced to it from the very first days of the life. When a mother puts her baby's arms left and right it is the first step to physical training. Then a child goes to kindergarten and has lessons in physical training. Every child likes to play games. When you are faster and stronger than your friends you win. So sport helps to build strong character. Many children start to go in for sport at the age of 7, 8, 9. They like it very much. Later some of them become popular. So we can say that sport helps to achieve success in life. For example, Oksana Babul from Dnipropetrovsk started to skate when she was three. When the girl was seven she won her first competition in figure skating. Now Oksana is only 17 but she is an Olympic champion and a very rich person. She worked hard and sport has helped her to achieve success in life despite all the difficulties in her young life. Also, there are young people who use cigarettes, alcohol or even drugs. If you go in for sport you will never do that and so you will be healthy. Sport helps you to understand life better. It helps to taste a sweet feeling of victory and teaches to lose with dignity; it helps to form new friendships and teaches you to be a true friend. So sport is very important for every young person and it has played a great role in my life.

Vocabulary

important – важливий

to introduce – вводити , представляти

faster – швидше

stronger – сильніший

to achieve success – досягти успіху

to build – будувати

figure skating – фігурне катання

to work hard – важко працювати

rich person – багата людина

despite – незважаючи

all difficulties – всі труднощі

to understand life better – зрозуміти життя краще

sweet feeling – солодке почуття

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE OLYMPIC GAMES?

The history of the Olympic Games dates back to Ancient Greece. According to the legend Hercules was the founder of the first Olympic Games. An athletic festival with competitions in music and poetry began to attract the Greeks in the 8th century. The year 776 BC was established by history as the first date of the recorded Olympiad. The Olympic Games were held every five years. People dated events by the Olympiads throughout ancient period. The athletes competed in running, boxing, wrestling, horse and chariot racing. The winners were given laurel wreaths. According to the rules established at Olympia all hostilities between warring states ceased for the duration of the Olympiad. The truce was universally respected and no Greek state could break it. In the course of time the festival became so popular that not only athletes competed for the crown of wild olive but artists, poets, philosophers, orators and historians, were trying to create immortal works dedicated to the unity and splendor of Hellenic civilization. The prestige and brilliance of the Olympic Games was so great that other PanHellenic festivals were instituted two centuries later - the Pythian (590 BC), the Isthmian (580 BC), the Nemean (573 BC), in honor of Apollo, Poseidon and Zeus respectively. The Olympic Games were held for nearly twelve centuries and were abolished in 394 AD by Theodosius I, the Christian Emperor, on the ground of their pagan origin. At the end of the 19-th century Baron Pierre de Coubertin revived them. In 1894 he addressed the International Congress of Athletes emphasizing the importance of sports in the peoples' life. The first modem Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896 to signify the succession of the tradition. Since then the Games have been regularly held in different countries of the world.