原版英语RAZ 教案The Olympics - Past and Present.pdf

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1、www.readinga-The Olympics:Past and PresentA Reading AZ Level W Leveled BookWord Count:2,178The Olympics:Past and PresentVisit www.readinga- for thousands of books and materials.LEVELED BOOK WRWZWritten by Katherine Follett and David DreierWritten by Katherine Follett and David DreierWritten by Kathe

2、rine Follettand David DreierThe Olympics:Past and PresentLevel W Leveled Book Learning AZWritten by Katherine Follettand David DreierAll rights reserved.www.readinga-www.readinga-The Olympics:Past and PresentPhoto Credits:Front cover:Wu Wei/Xinhua Press/Corbis;back cover:Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Co

3、rbis;title page:Solus-Veer/Corbis;page 3:reddz/123RF;page 4:Bettman/Corbis;page 6:Statue of Olympian Zeus on his throne inside his temple at Olympus/Private Collection/Archives Charmet/The Bridgeman Art Library;page 7:Exactostock/SuperStock;pages 9,18:Jupiterimages Corporation;page 10:Musser Remy/12

4、3RF;page 11:Mary Evans/SZ Photo/Scherl;page 12:REUTERS/Carl De Souza/Pool(China);page 13:Bernd Thissen/dpa/Landov;page 14(left):The Granger Collection,New York;page 14(right):Ace Stock Limited/Alamy;page 15:AP Images;page 16:REUTERS/Chris Stanford;page 19:REUTERS/Dominic Ebenbichler;page 20:Tom Fox/

5、Dallas Morning News/Corbis;page 21:REUTERS/Jerry Lampen;page 22:Chris Trotman/Duomo/CorbisCorrelationLEVEL WS4040Fountas&PinnellReading RecoveryDRA34Table of Contents To Be the Best in the World .4The Ancient Olympic Games .5The Olympics Revived .10The Olympics Evolve .14Todays Olympics .19Glossary

6、.23To Be the Bestin the WorldCitius,Altius,Fortius.These three Latin words,meaning“Faster,Higher,Stronger,”are the motto of the Olympic Games.Its natural for any good athlete to want to do better than his or her competitors.But in Olympic contests,winning means even more.Athletes who win Olympic gol

7、d medals are the best in all the world.Did you ever wonder where the Olympic Games came from?The Olympic Games began in ancient Greece and have a long history of promoting peaceful competition.Many cities around the world compete for the honor of holding the Games.Hosting the Summer Olympics or Wint

8、er Olympics makes a city part of the Games rich tradition.Mara Coln of Cuba throws to win the womens javelin final.She set a world and Olympic record of 68.4 meters on July 25,1980.The Olympics:Past and Present Level W56The Ancient Olympic GamesAncient writings say that the first Olympics took place

9、 in Olympia,Greece,in 776 bc,although many historians believe it was probably much earlier.The ancient Greeks actually held four different athletic competitions,one every year,each one honoring a different god.The Olympics was just one competition out of the four,which is why the Summer Games and Wi

10、nter Games are held every four years.The Olympics honored the king of the gods,Zeus,who lived on Mount Olympus.Because Zeus was the most important of all the Greek gods,the Olympics quickly became the most important athletic competition.The earliest Olympics included only short footraces.Over severa

11、l years,the organizers added other athletic contests until there were fourteen events in all.The contests included stadium sports and racetrack sports.Events such as footraces,boxing,discus throwing,javelin throwing,wrestling,and jumping were held in the stadium.The dangerous chariot races were held

12、 on a racetrack.Many of the athletes in those early Games were soldiers.Some Olympic events were similar to the sports used to train people for the armies of the Greek city-states.The ancient contests had rules,but they were not as strict as the rules of modern-day Olympics.For example,wrestlers cou

13、ld kick,punch,pull hair,and break bones.In the chariot races,the racers could knock over each others chariots and horses.Athletes were often seriously injured or even killed during the events.Map of ancient Greece around the time of the first Olympic GamesMediterranean SeaAegean SeaBlack SeaAsia Min

14、orOlympiaSpartaMount OlympusEretriaRhodesCorinthArgosThebesAncient GreeceItalyDelphiCreteAthensIonian SeaGreek areas Other lands Greek city-statesThe statue of Zeus inside the temple at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.The Olympics:Past and Present Level W78Thousands of spec

15、tators traveled from all across Greece to see the ancient Games at Olympia.The athletes,who trained for months or even years,were treated like heroes when they won.The only official prize for the winner of each event was an olive branch from a sacred tree.But the winners achieved fame and were honor

16、ed throughout Greece.Olympic champions were often given money by their hometowns to celebrate their victories.They were also freed for life from the burden of paying taxes.The ancient Games were an important source of business for many Greeks.People provided visitors with food,supplies,and places to

17、 stay.Because so many people came from all over Greece during the Games,Olympia was a good place to hold business meetings and family reunions.The Olympic grounds had many resources for visitors to use.In addition to the buildings for sporting events,a fine hotel,a swimming pool,a sauna,a marketplac

18、e,and a bank were available.For some people,the Olympics also had religious importance.The Olympic grounds were home to a temple with a huge gold-and-ivory statue of Zeus.Some people enjoyed the public ceremonies of the Games,including the parade,or procession,of all the athletes and officials.Many

19、people attended a large ceremony honoring Zeus and a celebration feast.But most importantly,the Olympic Games were times of peace in Greece.During every Olympics,a strictly enforced truce guaranteed that no fighting took place between any of the Greek city-states.The Games were a way for the city-st

20、ates to compete with each other peacefully.While the Games were being held,people could travel throughout Greece without fear of war.1234567stadiumto horse-racing trackAn artists image of the ancient Olympic grounds1 Gymnasium 4 Athletes living area 6 Temple of Hera 2 Swimming pool 5 Temple of Zeus

21、7 Bank and market 3 Boxing and wrestling areasThe Olympics:Past and Present Level W910The ancient Olympics were different from the modern Games in other ways as well.Only men were allowed to compete in the early ancient Olympicsadult women were not allowed to compete or even to watch.The Greeks did

22、allow young girls to watch the Games,though.Eventually,the Greeks created a separate womens athletic festival in 470 bc to honor the goddess Hera,the wife of Zeus.The ancient Olympic Games were popular for hundreds of years.Even after the Roman Empire conquered Greece in 146 bc,the Games continued.B

23、ut in ad 393,the Roman emperor Theodosius(thee-uh-DOH-shee-us),a Christian,ended them.He stopped all festivals,including the Olympics,that honored the old Greek gods.Olympia and the Olympic grounds were abandoned.After hundreds of years of neglect,war,earthquakes,and floods,the ancient Olympic groun

24、ds were buried under rubble and forgotten.The Olympics RevivedAlthough the site of the ancient Olympics was lost,the legends remained.Stories about the Games continued to interest historians more than a thousand years after the Games ended.In the 1700s,archaeologists began searching for the Olympic

25、grounds.By the 1890s,they had uncovered most of the major buildings at Olympia.A Frenchman named Pierre de Coubertin (duh coo-bair-TAHN)was interested in the ancient Olympics.He liked the idea that the ancient Greek people had used sports to compete peacefully instead of going to war.Coubertin wante

26、d to start a new Olympics as a worldwide sporting contest.People loved the idea,so Coubertin formed the International Olympic Committee,or IOC,in 1894.Ruins of the stadium entrance built around 200 bc in Olympia,GreeceSome of the ancient footraces required runners to carry heavy shields.The Olympics

27、:Past and Present Level W1112Coubertin decided that the modern Olympics should celebrate the love of sports.He didnt want athletes to compete out of a desire for money.So,like the ancient Olympics,the modern Olympics would give out a simple prize rather than money or goods.The IOC also made a rule t

28、hat professional athletesthose who made money from competing in their sportscould not participate in the Games.Greece,home of the ancient Olympics,hosted the first modern Olympics in 1896.Thousands of proud Greek citizens crowded into the rebuilt stadium to watch.Two hundred athletes from fourteen c

29、ountries took part in the Games.As in the ancient Olympics,only men could compete in these Games.Athletes competed in track and field(running,jumping,and throwing),tennis,weightlifting,cycling,wrestling,swimming,and gymnastics.The winner of each event received an olive branch,a certificate,and a sil

30、ver medal.The mens weightlifting winners receive their medals at the 1936 Games in Berlin,Germany.Athletes run in the mens marathon during the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing,China.The Olympics:Past and Present Level W1314The next two Olympics,in Paris(1900)and St.Louis(1904),were less successful.The h

31、ost cities did not build Olympic grounds or“villages,”so the athletes had poor housing and equipment.Many outdoor events were delayed or canceled because of bad weather.The Games did not include any official womens events,even though women began competing unofficially in 1900.The early Games were no

32、t well advertised,so people took little notice and attendance was low.Organizers learned from their mistakes,however,and the Games slowly grew into the amazingly successful Olympics we know today.The Olympics EvolveIn 1906,at Games held during an off-schedule year,Olympic organizers revived the anci

33、ent tradition of an opening procession.Athletes paraded around the stadium behind the flags of their nations before the competition began.From then on,each Olympics included a colorful opening ceremony.The 1920 Olympics were the first to use the Olympic flag,which is white with five colored rings.Th

34、e interlocking rings on the flag represent the five settled continents of the world working together in peace.At least one color on the flag can be found on the flag of every nation.The Olympic flag is lowered at the closing ceremony of the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing,China.Posters for the 1900 Sum

35、mer Games held in Paris,France,and the 2004 Summer Games held in Athens,GreeceThe Olympics:Past and Present Level W1516The first Olympic Winter Games were held in 1924 in Chamonix(sham-oh-NEE),France.More than 250 athletes from 16 nations competed,including 11 women.The Winter Games in 1924 included

36、 speed skating,cross-country skiing,ski jumping,and ice hockey.The Winter Olympics were a big success.One of the female skaters competing in 1924 was Norways twelve-year-old Sonja Henie(SOHN-yuh HEN-ee).She fell during her race and finished last.But falling and failing at age twelve did not stop Hen

37、ie.She became one of the greatest athletes of the early Winter Olympics and one of the most famous athletes of all time.Henie won gold medals at the 1928,1932,and 1936 Winter Games.She went on to star in spectacular ice shows and in films.At the 1928 Summer Games in Amsterdam,the Netherlands,women w

38、ere officially allowed to compete for the first time.Following the Amsterdam Games,the number of sports in which women could compete kept growing.The first Olympic torch was lit in 1928.In 1936,the tradition of running the torch relay began.To honor the origin of the Games,the torch is lit in Olympi

39、a using magnified sunlight.Runners carry the torch from Olympia to the new host city.The runners pass the torch as it moves through countries and across oceans.At the opening ceremonies,the final runner passes the relay torch to a special guest.This guest is often a former Olympic champion.The guest

40、 uses the relay torch to light the Olympic flame,which burns for the duration of the Games.American boxing legend Muhammad Ali lights an Olympic torch as part of the relay before the 2002 Olympics.Ali won a gold medal in the 1960 Games in Rome,Italy.Norwegian skater Sonja HenieThe Olympics:Past and

41、Present Level W1718In the 1960s,the Games began to be broadcast on television,and advertisers began placing their logos on Olympic equipment.The IOC still raises large sums of money for the Games by allowing companies to use the Olympic logo on their products,such as cereals and candy bars.The IOC a

42、lso decides which sports will be allowed in the Olympics.The total number of Olympic events keeps growing as more sports become popular.For example,snowboarding has been included since the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano,Japan.For the 2008 Games,the IOC cut womens boxing and added open-water swimming an

43、d womens steeplechase.After the 1992 Games,IOC officials decided to start holding the Summer Games and Winter Games in different years,two years apart.The 1994 Winter Games held in Lillehammer,Norway,were followed by the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta,Georgia.IOC officials slowly relaxed the rules tha

44、t kept professional athletes out of the Games.This change came about in part because many countries train their Olympic athletes as if they were professionals.Everyone hopes the Olympics will always be peaceful.But war and politics have sometimes interfered.Three Olympics were canceled because of Wo

45、rld Wars I and II.At the 1936 Berlin Olympics,the ruling Nazis wanted to prove that white Germans were a superior race of people.They spent millions of dollars promoting their racist ideas and their athletes.But their plans were upset by the amazing gold-medal performance of runner Jesse Owens,an Af

46、rican American.In 1972,terrorists kidnapped nine athletes from Israels Olympic team.Seventeen people were killed in the kidnapping and in the failed rescue attempt.At the 1996 Games,one person was killed and over one hundred people were injured when a bomb exploded at a concert.Jesse Owens set sever

47、al world records and became famous as a college track star before competing in the Olympics.The Olympics:Past and Present Level W1920Todays OlympicsThe Olympics have changed in many ways since they were revived in 1896.The Games have grown into a huge spectacle and have become enormously competitive

48、.Training to be in the best condition is a full-time job.Most early gold-medal winners would not be able to qualify for a modern Olympics.For example,in 1924,the winner of the mens 50-kilometer (31 mi)cross-country ski race finished in 3 hours and 45 minutes.In 2006,the winner of the same event fini

49、shed in just over 2 hours and 6 minutes.In order to compete at the Olympic level today,athletes must train harder than ever before.To be contenders for medals,Olympic athletes must use the latest equipment and find the best trainers and sponsors.Athletes often begin their training at an early age.Th

50、ese athletes devote a great deal of personal time to improving their skills.Many countries maintain special Olympic training centers to support athletes during their training process.Olympic competition is so strong that some athletes cheat.They think they need even more of an edge than nature and t