During the Olympic Games, people from all over the world come together in the peace and friendship. Some of these people complete for medals. Several million people attend the games, and millions of other people watch them on television.
Why do we have the Olympic Games? How did they begin? The first Olympic Games that we have records of were in Greece in 776 B.C. The games lasted one day. The only event in the first thirteen Olympic Games was a race. Men ran the length or the stadium (about 192 meters). Then, longer running races were added. Through the years, a few other kinds of events, like the long jump, were also added. During this time, the games were for men only, and women could not even watch them. In the year 393, a Roman emperor ended the Olympic Game because the quality of the games became very low. The Olympics did not take place again for 1500 years!
In 1984, Pierre de Coubertin of France helped from the International Olympic Committee, and the modern Olympic Games began. In1896, the games were held again in Athens, Greece. The Greeks built a new stadium for the competition. Three hundred and eleven athletes from thirteen countries competed in many events. The winners became national heroes.
After 1896, the games were held every four years during the summer in different cities around the world. In 1900, the Olympics were in Paris, France, and women competed for the first time. In 1908, in London, England, the first gold medals were given to winning athletes. Before that time, the winners received only silver and bronze medals. The Olympic flag was first introduced in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium. The flag has five rings on it. The rings represent the continents of Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South American. Each ring is a different color – blue, yellow, black, green, or red – because the flag of each of the countries that compete in the games has at least one of these colors in it.
The Olympic Winter games began in 1924 in Chamonix, France. Athletes competed in winter events such as skiing, ice skating, and ice hockey. Today, the Winter Games take places every four years. The Summer Games also take place every four years, but not in the same year as the winter events. Both the Summer Games and the Winter Games must have at least fifteen events, and they cannot last more than sixteen days.
Until recently, Olympic competitors could not be professional athletes. All of the athletes in the Olympic Games were amateurs. Today, however, many of the Olympic athletes are professional who play their sports for money during the year. Some people disagree with this idea. They believe that the Olympic game are for amateur athletes, not paid professionals. Other people think that any one can play in the Olympic Games. No matter who the athletes are, millions of people throughout the world enjoy watching the greatest athletic competitions, the Summer Game and the Winter Games of the Olympics.
X (the three main ideas of the Reading) or O (not the three main ideas of the Reading
...... 1. The Olympic Games began in Greece with only one event.
...... 2. The winter Games and the Summer Games each have at least fifteen events.
...... 3. The Olympics have changed a lot since they began.
...... 4. Skiing is a winter event.
...... 5. The Olympic Games bring people together in peace.
Prince William is a member of the British royal family. He’s the Queen’s grandson and the eldest son of Charles and Diana. His brother’s name is Harry. Diana, their mother, isn’t alive now, but they have a stepmother, Camilla.
William’s wife is Kate Middleton. She’s originally from an ordinary family but of course, she’s now the Duchess of Cambridge and part of the royal family. Kate has a brother, James, and a sister, Pippa. Their parents, Michael and Carole, have an online business.
In some ways, Kate and William are a normal couple. They have friends from university and they have hobbies and interests too. For example, William loves football and Kate likes photography. In the winter, they go skiing together.
In other ways, their lives are very different from their friends’ lives. William is the future King of the United Kingdom and fifteen other countries too, including Canada and Australia. Kate and William have a lot of official duties. They help charities in the UK and Africa, they visit other countries and they meet important visitors to the UK.
The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting a baby, St James’s Palace has confirmed. All the members of the royal family and the Duchess’s family, the Middletons, are delighted: “The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Harry and members of both families are delighted with the news.”
The baby will be third in line to the throne, after Prince Charles and Prince William. A spokesman said the Duchess has been admitted to King Edward VII Hospital in central London with acute morning sickness and is expected to stay for several days: “As the pregnancy is in its very early stages, her royal highness is expected to stay in hospital for several days and will require a period of rest thereafter.”
6. Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, says he and his wife “could not be happier” after the Duchess gave birth to a baby boy, at 16:30, 22nd July 2013 UK time at St Mary’s Hospital, west London. William was present at St Mary’s for the birth. The young parents spent time with their son before telling the news to their families and the world. The Queen’s gynecologist Marcus Setchell, who led the team that delivered the baby, described the new arrival as “wonderful baby, beautiful baby”. A bulletin signed by him was taken by a royal aide from St Mary’s to the palace under police escort. The news has been since displayed on an easel in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace in line with tradition. A palace spokesman said the names of the baby would be announced in due course. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh are delighted at the news.”
Read the text 'The Royal Family' again. Are the sentences true (T) or false (F)?
...... Camilla is William’s mother.
...... William’s wife if the Duchess of Cambridge.
...... Kate is one of two children.
...... James is William’s cousin.
...... William is a football fan.
...... The King or Queen of England is also the King or Queen of Australia.
...... William and Kate’s son will be first in line to the throne, after Prince Charles and Prince William.
...... Kate gave birth to a baby boy, at 4:30pm, 22nd July 2013 UK time at St Mary’s Hospital.
...... William was absent from St Mary’s for the birth.
...... Few people in England knew about Kate giving birth to a baby boy.
_________________________________________ First of all, we need money to repair old roads and build new roads. We also need more to pay teachers’ salaries and to pay for services such as trash collection. Finally, more tax money is needed to give financial help to the poor citizens of the city. It is clear that the city will have serious problems if taxes are not raised soon.
Etiquette is the name we give to the rules for being polite in a social group. Business etiquette is important for people who often have to make new contacts and build relationships in their work. Politeness can also help to improve the working environment for people in the same office. Some cultures and situations are formal, which means that we have to follow rules; other cultures and situations are more informal.
Text 2 Office workers “admit being rude”
Most office workers say they are rude or bad-mannered at work. Two out of three workers regularly arrive late for meetings, most ignore emails and three out of four use bad language. In a survey of 1,000 workers, two-thirds say that pressure of work is the reason for bad manners.
Other common examples of bad office etiquette include ignoring colleagues and answering mobile phone calls during meetings. Using mobile phones in meetings is impolite and distracts others, research by the University of Surrey shows. If you respond to call when speaking to somebody, it means that the phone call is more important than the person, the survey said. If you answer a call during a meeting, it could mean that the meeting is not important.
Mr Jacobs, managing director of Office Angels, a recruitment firm say it is easy for people to forget their manners in the working environment, which is often very informal and very busy. Workers can forget proper etiquette such as introducing people at meetings, and this is often bad for working relationships.
Psychologist Dr Colin Gill believes that people are not as polite as they were twenty years ago. He said: ‘Courtesy is no longer something that is so much respected in our society.’ People think it is ‘stuffy to be polite or formal.’
Now some organisations are actually investing money in training their junior managers to be polite. Office Angels is encouraging people to arrive on time for meetings, turn off mobile phones and avoid bad manners at work is such a simple thing to do,’ Mr Jacobs says, ‘ and it can have a dramatic impact on improving your working environment and your relationships with others.’
The aim of the texts is to …………………………………….
A. reflect the fact of officer’s good manners at work with illustrations
B. encourage officer’s bad manners at work
C. reflect the fact of officer’s bad manners at work with illustrations
Most office workers say they are rude or bad-mannered at work. Two out of three workers regularly arrive late for meetings, most ignore emails and three out of four use bad language. In a survey of 1,000 workers, two-thirds say that pressure of work is the reason for bad manners.
Other common examples of bad office etiquette include ignoring colleagues and answering mobile phone calls during meetings. Using mobile phones in meetings is impolite and distracts others, research by the University of Surrey shows. If you respond to call when speaking to somebody, it means that the phone call is more important than the person, the survey said. If you answer a call during a meeting, it could mean that the meeting is not important.
Mr Jacobs, managing director of Office Angels, a recruitment firm say it is easy for people to forget their manners in the working environment, which is often very informal and very busy. Workers can forget proper etiquette such as introducing people at meetings, and this is often bad for working relationships.
Psychologist Dr Colin Gill believes that people are not as polite as they were twenty years ago. He said: ‘Courtesy is no longer something that is so much respected in our society.’ People think it is ‘stuffy to be polite or formal.’
Now some organisations are actually investing money in training their junior managers to be polite. Office Angels is encouraging people to arrive on time for meetings, turn off mobile phones and avoid bad manners at work is such a simple thing to do,’ Mr Jacobs says, ‘ and it can have a dramatic impact on improving your working environment and your relationships with others.’
