WINTER SPORTS

Worksheet

Ex.1. Look at the photos and describe what’s happening. Use the key words to help you.

Alpine skiing (downhill, slalom), cross-country skiing, extreme skiing, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, ice skating, ski jumping, snowboarding.

Ex. 2. Speaking

1. Are winter sports popular in our country? Which ones?
2. Are there any famous winter sports people?
3. Which winter sports do you like watching on TV?

Ex. 3.

Read the encyclopedia extracts (1-6) and match them with these headings. There is one extra heading.

• Snowboarding
• The history of skiing
• Ski jumping
• Ice hockey
• Extreme skiing
• Winter Olympics
• Freestyle skiing

1. This spectacular sport was invented by the Norwegian, Sondre Norheim, in the 1840s and the first competitions were held in the 1960s. Jumpers fly through the air at up to 100 kph and spend several seconds literally flying.

2. The oldest skis were found in Sweden and are around 5,000 years old. Skis have been used in Scandinavia for transport and hunting since prehistoric times. One of the first cross-country ski races was held in 1843 in Norway. Alpine skiing was developed in the late 19th century in Switzerland. The first Alpine race was organised in 1911 by Sir Arnold Lunn and many of his rules for competitions have been used since then.

3. This is a challenging recreational activity using an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other bodies of water. This is usually done on white water or different degrees of rough water, in order to thrill and excite the raft passengers. The development of this activity as a leisure sport has become popular since the mid-1970s.

4. The games have been held since 1924 and they are organised in ski resorts around the world every four years. The record for gold medals is held by Bjorn Daehlie of Norway (8 medals). The youngest medal winner is speed skater Yoon-mi Kim of Korea at the age of 13.

5. This was started in the 1960s but has not been made an Olympic event because it is so dangerous. It involvesskiing down some of the most dan­gerous places in the mountains and is only done by a few people. The definition of the sport is: 'If you fall, you die.'

6. This was developed from surfing and skateboarding and was the fastest-growing winter sport of the 1980s and 1990s. It was made an Olympic event at Nagano in 1998.

Ex. 5. Presentation: The Passive

Look at the encyclopedia extracts again and complete the sentences below.

7. Read this sentence from extract 1. What information do the underlined words give you?

This sport was invented by the Norwegian, Sondre Norheim.

Find more expressions like this in the extracts.

Practice

8 Complete the text and put the verbs in brackets in the correct Passive tense.