Practice English Listening A2 Exercises – Topic: Sports and Competition

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1 F; Humans began playing chess nearly 1,500 years ago.

2 F; Garry Kasparov played a famous chess match against a computer.

3 T   4 T

5 F; A genius like Kasparov can think about three moves in a second.

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a first game   b second game   c second game

d first game   e first game   f second game

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1 a   2 b   3 b   4 b   5 b

Kasparov versus Deep Blue

Narrator:   Humans began playing chess in northern India nearly 1,500 years ago. But we only recently began competing against computers. Garry Kasparov is one of the greatest world chess champions in history. In the 1990s, he played a famous match against an IBM super computer. The computer’s name was Deep Blue. To play chess well, you need many different skills. But computers can only calculate numbers. Kasparov started the first game. An engineer from IBM moved the chess pieces for Deep Blue. A chess genius like Kasparov can think about three moves a second. But in that same second, the computer is able to process 200 million possible moves. Garry Kasparov played the first game very well. It took nearly four hours. In the end, the computer lost.

Commentator:   And Garry Kasparov has won the first game against Deep Blue in fantastic style.

Narrator:   But the second game was different. Kasparov tried to trick Deep Blue into a mistake. But the computer didn’t make a move. It was quiet for 15 minutes. It seemed like the computer was thinking. It wasn’t tricked. Instead, it made a great move of its own. This time the human was losing to the machine. Kasparov tried to escape, but he couldn’t. For the first time in history, a computer beat the world chess champion.

Commentator:   And Kasparov has resigned.

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a 2   b 3   c 4   d 1

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1 intelligent   2 hit   3 chess   4 boxing   5 (soft) tennis

6 street   7 money   8 break   9 six   10 hardest   11 feet

12 head   13 Malaysia   14 schools

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1 boxing chess   2 golf ball tennis ball  

3 a week 6 days   4 Indonesia Malaysia

1 2

Amina:   For my project I looked at some unusual sports that people play around the world. These aren’t team sports. Instead people compete to win individually. I’d like to start by talking about ‘chess boxing’. You may already know about the two sports. Chess is a game played with a board and different chess pieces. Very intelligent people often play this game because players need to think very carefully. Boxing is a totally different kind of sport, though. Being strong is more important because boxers have to hit each other. They wear gloves and helmets in the ring, but it’s still difficult. Now, chess boxing is a new type of sport, where the players do both activities. They start with boxing, sorry, I mean chess and then do some boxing, and they continue doing each activity back and forth – alternating. The person who wins the boxing match or the chess game first is the champion. One benefit of this sport is that it gives people a chance to compete physically and mentally. It isn’t just thinking or physical activity; it’s both.

Another sport that challenges people is urban golf. Urban golf is similar to normal golf, but you don’t need to go to a golf course. You get clubs and a golf ball – well, actually, it’s a soft tennis ball instead of a hard golf ball. Then you can play in the street, which is why it’s called ‘urban’. If you play urban golf, you don’t need to go anywhere special or need much money to play. You just agree where you want to hit the ball, for example, at a sign in the street or a rubbish bin. On the other hand, intelligent players know that you may break something if you hit the ball too hard, so they try to play fairly carefully.

Next, I’d like to talk about the Moroccan desert footrace, which is also called the Marathon des Sables or the Sahara Marathon. This race is held every year over a week or rather over six days. The runners have to be really strong. On the longest day, the runners have to run 92 kilometres. The best thing about it is that the champion can say he, or she, has won the hardest marathon in the world.

Finally, I’d like to look at sepak takraw. This is a type of volleyball and is very popular in Southeast Asia. The players use a different kind of ball and they can use their feet to kick the ball or hit it with their knees, chest or head. The sport began in Indonesia and it – no, not Indonesia – it began in Malaysia, although it is also very popular in Thailand and Indonesia. One good thing about sepak takraw is that it is now played in schools in many countries, including Japan and gets children to play sport.

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1   Now, chess boxing is a new type of sport where the players do both activities. They start with boxing, sorry, I mean chess and then do some boxing and they continue doing each activity back and forth – alternating.

2   Urban golf is similar to normal golf, but you don’t need to go to a golf course. You get clubs and a golf ball – well, actually, it’s a soft tennis ball instead of a hard golf ball.

3   Next, I’d like to talk about the Moroccan desert footrace, which is also called the Marathon des Sables or the Sahara Marathon. This race is held every year over a week or rather over six days.

4   Finally, I’d like to look at sepak takraw. This is a type of volleyball and is very popular in Southeast Asia. The player use a different kind of ball and they can use their feet to kick the ball or hit it with their knees, chest or head. The sport began in Indonesia and it – no, not Indonesia – it began in Malaysia, although it is also very popular in Thailand and Indonesia.

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1   Ian is against corporate sponsors because he just enjoys watching sport.

2   Andre is for corporate sponsors because he used to be a sportsperson.

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1 sport   2 make money   3 Five   4 training

5 participate   6 companies   7 amounts   8 employees

9 sign   10 countries   11 adverts

Ian:   Andre, I know you played in a university football team in the US, so I’d like to ask your opinion about something. Do you think the Olympic athletes, and other athletes, like football and tennis players, are too focused on getting money from companies? I went on holiday in the US last year and every time I turned on the TV, I saw a famous athlete in an advert for some product. Those athletes are getting paid a huge amount of money to be in adverts. It seems like the athletes are more interested in making money than in representing their countries. I think there is definitely more marketing and business in sport than ever before. As a long-time sport fan, I really think all this money and advertising from big companies is taking something away from sports and competitions.

Andre:   Well, I would say that all athletes, even the rich and famous ones, are still very focused on the sport. Without the sport, they have no job! And athletes who aren’t famous or are only a little famous, deserve to make all the money they can. Many athletes devote their whole lives to training. How can they live, work and pay for coaching all by themselves? Being an athlete, especially one who doesn’t get paid, is extremely expensive. The cost of training is really high and athletes need to spend a lot of time training to be good at a sport.

So big companies might give money to sports teams and individual athletes to help them train. In some competitions, like the Olympics, there are both professional players and amateurs – you know, people who do the sport as a hobby, and not as a job. I think both should be able to get support from companies. Look at Novak Djokovic. He’s a Serbian tennis player who is paid money by a clothing company to wear their clothes and be in their adverts. Other companies support him, too. Without all the help from companies, he might not have enough money to play tennis as his ‘job’. Having that time and money allows him to be such a good tennis player!

Ian:   But when a big company pays a team or an athlete, it makes them wear the company name and designs and they sign contracts… isn’t that really like being an employee and working for a company? To me, these athletes work in advertising and marketing!

Andre:   You have a point, but if the athletes don’t get good coaching, they might not score a lot of points and do well in competitions. If that happens, they can lose their chance to make a lot of money after the competitions are over. And actually, only about five percent of Olympic athletes get money from big companies to be in adverts.

Ian:   That doesn’t sound fair. Shouldn’t countries pay their own athletes a salary to train? After all, they do represent the countries. I read that in the UK, the government pays the country’s Olympic athletes to train, so there is less pressure there to get money from a company. Also, there are prizes for all the competitions and sometimes that gives them extra money.

Andre:   Well, a lot of countries can’t pay the costs for training athletes. And of course, the countries with lots of money can train their athletes very well. If companies are supporting lots of athletes, more people can participate in competitions.

Ian:   Still, I think all this money takes something away from the Olympics and other sporting events. We see adverts almost everywhere!

Andre:   But being in an advert is a great opportunity for the athlete and the business. If an athlete lets his or her face be on a cereal box or wears some clothing with a company’s name on it, people will probably buy the product. So it’s good for the company and the athlete gets more money to train. I also think that all the adverts at bit competitions like the Olympics or the World Cup help lower the ticket prices for fans, so the competitions don’t have to charge so much. It’s good for everyone!

Ian:   Hmm… I’m not sure if I agree with you, but I understand your point.