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PROFESORES ASOCIADOS EGRESADOS DEL INSTITUTO SUPERIOR DEL
PROFESORADO EN LENGUAS VIVAS ‘Juan Ramón Fernández’
ADOLESCENTS 6
PAPER 1 / 09
Nombre: _____________________________________________________________
1. Read and answer
Chinese Athletes
One of the most famous gymnastics schools in China is a school in Shichahai in Beijing. At
this school, very young children are identified and then coached to become champions. The
children start this process as young as four years old, and their trainer is responsible for making
sure that those chosen are the best.
Each year, a team of coaches selects 150 four-year-olds from all the nursery schools in the
city of Beijing. They do not usually pick the child who jumps the highest or is the fastest runner.
They prefer to ask the parents, 'Is your son a little devil, does he misbehave?' Many parents
hurry to point out how well behaved their child is, ruining their chances of being picked. This is
because the coaches are looking for disobedient children as those are the ones with the extra
energy to offer. The school of sport in Beijing is therefore full of 'naughty and disobedient'
children!
In addition to this energy, the coaches are also looking for particular physical characteristics.
Gymnasts need to be short, slim children with straight arms and small joints. They all need to
be tough.
The first group of pre-selected children have to go through half an hour of really hard
physical tests to find out if they have the endurance they will need for training in the future. At
this point, many parents take their children home, but those who stay have the chance to
become champions.
The key to success is hard training sessions, discipline and absolute dedication from
childhood. Since the 1950s, China has produced champions and taken the lead in sports for
which they were, in the past, never prepared. Although the school in Beijing is mainly for
gymnasts, other stars and champions have been created there in the fields of table tennis and
basketball.
The training day starts for the gymnasts with students holding their legs and arms open for
30 seconds. The morning continues with two and a half hours of harder exercise. After eating,
they go back to training with hundreds of repeated exercises on apparatus, jumping on the mat
and acrobatic stretching. All the apparatus have been made smaller so that the children can
train properly. At the end of the day, these 'naughty' children just want to go to bed quietly and
sleep. Maybe they dream of the medals they will win when they are older.
The school currently coaches more than 600 students in eight sports. About half of the
students pay their own way. The other half are the "professional reserves", who have all their
training, academic and accommodation expenses covered to the tune of about 30,000 yuan
($4,053) a year each. However, many parents, who are often restricted to a single child under
China's family planning rules, are only allowed to see their offspring at the weekends, but are
willing to put up with the separation in the hope of reaping the rewards won by Olympic
champions. While some top athletes receive deals worth millions of pounds, others have found
that spending their youth training to be sports stars leaves them at a disadvantage once their
careers end. Last year, Ye Qiaobo, a former Olympic speed skater and member of the Beijing
Olympic Committee, called for retired athletes to be given the same benefits as former
members of the armed forces.
1. What are the two basic characteristics coaches look for when selecting children for the sports
school? Why?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
2. What is the purpose of the first half hour of training?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
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PROFESORES ASOCIADOS EGRESADOS DEL INSTITUTO SUPERIOR DEL
PROFESORADO EN LENGUAS VIVAS ‘Juan Ramón Fernández’
ADOLESCENTS 6
PAPER 1 / 09
3. What does a typical day at school consist in?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
4. Why are parents willing to stay away from their children during the week?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
5. Why did Ye Qiaobo have to ask for retirement benefits for old age athletes?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
2. Fill in the blanks with one word only
Do you like sports? Or maybe you like ____________________ sport games on TV or in a stadium?
Probably, you know ____________________ every four years the best athletes from all
____________________ the world get together to compete in the Olympic Games. Perhaps you also
know ____________________ this important event takes place, or where the games came from, and
____________________ they are called the Olympics?
The home country of the Olympic Games is Greece. Ancient Greeks loved sport and
____________________ cities in Ancient Greece had public gymnasiums where people gathered
____________________ train and relax. One Greek city ____________________ known to be a very
important center of athletics. The city was called Olympia and the games, held there
____________________ four years, were so important in Greek life ____________________ they
were used as the basis for the Greek calendar. In the Greek system of telling time, the period
____________________two Olympic Games was called Olympiad.
All sport games in Ancient Greece, including ____________________ in Olympia, were part of
religious festivals. They were usually held to honour the gods. The games in Olympia honoured Zeus-the king of gods and all men. ____________________ the first day of the Olympics, sacrifices of grain,
wine, and lambs were made to Zeus. The events of the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece included
races, the long jump, throwing the discus and javelin, boxing, wrestling, chariot races, and horse
races, as ____________________ as poetry and drama competitions.
The Olympic Games were ____________________ important that all the wars between the cities
would stop. Special people--heralds--____________________ travel all over Greece and pronounce
the beginning of the Olympics. All the military actions had to be stopped so ____________________
people could journey safely to the Games. Unfortunately, people of the 20th century did
____________________ have that much respect for the Games. Instead of stopping wars, the Games
themselves were stopped ____________________ both World Wars.
All athletes competing in the ancient Olympic Games were naked. The word "naked" in Greek is
"gymnos," and this is where ____________________words as gymnasium, gymnastics, and gymnast
came from.
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PROFESORES ASOCIADOS EGRESADOS DEL INSTITUTO SUPERIOR DEL
PROFESORADO EN LENGUAS VIVAS ‘Juan Ramón Fernández’
ADOLESCENTS 6
3.
PAPER 1 / 09
Put the verbs in brackets in the right tense. When you see a + use a modal
In Ancient Greece, to be naked was not anything ____________________ (be) ashamed of. It was a
way for the athletes to show how hard they ____________________ (train) and practicing.
All Greek men who ____________________ (be) free citizens and ____________________ (not
commit) murder had the right ____________________ (take) part in the Olympic Games. Women
____________________ (forbid) not only from competing but even watching the games! If a woman
____________________ (find) in a stadium she ____________________ (+ killed) by being thrown off
a cliff.
This rule ____________________ (break) only once by a woman whose father, brother, and husband
were the Olympic champions. For many years before he was old enough to participate in the games,
she ____________________ (train) her son ____________________ (prepare) him for the games.
They ____________________ (work) very hard for a long time and she thought, “If only they
____________________ (let) me go into the stadium and see him just this once!” So she thought of a
plan: she cut her hair short, put on men's clothing and went to see him in the stadium. She
____________________ (stand) next to other coaches when her son ____________________ (name)
a champion. Overwhelmed by her feelings she ran toward him. She ___________________ (+ realise)
it was a mistake! Her clothes fell off, and everybody ____________________ (+ see) she was a
woman. If she hadn’t been a daughter, sister, wife, and now mother of Olympic champions, they
____________________ (punish) her. Luckily they ____________________ (not do), but since then,
another rule for the games was applied--not only all athletes ____________________ (+ be) naked,
but also everyone in the stadium!
4. Dialogue
Complete the following interview with an Olympic athlete
In:
JJ:
In:
JJ:
In:
JJ:
In:
JJ:
In:
JJ:
This is Jayson Jones. One of the most important Olympic runners today. He´s here to tell us
his story. Tell us, Jayson ______________________________________________________?
When I finished high school, I enrolled in Florida University. I was hoping to play in the
football team, but the coach told me that I would probably have to sit on the bench for
three or four years. So I decided to dedicate myself fully to running instead.
Are you happy about the decision you made?
I was very doubtful about running because ________________________________________
__________________________________________. Anyway, I think I made the right choice.
Your parents are from Cuba, and you still have family there. ________________________
________________________________________________________of training there at all?
I have an uncle in Cuba who trains cycling, and he once asked me if I __________________
___________________________________________________________________for their
team. I ________________________________________________________________ that I
was tempted at one point, but then I realized that I would have to give up too many things.
So I stayed in the USA.
__________________________________________________________________________?
I first took part in the Central American Olympic Games in 1997. It was a wonderful
experience!
________________________________________________________________train in
between games?
I do a lot of preventive training like physiotherapy. I also see a nutritionist and even a
psychologist. I call it pre-habilitation, ____________________________________________
better than re-habilitation after something goes wrong.
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PROFESORES ASOCIADOS EGRESADOS DEL INSTITUTO SUPERIOR DEL
PROFESORADO EN LENGUAS VIVAS ‘Juan Ramón Fernández’
ADOLESCENTS 6
In:
JJ:
PAPER 1 / 09
You’re already 30 years old. ____________________________________________________
retire soon?
Age is only a number. I’m in better shape now than I was when I was 20. I wasn’t able to
attack the training the way I can now. Besides, as I always tell my friends, I won’t always
have my youth, but ________________________________________________________ my
degrees, so I have the opportunity to do things later in life that other runners won’t.
5. Composition. Write between 120 and 150 words on ONE of the following.
 “The sun was shining bright and the wind was blowing softly.” (beginning sentence)
OR
 The Perfect Place
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