Page 80 - Studentr's Book_THINK 1_A2

TH!NK

The wonderful
I, world of sport

Culture

1 Look at the photos and answer the question. Then say
what you think the article is about. Where can you see
the following things?
• people climbing • camels
• a net • a chess board

cq>) 8 .06 I Read and listen to the article. Match the
pictures with the sports (1-4).

SPEAKING I Which sport do you like most? Which do you
not like? Compare your ideas with others in the class.

of sport

Sports such as football, tennis and golf are popular all
over the world with millions of people playing them or
watching them on TV. But there are also many unusual
sports that are not so well known. Here are four
interesting examples.

Every year, on a small Chinese island, thousands of people arrive to
celebrate a very special event: the Cheung Chau bun festival. The highlight
of the festival is a race to the top of a very strange mountain. The mountain
is made of metal and covered with a type of traditional Chinese bun.
Spectators watch as three teams compete to see how many buns they can
take from the mountain. The climb can be quite dangerous and people who
want to take part must take a special training course.

Camel racing is a popular sport in many countries around the world,
including Mongolia and Australia. But it is especially popular in the Middle
East and each year, from late October to early April, many big races
take place in countries such as the United Arab Emirates. As many as 70
camels race along sandy desert tracks for up to 16 km. The owners of the
camels drive by the side of the animals shouting at them to run faster and
cross the finish line before the others.

Chess boxing was the invention of Dutch artist lepe
Bossaball is a very modern sport that was first played in 2005. It started Rubingh. His original idea was to create a piece of
in Spain, but it was the idea of a Belgian man called Filip Eyckmans. He performance art, but it was so popular that it soon
wanted to create a sport that mixed together football, gymnastics, volleyball became a sport played in countries all over the world. The
and the Brazilian music of bossa nova. There are two trampolines with a net game is quite simple. Two contestants compete against
between them. The idea is for one team to hit the ball over the net and the each other at chess and boxing. Each round of chess is
other team to try and hit it back. The trampolines let the players jump very followed by a round of boxing with a break of a minute
high, making the sport very exciting to watch. The sport is already popular between each round to give the players time to put on
in many countries around the world, including Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, or take off their gloves. The first person to win either the
Singapore and Saudi Arabia. chess match or the boxing match wins the game.