MUNICIPAL  EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION «SHAKHOVSKAYA GYMNASIUM»

SPORT IN OUR LIFE

Report in English

Made by Fedorov Innokentii

10^th “A” Form

The teacher Kolesnikova Lyudmila Pavlovna

Shakhovskaya

2017

Муниципальное бюджетное общеобразовательное учреждение 

«Шаховская гимназия»

СПОРТ В НАШЕЙ ЖИЗНИ

Реферат

Выполнил: Федоров Иннокентий,

                                                         ученик 10 а класса.

                                                         Руководитель:

                                                         Колесникова Людмила Павловна,                                                          учитель английского языка.

г.о. Шаховская

2017

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 

CHAPTER 1.  KEY FACTS OF SPORT

•      Etymology

•      Usage and Definition

•      Rules and Records

•      Sport Categories

•      History

•      Present-day kinds of sport

CHAPTER 2. MIND SPORTS

•      Draugts

•      Chess

•      Billiard sports        

CONCLUSION

LIST OF LITERATURE INTRODUCTION

                As       well-known       Cambrige       Dictionary       says,       “Sport       is

all types of physical activity that people do to keep healthy or for enjoyment”

Sport (British English) or sports (American English) includes all kinds of competitive physical activity or games. There is also a number of non-physical activities, named “mind sports”.

In general, sport is a form to improve physical ability and skills of participants, from one side, and entertainment for fans and spectators, from another. The world's most accessible and practiced sport is running, while association football is the most popular spectator sport.

CHAPTER 1 KEY FACTS OF SPORT

Etymology

The word "Sport" comes from the Old French desport meaning "leisure", “activity that offers amusement or relaxation, entertainment, fun " (the 15^th century meaning) and later we can find the meaning “game involving physical exercise”. Other meanings include gambling; hunting; and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise. 

Usage and Definition

The singular term "sport" is used in most English dialects to describe the overall concept (e.g. "citizens are taking part in sport"), with "sports" used to describe multiple activities (e.g. "football and rugby are the most popular sports in Great Britain"). American English uses "sports" for both terms.

How can we separate a sport from other leisure activities? SportAccord^[1] (the association for all the largest international sports federations - association football, athletics, cycling, tennis, equestrian sports etc.) defines sport as a system of activities which are based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity. And also this organization recognizes five non-physical sports: bridge, chess, draughts (checkers), Go and xiangqi, and limits the number of mind games which can be admitted as sports.

In general, SportAccord's definition of Sport is the following:

•       The sport proposed should include an element of competition.

•       The sport should not rely on any element of “luck” specifically integrated into the sport.

•       The sport should not be judged to pose an undue risk to the health and safety of its athletes or participants.

•       The sport proposed should in no way be harmful to any living creature.

•       The sport should not rely on equipment that is provided by a single supplier.

Rules and Records

Sports are usually governed by a set of rules or customs, which serve to determine the winner. Winning can be determined in two ways:

-         by physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first;

-         by judges who are scoring elements of the sporting performance, including objective or subjective measures such as technical performance or artistic impression.

Records of performance are often kept. This information may be widely announced or reported in sport news. Sport is also a major source of entertainment for spectators.

Sport Categories

SportAccord uses following categories for its member federations' sports, and many of which fall into more than one category:

•       Primarily physical (e.g. athletics)

•       Primarily mind (e.g. chess)

•       Primarily motorised (e.g. Formula One)

•       Primarily animal-supported (e.g. equestrianism)

The inclusion of mind sports within sport definitions has not been universally accepted. Whilst SportAccord recognises a small number of mind sports, it is not open to admitting any further mind sports.

History

Artifacts and structures suggest sport in China as early as 2000 BC. Gymnastics appears to have been popular in China's ancient past. Monuments to the Pharaohs indicate that a number of sports, including swimming and fishing, were well-developed and regulated several thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt.

A wide range of sports were already established by the time of Ancient Greece and the military culture and the development of sports in Greece influenced one another considerably. Sports became such a prominent part of their culture that the Greeks created the Olympic Games, which in ancient times were held every four years in a small village in the Peloponnesus called Olympia.

Present-day kinds of sport

In our days we have more and more kinds of sports. There is an opinion that there are more than 200 000 kinds of sports. Some of them are very unusual and funny:

ü Chess Boxing -  chess and boxing, a combination that seems unlikely to be together in the same sport but is just what the name suggests: chess boxing. According to Wikipedia, chess boxing is a hybrid sport that combines the games of chess with the sport of boxing, alternating between chess and boxing after each round. While the name may not be completely original, chess boxing is a singular sport and the ultimate challenge that requires both brains and brawn like no other athletic competition. The winner has to be strong of both mind and body, playing a bit of chess between rounds of boxing. The game can last up to eleven rounds, starting with a four-minute chess round and followed by a two-minute boxing round. Chess boxing can be won by either knocking out an opponent, winning the chess game or by the judges’ decision at the end.

ü Underwater Hockey - It’s hard to believe that anyone could imagine a more dangerous version of ice hockey, but with the added element of potential drowning, underwater hockey make ice hockey look like child’s play. The rules of underwater hockey are quite similar to its solid counterpart; the only difference being that players use small plastic or wooden sticks to push a metal puck around the pool’s floor.

ü Quidditch,- The pastime of the wizarding world of the "Harry Potter" series, quidditch combines magic, athleticism, and a touch of violence. Given the sheer impossibility of the sport, you'd think there wouldn't be a real-life equivalent -- and you'd be wrong. There are enthusiastic fans of the series who just wouldn't let reality or the laws of physics stand in their way.

And so, these ambitious muggles created their own version of quidditch that might not have all the magic of the dramatic version but certainly isn't lacking for passion. Founded at Middlebury College in Vermont, the International Quidditch Association has grown in just a few short years to include hundreds of teams with a presence on nearly every continent. The game has the same rules and scoring system as the quidditch from the series, with one big difference: no flying.

ü Extreme Ironing - there is a way to get blood pumping while one irons. It’s called extreme ironing. All is needed to do is find the craziest way to iron clothes. If that means ironing clothes while jumping off a cliff or across a canyon, then so be it.

ü Frog Jumping - a competitive pastime for humans in which frogs are entered into competitions.

Another – extremely dangerous:

ü Scuba Diving - While scuba diving has become a common term, most do not know that Scuba is actually an acronym for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, which is used by a diver for breathing underwater. While it sounds wonderful, but it comes with its perils. If the ascent from a dive is too fast, it can cause decompression illnesses, which include bends, and can cause spinal cord, brain and lung failure. There is also the fear of being attacked by stray sharks or other underwater creatures.

ü Cave Diving, - Cave diving is an unusual sport which involves underwater diving in caves with at least partial water content. Besides the use of regular scuba equipment in specialized configurations, it uses a varied range of equipment, depending on the circumstances. Major hazards of this sport are caused my lighting failure and low visibility, which can lead to separation from the partner. Air loss is another peril, especially because one can’t just rise to the surface to catch air, or he might smash his head.

ü Base Jumping - is essentially parachuting. The BASE part is actually an acronym for Building, Antenna, Span and Earth, meaning cliff. These are the fixed structures from which individuals hurl themselves. Exciting as it sounds, speeding through the air with the wind running through the hair, it is lethal. Apart from the obvious risk of jumping from hundreds of feet above, there’s a chance of being thrashed by the wind. It is illegal in many countries, including in the US, except at organized events.

ü Heliskiing - It is not too hard to pick out from the name of the sport itself that heli-skiing has something to do with helicopters. Well, it is off-trail, downhill snowboarding or skiing, accessed by a helicopter. Passionate patrons of the sport even book a year in advance to leap onto snow on peaks far away from human inhabitation, and then ski down. They ignore completely the possibility of being stranded by weather change, or being killed by avalanche. The helicopter rides, too, are perilous.

ü White-Water-Rafting - White water rafting is a perilous outdoor activity in which an inflatable raft is used as a vehicle to navigate white water or other water bodies of rough water. The environment is varied, and brings new challenges to the participants. The wild waters pose the threats of tossing the participants, smashing them into rocks. The foot entrapment can entangle a participant if he falls off, making it difficult for him to dislodge himself easily. Common injuries include broken bones or twisted knees.

ü BMX - Bicycle motocross, or BMX, is a cycle sport, and there are special kinds of bikes, known as BMX bikes, which are ridden in this sport. While the sport in its basic form involves racing, its offshoots include bicycle stunts on vertical ramp and flatland. It requires the cyclist to perform a combination of acrobatics while he is astride the BMX bike. As the bikers strive to do a trick no one else has ever done before, they are likely to face injuries or even concussions, besides cuts, scrapes and bruises.

ü Ice Mountain Climbing - It is not too hard to comprehend that mountain climbing essentially involves the risky activity of climbing up and down the highest of natural rocks, i.e. mountains. Every element of this activity is risky. The climber can receive different physical injuries like twisted ankles, sprained muscles, torn ligaments, broken bones, back injury, concussion, or frostbite, during the heavy physical activities or from falls. Weather changes can be lethal, one can lose path easily, and deaths are quite common.

ü Big-Wave-Surfing - Big wave surfing is a discipline of surfing in which surfing maestros paddle into or are towed onto waves of the height of at least 20 feet. The most coveted crown is to ride an intimidating 100-foot wave which offers a prize a $100,000. Some of the biggest hazards of this sport include drowning and being pulled into the water by the current, or even have the head smashed against the hidden underwater rocks. It is also not impossible to get whacked by the gun, which is the surfing board.

ü Bull Riding - Bull riding is a rodeo sport, in which the rider mounts a large bull and tries to stay atop the bull, while it attempts to buck off the rider. This sport is considered a great favourite with the extremely macho men who like to boast about their high testosterone level and are ready to take on any pain for the sake of it. While the fall can cause severe injuries and concussions, the bull, which can weigh up to 1800 pounds, may trample the fallen rider. But, for some, beyond the pain and fear lies an art.

CHAPTER 2 MIND SPORTS

A mind sport is a game of skill where the mental exercise component is more significant than the physical.

As well as many board games, chess and card games, other disciplines that have been described as mind sports: speed reading, eSports (video game-based competitions), computer programming and cybersecurity wargames.

Draughts

Draughts (British English) or checkers (American English) is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and captures by jumping over opponent pieces.

A similar game has been played for thousands of years. A board looked like a draughts board was found in Ur (Mesopotamian ancient city-state) dating from 3000 BC. In the British Museum there are specimens of ancient Egyptian checkerboards. And there are also pictures of the Greeks playing a board game like draughts on artifacts from Troyan War.Sport

The World Championship in International draughts began in 1885 in France. It occurs every two years. 

Chess

Chess is a two-player strategy board game played on a white and black chessboard with 64 squares.

Each player begins with 16 white or black pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. Each of the six piece types moves differently. The most powerful is the queen and the least powerful is the pawn. The objective is to checkmate^[2] the opponent's king by placing it under an inescapable threat of capture. In addition to checkmate, the game can be won by voluntary resignation of the opponent, which typically occurs when too much material is lost, or checkmate appears unavoidable.

Chess appeared in India  before the 7th century (a minority view holds that chess originated in China.) The pieces assumed their current powers in Spain in the late 15th century; the rules were finally standardized in the 19th century. 

The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in chess.

The official world championship begun in 1886, when the two leading players in Europe and the United States, Johann Zukertort and Wilhelm Steinitz respectively, played a match. Current world champion Magnus Carlsen won the World Chess Championship in 2013, 2014 and 2016 (against Sergey Karjakin from Russia). 

Since the second half of the 20th century, computers have been programmed to play chess with increasing success, to the point where the strongest home computers play at a higher level than the best human players. The computer Deep Blue produced by IBM was the first machine to overcome a reigning World Chess Champion in a match when it defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997.

Current chess engines are able to defeat even the strongest human players under normal conditions. Whether computation could ever solve chess remains an open question. Billiard Sports

Charles Dickens wrote: “There are few more cheerful sights, when the evenings are long, and the weather dull, than a handsome, well-lighted billiard room, with the smooth, green surface of the billiard table; the ivory balls flying noiselessly here and there, or clicking musically together”;

Billiard sports (or Cue sports) - a game played by two people on a table covered in green cloth, in which a cue (= a long stick) is used to hit balls against each other and into pockets around the table.

There are three major subdivisions of games within cue sports:

•       Carom billiards, referring to games played on tables without pockets;

•       Pool, games generally played on six-pocket tables;

•       Snooker and English billiards, games played on a billiards table with six pockets called a snooker table.

Snooker mostly played in Great Britain. The players use 15 red and six colored balls.

Pool is more popular in the United States and uses 16 colored balls.

Russian pyramid, also known as Russian billiard or pyramid billiards, is a cue sport that has several differences from Western pool. It is played in Russia and also in countries of the former Soviet Union.

Differences from other billiard games:

•       Table: the same size preferred for snooker, but much larger than a pool table.

•       Balls: there are sixteen balls (fifteen numbered, plus a cue ball), as in pool, but the numbered ones are white, and the cue ball is usually red. The balls are larger and heavier than Western billiard balls.

•       Pockets: the corner pockets are only 4–5 mm wider than the diameter of the ball. The central pockets, however, are 14–18 mm wider than the diameter of the ball. This makes the game's mechanics like an oversized version of snooker, requiring greater precision to pocket a ball in such tight pockets than in pool, which has a much larger pocket size in relation to the balls.

There is an opinion that skill, not luck, is the only way to win in Russian billiard.

There are other variants that make use of obstacles and targets, and table-top games played with disks instead of balls.

Billiards has a long and rich history stretching from Mary, Queen of Scots and its many mentions in the works of Shakespeare. There were many famous enthusiasts of this sport: Mozart, Louis XIV of France, Marie Antoinette, Immanuel Kant, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, George Washington, Charles Dickens,  Theodore Roosevelt, Lewis Carroll.

Billiard was brought to Russia by Peter 1. The game became very popular and was even included in nobility educational program. There are many famous persons who played billiard and supposed this game very useful. Mikhail Lomonosov, for example, was one of the best billiard player in Russia in the 18^th century. Also Pushkin, Nekrasov, Turgenev, Tolstoy loved this game.

Billiards influenced science – math theory of billiards is used in dynamical physics.

CONCLUSION

The evolution of sport is connected to evolution of humankind. The more technologies come to our life the more kinds of sport appear (esports, robosports)

We can imagine that in the future we will have fantastic sports, even such as space football, spaceships racing or intergalactic chess.

LIST OF LITERATURE

1.     Cambrige Dictionary. Cambrige University Press, 2017

2.     The Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper, 2001-2017

3.     SportAccord official web-site (www.sportaccord.com/)

4.     Official web-site of the Olympic Movement (www.olympic.org)

5.     Official web-site of Russian Billiard Federation (www.fbsrf.ru)

6.     Encyclopedia Britannica – online version (www.britannica.com)

7.     Official web-site of World Chess Federation (www.fide.com)

8.     Great Soviet Encyclopedia – online version (www.bse.sci-lib.com)

9.     IBM Official web-site (www.ibm.com)