Lesson 6 The sporting spirit

Key to Comprehension

Possible answers

1  International sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred because nearly all sports
nowadays are competitive: you must do your utmost to win.

2  When they watch international sporting contests, spectators believe that the
different sports are tests of national virtue.

Key to Vocabulary

A possible answer

I was amazed when she told me she was 15: I thought she was about 20.

If there's enough goodwill on both sides, we should be able to solve the dispute.

I have no inclination to spend my holidays at home doing nothing.

From all the clues, the detective was able to deduce who had committed the murder.

You must do your utmost to make sure that everyone has all the details of the
conference weekend.

Whatever you may think, there is still a lot of prestige attached to being a doctor or a
lawyer.

The man felt completely disgraced when his teenage son was arrested.

What was significant about the man's behaviour was that it was out of character.

Key to Sentence structure

4  The author clearly thinks that competitive sports, especially at an international

level, are little more than mock warfare and that they are dangerous to both players and
spectators.
  

Key to KS Exercises

1 possible answer

1  Briefly revise the three main conditional structures:

A. you will probably play with a lot of aggression

B.  go out every evening, we would go to our favourite restaurant

C.  had more time

D.  practise every day

2  When there is a reference to the future, the form of any verb in a clause after if,
when, as soon as, after, until, when is almost always the present simple.

1 makes  2 stop  3 arrives  4 stops  5 move

3  See text.

Special difficulties

1  Hear means to ‘receive sounds through your ears’: Speak up. I can't hear what
you're saying.

Listen means to ‘give attention while hearing’:I like listening to jazz.

2  We use even (adverb) to express something unexpected or surprising: Even the

younger children enjoyed the concert, so I'm sure the older ones did too.

Still (adverb) means ‘up to now and at this moment’: She's still watching the film, so
I suppose she's enjoying it. It can also mean ‘in spite of that’, as in: I know he's admitted
putting the money back, but that still doesn't explain how it came to be missing in the
first place.

3  The verb lead means to ‘go first and show the way’: She led us to the small
church by the lake.
 The verb guide means to ‘go with someone to show them the way and explain
things’: The woman guided us around the big house.

4  Principle and principal: these two nouns are pronounced exactly the same, but the
meanings are completely different.

A principle is a basic rule: It's one of my principles never to lend my car to anyone.

A principal is the head of a school or college: He has just become principal of the
local college.

The adjective principal means ‘highest in importance; chief; main’, as in His

principal source of income comes from acting.

5  The words practise and practice are often confused. They are both pronounced in
the same way.

However, in British English, practise is the verb, and practice is the noun: He
practises the piano for two hours a day. The basketball practice lasted two hours.

In American English, practice is both a noun and a verb.

6  In the context of sport, you can win a game, a match, a competition, a prize, etc.:
Our team won a silver cup.

Beat means to ‘defeat, or do better than’ an opponent: She always beats me at chess.

Look: Our team beat the best team in France to win the competition.

However, win (not beat) can also be used intransitively: Who won? Tottenham won.

7  Lose /luz/ is a verb which means, in the text, ‘not win’: Our football team lost
again last Saturday.

Loose /lus/ is an adjective which means ‘not firmly fixed’: The screws holding the
shelf brackets are very loose. Can you tighten them?

8  Arise is an intransitive verb meaning to ‘happen, occur, come into being’: An

unexpected difficulty has arisen which will necessitate a change of plan.

Arouse is a transitive verb meaning ‘cause to become active’: The children's

behaviour at the back of the class aroused the curiosity of the teacher. (Arouse meaning
to ‘wake someone up’ is very formal.)
 9  A level is a position of height in relation to a flat surface, literally or figuratively:
The top of the mountain is at least a kilometre above sea level. This question will have to
be discussed at the highest level.

As a noun, and compared with level, flat means ‘ground level’: That horse is a good
runner on the flat.

………………………………………………………………..

2.  The word people can be used in two ways.

As a plural noun it means ‘persons, human beings’: Most people seem to like her.

However, as a countable noun, a people means ‘a race, nation’ ---- so plural peoples
in the sentence means ‘races, nations’.

There were about 600 people at the concert.

If only the peoples of the world all spoke the same language!

3.  We often use the following adjectivally: years (the 1914-1918 War = the War
that lasted from 1914 to 1918), special festivals (the Easter parade = the parade that takes
place at Easter), seasons (the winter resorts we visited = the resorts where people go in
winter) and times (the 8 o'clock bus = the bus that leaves at 8 o'clock).

1 the four o'clock train  2 the 1937 edition  3 The 1944 Education Act  4 The 1917
revolution

4.  One and you can both be used as an indefinite pronoun meaning

‘everyone/anyone’ in general statements.

One is formal, while you is informal and preferred in everyday speech:

One might try to discover more about the project before investing money.

Whichever supermarket you go into nowadays, you'll find basically the same things.

5.  1 for enjoyment  2 pleasure, amusement  3 without meaning any harm  4 laughed
at/ridiculed