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  3. The History of the Olympic Games Introduction Today, the Olympic Games are the world’s largest exhibition of athletic skill

The History of the Olympic Games Introduction Today, the Olympic Games are the world’s largest exhibition of athletic skill

admin2009-04-23  55
问题                               The History of the Olympic Games
Introduction
    Today, the Olympic Games are the world’s largest exhibition of athletic skill and competitive spirit. They are also displays of nationalism, commerce and politics. Well-known throughout the world, the games have been used to promote understanding and friendship among nations. The Olympic Games started thousands of years ago and lasted over a millennium. The symbolic power of the Games lived on after their interruption, and came to life again as the modem Olympic Games being revived(恢复；复兴) in the last century. Both the modern and ancient Olympics have close similarities in their purpose and in their problems.
Ancient Olympics
    The ancient Olympics had some differences from the modern Games. There were fewer events, and only free men who spoke Greek could compete, instead of athletes from any country. Women were not allowed to even watch the games, let alone play in them. Also, the games were always held at Olympia in Greece instead of being moved around to different sites every time. But also they had some similarities to our modem Olympics, winning athletes were heroes who put their hometowns on the map, and became financially sound for life.
    The conflict between the Olympic ideals of sportsmanship and unity and the commercialism and political acts which accompany the Games were also present in ancient times. Potades at the ninety-ninth Festival was victorious in the long race and proclaimed a Cretan, as in fact he was. But at the next Festival he made himself an Ephesian, being bribed to do so by the Ephesian people. For this act he was banished(驱逐) by the Cretans. The first Olympic Games at Olympia were held in 776 B.C. According to Hippias of Elis, who edited a list of Olympic winners in 400 B.C., the only event held at the first Olympics was the stadium footrace.
    Every four years the games were started on the first full moon after the summer solstice(夏至), lasting for five days. For over 1100 years, from 776 B.C. to 393 A.D., the games were played, thousands of people ceased all warfare and flocked to a small sanctuary(圣殿) in northwestern Greece for five days in the late summer for a single reason, to witness the Olympic Games. During that time, competitors from all over the Greek world competed in a number of athletic events and worshiped the gods at the sanctuary of Olympia. The athletes competed not for money or material goods, although they received them, but only for the honor of being an Olympic victor. An Olympian that had the honor of winning an event was held in high esteem the rest of his lives.
    The Olympic Games were held every 4 years, and were never interrupted. The games were even held in 480 B.C. during the Persian Wars. In 146 B.C., the Romans gained control of Greece and, therefore, of the Olympic Games. In 85 B.C., the Roman general Sulla conquered the sanctuary to finance his campaign against Mithridates. Sulla also moved the 175th Olympiad to Rome. The games were held every four years from 776 B.C. to 393 A.D. With the spread of Christianity, the games declined in popularity. They were finally abolished by the Christian Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I in 393 A.D. The ancient Olympic Games lasted for 1170 years.
Modern Olympics
    The revival of the modem Olympics was on account of a French educator named Baron Pierre de Coubertin. He started this dream in 1894 when he founded the International Olympic Committee with the intention of restoring the Ancient Olympic Games which had been held between 776 B.C. and 393 A.D. He believed that international competitions between amateur athletes would help promote friendly relationships between people from different countries. Despite strong opposition Baron assembled 79 delegates from 12 countries to attend the international congress for the re-establishment of the Olympic Games. It was decided to hold the first modern Olympics in Athens in two years’ time.
    The Athens Games of 1896 were a great success. The Olympics had returned to the land of their birth. On April 5th the Games were opened by King George of Greece, in front of a crowd of 60,000. The original Olympic medals were silver and only awarded to the winner of an event. Thirteen countries competed at the Athens Games in 1896. Nine sports were on the agenda: cycling, fencing, gymnastics, lawn tennis, shooting, swimming, track and field, weight lifting, and wrestling. The 14-man U.S. team dominated the track and field events, taking first place in 9 of the 12 events. The Games were a success, and a second Olympiad, to be held in France, was scheduled. Olympic Games were held in 1900 and 1904, and by 1908 the number of competitors more than quadrupled the number at Athens—from 311 to 2,082.
Olympic symbols and ideals
The Olympic flag
    The Olympic flag or symbol is constituted by 5 different colored rings, blue, yellow, black, green and red. These rings were designed in 1913 by the founder of the Modern Olympics Baron Pierre de Coubertin. The five colors combined with the white background were said by Coubertin to have symbolic meaning:
    "These five rings represent the five parts of the world. Also the six colors thus combined represent those of all nations, with no exceptions. This is a real international emblem."
    The flag was made in Paris, at a shop close to the Baron’s birthplace. 3 metres long, 2 metres wide, the flag first appeared officially in Paris on the twentieth anniversary of the re-establishment of the games in 1914. It was first hoisted over an Olympic stadium in 1920, during the Antwerp Games.
    At the Antwerp Games the flag also first appeared carrying the new Olympic motto "Citius, Altius, Fortius" which is Latin for Faster, Higher, Stronger. It was devised by an educationist supporter of Coubertin a Dominican monk, Father Henri Didon.
Olympic flame
    The Olympic flame which symbolizes the endeavor for perfection and the struggle for victory, was first introduced to the Olympics in the 1928 Amsterdam Games. The first torch relay was organized and run in Berlin in 1936. Originally the suggestion of the German, Theodore Lewald, a torch is lit at Olympia in Greece, the home of the ancient Olympics, and then carried by relay to the host city. The last runner, carrying the torch, runs into the main stadium at the time of the Opening Ceremony. The Olympic flame is then lit and allowed to burn throughout the Games until it is extinguished during the closing ceremony.
Olympic oath
    Just as the ancient Greek athletes had to swear an oath to play fairly, so do the competitors in the modern Olympic Games. The oath was written by Baron de Coubertin and is made at the Opening Ceremony by an athlete from the host country on behalf of all the athletes.
    "In the name of all competitors, I promise that we will take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by all the rules which govern them in the true spirit of sportsmanship for the glory of sport and the honor of our teams." Competition officials swear a similar oath.
Olympic spirit
    There are many reasons and goals for the Olympic movement. Some of the main ideas and goals include: To promote the development of those physical and moral qualifies which are at the basis of sport. To educate young people through sport in a spirit of better understanding between each other, and of friendship, thereby helping to build s better and mare peaceful world. To spread the Olympic principles throughout the world, thereby creating international goodwill. To bring together the athletes of the world in the great four-yearly sports festival, the Olympic Games. "The spirit of the Olympic Games is indeed the opposite of confrontation it is the desire of a healthy life, the desire of a better world."
选项 A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案B
解析 第三段指出“The conflict between the Olympic ideals of sportsmanship and unity and the commercialism and political acts which accompany the Games were also present in ancient times”．根据此句，我们可知在古代同样存在这种冲突，由此可知题干不符合原文内容。
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