A Unique Sporting Venue

The Millennium Stadium is located in the very heart of Cardiff city centre, in Wales, and it is one of the world’s most magnificent sporting arenas.

Built on the site of the old Cardiff Arms Park Stadium, it was opened in 1999, just in time to host the Rugby World Cup. This modern attractive stadium, which has almost double capacity of the old stadium, has seating for 72,500 people, a sliding roof, two huge TV screens and a natural grass pitch. There are a wide range of facilities, including restaurants and fast food outlets on every level. There is also a stadium, shop conference rooms and private boxes.

The spectators, the seating is spacious and on excellent view of the action is guaranteed no matter where they sit. They can take a tour of the stadium and see the giant steel dragon at the players’ entrance, go down the players’ tunnel and have a look around the changing rooms and training areas. They can even sit in the Royal Box.

The stadium has hosted some of the UK’s biggest sporting events. This includes rugby’s most important event, the Six Nations championship, and football’s most important event, the FA Cup Final. Although football and rugby are the main sports involved, the stadium is also used to host the other sports such as international cricket and long-distance running. Many other charity and music events take place there, such as rock and pop concerts.

With its impressive appearance and state-of-the-art features, the Millennium Stadium is one of the most fantastic venues for sporting events in Europe. Indeed, as anyone who was there will tell you, the experience is something you will never forget.

Writing

Ex.19. Make notes about Cardiff Stadium under the headlines below.

- location

- history

- features

- facilities

- sport events

- other events

Ex.20. Find information and write a short essay about a famous stadium in your country. Write about:

v Location

v History

v What place takes there

Topic 3

EURO 2012

Presentation

What sports events took place in Ukraine in 2012?

Vocabulary

Ex.1. Label the pictures.

mascot spectator performance arena championship admirer

Ex.2. Complete with the words from the box.

Starting from November 2010 and till the end of the ________, 27 Ukrainian actors performed in costumes of the Euro-2012 official ________, Slawek and Slavko, the director of the Euro-2012 Ukraine local organizing _______, Markiyan Lubkivskyi, said at a press conference. “The total number of people who put on the costumes of the Championship ________ during the period of preparation for the tournament and its hosting was 27”.
Ukraine’s tournament ________ noted that tough casting had been conducted among the people contending for this role, and professional actors, dancers and ________ who would be able to entertain ___________ and to feel confident on the stage had been selected. The _________ of mascot’s costume was from six to eight kilograms. The youngest actor to put on this costume was 18 years old, and the oldest one was 30.

Reading/Speaking

Ex.3. Read the text and title the paragraphs.

The fourteenth European Football Championship 2012, held every four years by UEFA, took place on the territory of Ukraine. Euro 2012 in Ukraine started on the 8 of June, when millions of people could see the open ceremony in Kyiv. Four host cities Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Donetsk met people from different countries. There were built big funzones in each of those cities. On the first of July the final game of the championship was held in Kyiv. The hot 2012 summer does not let true Ukrainian football fans have a single second of rest. Admirers of world’s most popular game did not manage to examine the crucial moments of the final part of the European Championship when the next one, 22nd in turn, national tournament among Premiere League teams started.

Dynamo Kiev played its starting match at the Olympic NSC on the first match day. Country’s main sports arena had less than two weeks of rest after the final Euro match where the historic achievement of the Spanish national team had been fixed. The “white-and-blue” team hosted Metalurg from Donetsk in the NSC field on 14 July and gained an extremely hard 1:0 victory. The number of fans having witnessed the success of their favourite team was 32,870 undoubtedly, they were eager to welcome their favourites after a two-month break.

According to UEFA, Ukrainian animators dressed as Slawek and Slavko performed at 242 events. They performed not only in Ukraine, but also attended events in Switzerland, Russia, Georgia and other countries. The average duration of each mascot’s performance was 20 minutes, and two groups of animators worked at each stadium during matches of the Championship.

Just over seven million supporters spent time in the eight fan zones in the host cities during UEFA EURO 2012, with around 539,000 watching the final together on the big screens.
Just over seven million supporters spent time in the eight fan zones in the host cities during UEFA EURO 2012, with the huge facilities in Kyiv and Warsaw proving to be the most popular of all in Ukraine and Poland, writes the official site of UEFA. The biggest night of all came after most visiting fans had gone home, with around 539,000 gathering in the eight fan zones to watch Spain defeat Italy in the final. More than half of EU citizens who visited Ukraine during Euro-2012 have improved their opinion of the country.

Ukraine and Poland managed to organize and hold a fantastic European Football Championship. This is what UEFA Chief Operating Officer Martin Kallen and the director of the Local Organizing Committee, "Euro-2012 Ukraine", Markiyan Lubkivskyi, stressed at the concluding press conference in Kyiv.

Ex.4. Read the text again and fill in the chart with the key facts.

Ex.5. Work in pairs. Ask and answer questions about Euro 2012 using information from previous exercise.

Ex.6. Solve the quiz.

Ex.7. a) Match the sentences to make conversations.

b) In pairs, practise the conversations.

Writing

Ex.8. Think about a match you watched on TV. Write down about:

What happened
Who was in it
Who won
Who played well/badly
Your opinion about it.

Self-Check Questions

1. What are the kinds of sport which are becoming more popular among people?

2. Why should people be physically active and participate in sport?

3. What is more important in sports: the ability to lose without anger; absolute fairness or physical power?

4. What do you think of the importance of team games in developing such social qualities as enthusiasm, co-operation, loyalty, unselfishness? Give extensive answers.

5. What competitive sports do you know?

6. What are spectator (participant) sports?

7. What sports are popular in our country (the USA, England)?

8. What is the most characteristic feature of Ukrainian sports programmes?

9. What do you know about major professional sports in Great Britain and the USA?

Word List

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