Sports help us to keep our body in a good physical condition. They offer us relaxation and help to lose a few excess kilos.
Today positive attitude to sports is becoming a must. Young people, not just them, try to look sporty and attractive.
We go in for sports in various sportsgrounds, sportshalls, stadiums, tennis courts, golf courses and fitness centres.
Most of us are amateurs doing sports for pleasure. But some people, who achieve excellent results become proffessionals. They participate in international competitions, for example the Olympic Games. Each of them has got a couch.
In our PE lessons we practised athletics, but we also play different ball games, we did gymnastics and swimming.

Compare winter and summer, indoor and outdoor sports and games.
Among the summer sports belong : athletics( Marathon race, sprints, javelin throw, long jump, high jump, triple jump,...), then rowing, windsurfing, water skiing, motor-cycle racing and parachuting.
Among the winter sports belong : skiing, ice-hockey, ski jumping, snowboarding, figure-skating, ice-dancers, speed-skating.
In the last Winter Olympic Games, Židek was the silver-medal winner in the discipline – snowboard crossing.
Typical indoor sports are for example gymnastics, table tennis, basketball, wrestling, boxing, body-building and sport dancing.
Athletics is a typical outdoor sport as well as football, golf, sailing, yachting, diving, surfing/windsurfing, horse-racing, beach volleyball,....

Which do you prefer and why?
I prefer swimming because it helps me feel fit. In summer I always spend a lot of time near water. I swim, dive and jump. Water offers me a lot of pleasure.
In winter I´m fond of skiing. There is always a lot of snow in the High Tatras, my favourite place is Štrbské pleso where I usually stay at the Patria hotel.
The slopes Interski and Solisko are rather steep, but I´m quite a good skier. On the slopes you could see a great many of foreign visitors, mainly from Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Ukraine and Holland.

Why do people go in for sports?Give reasons.
Some people do sports since they want to be fit, other people do it for pleasure. But not everyone practises sports. Some people prefer sitting in front of the telly to sport activities. Those ones who do some kind of sport want to get rid of stress or they want to relax in an active way. But during adulthood people have less and less time and sport like other hobbies requires time. Study, work around the house and care of children, all take up more and more time. If we want to do some sports we have to organise our daily routine in such way that we will be able to find some time for sports as well.

Discuss the role of drugs in sport.
Some sportsmen take drugs since they want to be better than the others. They are determined to win whatever the cost. They realize that their experiments with drugs can seriously damage their health but fame and money dominate their life.

googles = protective glasses
kiln = vypaľovacia pec
magnifying glass = lupa
golf club = palica
tennis racquet = raketa
high diving = skoky do vody
cut throat work = zabíjacká práca
scholarship = štipendium
tution = výuka
put up with stress = znášať stres

The Olympic Games

The Olympic Games started in Olympia in Greece in 776 BC with only one race – sprint, for which the prize for the winner was an olive wreath.
They were probably a part of religious ceremony honouring the Greek God Zeus. The competitors used to run naked and barefoot.
The Roman Emperor Theodosius, a Christian, abolished them as a pagan ritual. The Olympic Games were revived in 1896 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin. Since that year, they have been for all mankind. They have been held every four years, always at a different location.
The first modern Olympic Games took place in Olympia in 1896. Twelve nations, besides Greece, participated. Nowadays, major cities compete to host the Olympic Games, not just for the honour the Games bring, but for the vast amount of profit a host country can make.
The Games have also become politically important. They can now be seen by nearly every country in the world and are therefore an ideal platform for political statements.

Extreme sports

People seem to get bored very easily nowadays. That´s probably the reason why they try to find more adventurous fun. They want to test their courage, to show off themselves, to do something dangerous. Shivering, as your fear and self-preservation control your body, you do what you are expected to – to overcome your fear and defeat the obstacle. Doing extreme sports need practise and a calm mind. You want more, you want to try every obstacle, and you want to overcome your fear once again. Adrenaline is being oumped into your blood n an overdose, your heart beating hastily, but you are goind to do it. It can be very expensive because you usually need special equipment and a couch. But fear makes your brain working.

My attitude to sports

Sports and games have always played an important role in my life. Since my early childhood I was keen on such sports as running, swimming and skating. I used to go cycling almost every day in summer with my parents and their friends.
Later I became more interested in dancing and ball games. As I was growing taller and taller, volleyball and skiing attracted me. I love going to the mountains where I have a great opportunity to ski. There is always a lot of snow in the Alpes where we go skiing every winter. The slopes are rather steep but I´m quite a good skier. I do sports just for fun and pleasure.
As for watching sports, I like to go to see the matches of our ice-hockey team and besides that there is always something on TV like tennis tournaments or world championships in all kinds of sports and games.