SPORT IN THE USA (2)

        Americans’ interest in sports seems excessive to many fo­reign visitors. Television networks spend millions of dollars arranging to telecast sports events. Publications about sports are sold widely. In the US professional athletes can become na­tional heroes.

        Sports are associated with educational institutions in a way which is unique. High schools have coaches as faculty mem­bers, and school teams compete with each other.

         Nowhere else in the world are sports associated with col­leges and universities in the way they are in the States. Col­lege sports, especially football, are conducted in an atmosphere of intense excitement and pageantry. Games between teams attract nationwide television audiences.

         The sport that is most popular in most parts of the world — soccer — is not well known in the US. The most popular sports are football and baseball, games that are not played in large number of countries.

        Sports play such an important role in American life that the sociology of sports, sports medicine, and sports psycholo­gy have become respectable specializations.

        Many Americans jog every day, or play tennis or bridge two or three times a week. They go on ski trips and hunting expeditions that require weeks of planning and organizing. In the Americans’ view, all these activities are worth the discom­fort they may cause because they contribute to health and phy­sical fitness. That is probably why Americans are known as a healthy nation.

QUESTIONS:

1. Are Americans interested in sports?

2. Do professional athletes become national heroes?

3. Are there sport teams in high schools?

4. Are there any coaches in the faculty?

5. What are the most popular sports in the USA?

6. What specializations have become respectable thanks sport?

7. Why do Americans spend so much time on sport activi­ties?

VOCABULARY:

excessive — чрезмерный

unique — уникальный, единственный в своем роде

high school — средняя школа

coach — тренер

pageantry — пышность, блеск

sociology — социология

to require —требовать

to contribute — способствовать

physical — физический