Ancient myths and legends

Sports in other countries

In many ways Australia is the sports and outdoor activities capital of the world. Various climate conditions available around this country enable a wide range of activities all the year round.

For many Australians sport is one of the main things in their lives. And may be because of this, Austarlia has a great number of the World Champions in various sports.

The most popular sports with the Australians are football, horse/ camel and boat / yacht racings, cricket, surfing, swimming, jogging and cycling, tennis, lacrosse and many others. An extremely popular pastime with them is fishing.

The Australian football differs from that in Europe. It is a fast game with 18 players on both sides. The players may handle the ball both with their feet and hands.

Although Canada is best known for its winter sports (hockey, skating, skiing, etc.), it competes at the world class level in a wider variety of sports: golf, cycling, track and field, baseball, football, tennis, basketball, volleyball, wrestling, motorsports, boxing, triathlon, rowing and many other sports. Canadians are a winning bunch.

New Zealanders adore sports. They partici pate in a wide range of the outdoor activities both in winter and in summer. Rugby is the main national winter sport. As to summer, cricket is one of the most popular sports with them.

The streets of the cities are usually deserted on Saturdays and Sundays because their inhabitants leave them almost "en masse". New Zealanders are very fond of swimming and jogging. Surfing, yachting and boat racing are the largest part of many Aucklanders lifestyle. Many of them have some water vessels.

The Irish people are very fond of various sports. The greatest national sports with them are hurling and gaelic football. Hurling is recognised as one of the world's fastest sports: two teams of 15 players attempt to pass and hit the ball over or through a crossbar at the opposite ends of the standard sized grass playing pitch.

Gaelic football is played with almost the same rules, but no stick is used. It is like a soccer, with limited use of hands allowed. Both gaelic football and hurling are amateur games.

Soccer is the big sport in Ireland too. Golf attracts hundreds of players and spectators. Rugby, motor rally, hillwalking and cycling are the common Irish sports.

1. Achilles' Heel = a person's weak point.

According to the Greek legend, Achilles was a hero of the Trojan war, a courageous and invincible man, whose mother Thesis was a sea goddess.

Since Achilles was destined to die young during the siege of Troy, his mother decided to dip him into the river Styx to make him invulnerable. However, she held her son by his heel which, therefore, remained vulnerable. In the Trojan War, Achilles was wounded by an arrow in his heel by Paris, and died from the wound.

2. Gordian knot = great difficulty or intricate problem

Gordius, a peasant, who was chosen a king of Phrygia, made a knot that no one could untie. The oracle declared that whoever untied the knot, would reign over the whole empire of Asia.

Alexander the Great of Macedonia cut it through with his sword. Since then the phrase "To cut the Gordian knot" means to overcome the difficulty.

3. A Trojan horse = a gift that brings evil instead of good

After a siege of 10 years, during which many battles were fought, Troy was taken by the Greeks (Danaos) by means of the huge wooden horse, filled secretly with the armed men, that was placed at the gates of Troy and given out as the offering to gods.

At night the Greeks got out of the wooden horse and opened the gates of the city for their soldiers. Troy was conquered.

4. Solomon's judgement = a wise decision of a complicated problem.

In the Bible, king Solomon was a sage whose reputation for wisdom spread to the ends of the earth.

One of the most striking examples shows us how, due to his extraordinary wisdom, he managed to settle a dispute between two women for the possession of a child. Both of them claimed to be the child's mother.

To distinguish the real mother from the pretended one, Solomon ordered to cut the child into two parts and give them to both women. On hearing it, the real mother, whose maternal affection overmastered all other feelings, begged that the child might be spared and given alive to her rival, while the pretended mother agreed with the order.

Thus, Solomon realized who was the real mother and ordered to give the child to her.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-29