READING TASK- EXERCISES 2, Ejercicios de Idioma Inglés

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You are going to read an article about Usain Bolt. Choose from paragraphs A–D. They may be chosen more than once. Usain Bolt: Fast and Loose A Perhaps there has never been a sportsman quite like Bolt. While so many professional sports people are uncommunicative, conventional and self-important, he is opinionated, funny and grounded. Perhaps this is because so many top-level athletes are purely focused on their sport, whereas Bolt looks beyond just athletics and has a broader interest in other things. When he talks about his ambitions, he mentions a desire to be a professional footballer. He has achieved almost everything possible on the track, but life isn’t over for him just yet. He has plenty of other dreams. And although many people say he’s a legend, he still feels like he hasn’t fulfilled his potential. With the success he has already achieved, it is hard to believe there are further goals for him to reach, but he is not one to follow conventionality. B When Usain Bolt was a young boy growing up in Jamaica, his parents took him to the doctor because he couldn’t keep still. He was gifted at cricket, his first love, but he had the ability to run fast so he tried track and field. His dad also encouraged him to stay in running, telling him that his achievements would be his own, compared to competing as part of a group. Nobody can hold a light to Usain Bolt – he is a one-off. There’s the size, for a start: 1.96 metres (ideal sprinters are thought to be no more than 1.85 metres). Then there’s the scoliosis, a curved spine which means one leg is shorter than the other. This condition should have made it impossible for him to have a career in sport. And the attitude – at warm-up his rivals look as if they will explode with tension, but Bolt smiles, even dances. And, of course, Bolt is said to be the fastest man ever, although he wasn’t even giving his all when he broke the 100-and 200-metre records. C Bolt maintains that he isn’t quite as cool and laid-back as he appears to be. Although he tries not to let worries get to him, there are still things that bother him. For example, he says he was so uptight before the Junior World Championship final – where he became the youngest gold medallist at the age of fifteen – that he put his shoes on the wrong feet. The expectations upon him were huge and he’d never felt as nervous before. Winning that race changed his whole life, but for much of the next three years he was injured. That’s when Jamaica turned on him. His own people said he was undisciplined, he partied too much. And yes, he did; but the truth was he was suffering with his spine. People, he says, are quick to criticise. Even now, people associate Bolt with a partying lifestyle, and he doesn’t deny that he enjoys himself. After all, he claims, if you don’t enjoy life, then the stress of competition can seem too much to bear. D Bolt arrived in athletics at a time when the profession had lost a lot of respect over drug-taking. Here was a man who looked and acted differently. In 2008 though, he had to beg his coach to let him run the 100 metres at the Beijing Olympics. It took a lot of persuasion because Bolt had been running the distance for less than a year and was surviving on a diet of junk food. Despite that, not only did he win gold, but he also broke the 100-metre world record. He broke his own record at the 2009 World Championships and went on to win gold in the 2012 London Olympics in the 100-metre and 200-metre race and the relay. Although his manager accepts that Bolt has a lazy side, he also states that when he does train, he puts everything into it and is extremely competitive. And the thing is, says Bolt, if he weren’t easy-going, he wouldn’t run so fast. But he is still mystified about exactly what makes him such a remarkable runner. Perhaps his height helps, and those huge strides, he suggests. His manager says he runs like a cheetah, with an animal mechanism in his stride. Whatever the combination, it is hard to deny that he cannot be equalled. Which paragraph… mentions Bolt’s behaviour just before a race? 1. _________ mentions Bolt trying to run a different distance? 2. _________ states how Bolt stands out from other athletes in his field? 3. _________ explains the hard work Bolt puts in during his training? 4. _________ highlights worries during Bolt’s early competitions? 5. _________ mentions a new career Bolt might pursue? 6. _________ indicates that Bolt doesn’t know the reasons for his own talent? 7. _________ mentions criticism from Bolt’s own countrymen? 8. _________ focuses on how medical problems affected Bolt’s career? 9. _________ mentions another sport Bolt was good at? 1 0. ________

ADVANCED 2 – GOLD – READING TASK – FEBRUARY 2021