full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Armand D'Angour: The ancient origins of the Olympics
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Thousands of yreas in the mainkg, what began as part of a religious faveistl honoring the Greek god Zeus in the rural Greek town of Olympia has today become the gtesreat show of sporting excellence on Earth. The inception date in 776 BC became the basis for the Greek's earliest calendar, where time was marked in four-year irencnmets cllaed olympiads. What could it be? Why, it's the Olympic games, of course. Competition fosters excellence, or so thought the Ancient Greeks. In addition to sporting events, contests were held for music, singing, and poetry. You can read about them all yourself in classical literary wrkos, like Homer's "Iliad" and Virgil's "Aeneid." Even mythical heroes appreciate a good contest every now and then, wouldn't you say? For the first thirteen games, the Ancient Greek Olympics featured just one event, the two hundred yard dash. But over time, new exciting contests, like boxing, crihoat and mule racing, and even a footcrae where the competitors wore a full suit of armor enecitd many hopeful champions into the Olympic stadium. The combined running, jumping, wrestling, javelin throwing, and hlrinug the discus events known as the pentathlon inspired world-class competition, and the pankration, a no holds barerd fight where only btniig and eye-gouging were prohibited, ensured the toughest men were victorious. And vciutroois they were. Nobody tops the local baker Coroebus, who 776 BC became the very first Olympic champion. And we'll never forget Orsippus of mgeara, the 720 BC olpymic victor tore away his loicltnoh so he could race unimpeded, inaugurating the Ancient Greek tradition of citopemng in the nude. Now there's a winning streak, if ever we've seen one. But all good things must end. In 391 AD, the Christian Roman eromper thdioeosus banned pagan practices, so the world soon bid a fond felarwel to the Olympic games. But just like those early pkitoaanrn athletes, you can't keep a good one down, and 1500 years later in 1896, the modern Olympic games kicked off in atnehs, Greece. Today, the Summer and wetinr Olympics bring ianetnnotaril world-class athletes together by the thousands, uniting fans by the billions for the world's foremost sporting competition. Citius, Altius, Fortius. Three cheers for the Olympics.
Open Cloze
Thousands of _____ in the ______, what began as part of a religious ________ honoring the Greek god Zeus in the rural Greek town of Olympia has today become the ________ show of sporting excellence on Earth. The inception date in 776 BC became the basis for the Greek's earliest calendar, where time was marked in four-year __________ ______ olympiads. What could it be? Why, it's the Olympic games, of course. Competition fosters excellence, or so thought the Ancient Greeks. In addition to sporting events, contests were held for music, singing, and poetry. You can read about them all yourself in classical literary _____, like Homer's "Iliad" and Virgil's "Aeneid." Even mythical heroes appreciate a good contest every now and then, wouldn't you say? For the first thirteen games, the Ancient Greek Olympics featured just one event, the two hundred yard dash. But over time, new exciting contests, like boxing, _______ and mule racing, and even a ________ where the competitors wore a full suit of armor _______ many hopeful champions into the Olympic stadium. The combined running, jumping, wrestling, javelin throwing, and _______ the discus events known as the pentathlon inspired world-class competition, and the pankration, a no holds ______ fight where only ______ and eye-gouging were prohibited, ensured the toughest men were victorious. And __________ they were. Nobody tops the local baker Coroebus, who 776 BC became the very first Olympic champion. And we'll never forget Orsippus of ______, the 720 BC _______ victor tore away his _________ so he could race unimpeded, inaugurating the Ancient Greek tradition of _________ in the nude. Now there's a winning streak, if ever we've seen one. But all good things must end. In 391 AD, the Christian Roman _______ __________ banned pagan practices, so the world soon bid a fond ________ to the Olympic games. But just like those early __________ athletes, you can't keep a good one down, and 1500 years later in 1896, the modern Olympic games kicked off in ______, Greece. Today, the Summer and ______ Olympics bring _____________ world-class athletes together by the thousands, uniting fans by the billions for the world's foremost sporting competition. Citius, Altius, Fortius. Three cheers for the Olympics.
Solution
- winter
- chariot
- loincloth
- victorious
- emperor
- megara
- works
- footrace
- increments
- pankration
- athens
- called
- biting
- years
- festival
- barred
- theodosius
- farewell
- olympic
- international
- competing
- making
- enticed
- hurling
- greatest
Original Text
Thousands of years in the making, what began as part of a religious festival honoring the Greek god Zeus in the rural Greek town of Olympia has today become the greatest show of sporting excellence on Earth. The inception date in 776 BC became the basis for the Greek's earliest calendar, where time was marked in four-year increments called olympiads. What could it be? Why, it's the Olympic games, of course. Competition fosters excellence, or so thought the Ancient Greeks. In addition to sporting events, contests were held for music, singing, and poetry. You can read about them all yourself in classical literary works, like Homer's "Iliad" and Virgil's "Aeneid." Even mythical heroes appreciate a good contest every now and then, wouldn't you say? For the first thirteen games, the Ancient Greek Olympics featured just one event, the two hundred yard dash. But over time, new exciting contests, like boxing, chariot and mule racing, and even a footrace where the competitors wore a full suit of armor enticed many hopeful champions into the Olympic stadium. The combined running, jumping, wrestling, javelin throwing, and hurling the discus events known as the pentathlon inspired world-class competition, and the pankration, a no holds barred fight where only biting and eye-gouging were prohibited, ensured the toughest men were victorious. And victorious they were. Nobody tops the local baker Coroebus, who 776 BC became the very first Olympic champion. And we'll never forget Orsippus of Megara, the 720 BC Olympic victor tore away his loincloth so he could race unimpeded, inaugurating the Ancient Greek tradition of competing in the nude. Now there's a winning streak, if ever we've seen one. But all good things must end. In 391 AD, the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius banned pagan practices, so the world soon bid a fond farewell to the Olympic games. But just like those early pankration athletes, you can't keep a good one down, and 1500 years later in 1896, the modern Olympic games kicked off in Athens, Greece. Today, the Summer and Winter Olympics bring international world-class athletes together by the thousands, uniting fans by the billions for the world's foremost sporting competition. Citius, Altius, Fortius. Three cheers for the Olympics.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| ancient greek |
2 |
| olympic games |
2 |
Important Words
- ad
- addition
- altius
- ancient
- armor
- athens
- athletes
- baker
- banned
- barred
- basis
- bc
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- calendar
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- champion
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- christian
- citius
- classical
- combined
- competing
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- contest
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- coroebus
- dash
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- fight
- fond
- footrace
- foremost
- forget
- fortius
- fosters
- full
- games
- god
- good
- greatest
- greece
- greek
- greeks
- held
- heroes
- holds
- honoring
- hopeful
- hurling
- inaugurating
- inception
- increments
- inspired
- international
- javelin
- jumping
- kicked
- literary
- local
- loincloth
- making
- marked
- megara
- men
- modern
- mule
- music
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- olympia
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- orsippus
- pagan
- pankration
- part
- pentathlon
- poetry
- practices
- prohibited
- race
- racing
- read
- religious
- roman
- running
- rural
- show
- singing
- sporting
- stadium
- streak
- suit
- summer
- theodosius
- thirteen
- thought
- thousands
- throwing
- time
- today
- tops
- tore
- toughest
- town
- tradition
- unimpeded
- uniting
- victor
- victorious
- winning
- winter
- wore
- works
- world
- wrestling
- yard
- years
- zeus