University Entrance Examination Tips

Words from the world of sport

By Acharn Helen Jandamit

Although when you get to read this shortened sports story, it will be quite old, there are many useful things to be learned from it. 

For those of you who are not particularly interested in football (or soccer as it is sometimes known), many of the words and expressions in this story will be unfamiliar. Let�s take a look at some of those words and expressions.

- Tip: If you don�t know what a word means,

- look at the context and make an informed

- guess.

This is a news story. In news stories, you can expect to see the most important ideas in the story in the first paragraph. News stories are not often written in chronological order (in the order that events occurred according to the clock) and this one is no exception.

The first thing that we read about is not the first thing that happened in the match. In fact, what we see in the first paragraph is the final score, the names of two of the players who scored goals and even what the overall effect of Leeds� victory will be on the Premier League. We are, in effect, reading the story backwards.

Tip: If you are asked to find the main idea, look at the first paragraph. If it is not there, look at the final paragraph, which is often a summary of the story.

Look at the first paragraph of the sports news story below and then decide whether the following statements are true or false, according to what you read there.

1.       Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka play for Arsenal.

2.       Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka come from Australia.

3.       Only Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka scored in this game.

4.       Leeds won the game.

5.       Leeds and Manchester United are bitter rivals.

6.       When Leeds won this game it meant that Arsenal did not have enough points to win the Premier League championship.

The following vocabulary items have been taken from the headline, the captions and the first two paragraphs. They may be unfamiliar to you. Please do not rush to look at a dictionary, but instead, try to guess the meanings by looking at the context in which the words occur. In other words, look at the words around the unfamiliar words, at the complete sentence and even at the paragraph as a whole. The photos will help you to make good guesses too.

7 � 12: What do the following words mean, as they are used here?

7.       Striker

a.       A person who is not working because of a disagreement over pay or conditions. 
b.       A person who hit something or someone.
c.       A person who plays in the position of forward in football.

8.       Bitter

a. Causing pain or grief.
b. Filled with, showing or causing hate, anger, unfulfilled expectation, sorrow or other unpleasant feelings.           
c. Having a peculiar sharp, biting taste, like beer or black coffee without sugar.

9.       Dethroned

a.       Removed from power.
b.       No longer king or queen.
c.       No longer allowed to sit on the high ceremonial seat.

10. Relegation

a.       The putting of something into a lower or worse position
b.      The putting of a team into a lower division       

11. Caretaker

a.       A person who looks after a building or land when the owner is absent.
b.       A person employed to look after a school or other large public building and to be responsible for small repairs, cleaning, etc.
c.       Someone who holds a position for a short time until a new person is appointed.

12. Gloom

a. Darkness
b. A feeling of deep sadness   

Aussie brilliance seals Arsenal's title gloom

LONDON (AFP)   2003 AFP 

AIan Harte of Leeds United reacts to scoring a goal against Arsenal during the Premier League match at Highbury in London

Two superb goals by Australian stars Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka inspired Leeds to a 3-2 victory over Arsenal and handed the Premiership title to their bitter rivals Manchester United at the expense of their opponents.

United led Arsenal by eight points with the dethroned champions having two games to play while Leeds are certain of escaping relegation after a traumatic season as caretaker manager Peter Reid enjoyed his first victory at Highbury.

Now look at the next seven paragraphs and decide which of the following sub-headlines should be used in the spaces provided.

a. Arsenal fight back
b. Ian Harte�s third goal against Arsenal

13. ����������������������������

With the sides locked at 1-1 at half-time, Ian Harte struck for Leeds early in the second-half, just as Kewell had in the first-half, as his curling freekick took two slight headed deflections off Ashley Cole and Brazilian Gilberto Silva to beat David Seaman in the far corner in the 49th minute, for his third goal in his last three trips to Highbury.

Leeds still looked hesitant in defence but England fullback Danny Mills showed his teammates the way to deal with Arsenal by putting in a great block on a Thierry Henry shot as Arsenal looked to hit back.

However, Sylvain Wiltord should have done better when he was left unmarked at the far post but with the goal at his mercy his miserable downward header went the wrong side of the post.

14. �����������������������

The Gunners, though, were back on terms for the second time just after the hour mark as Mills left Robert Pires unmarked and the Frenchman advanced into the box before sidefooting it to Dennis Bergkamp who shot into the net.

The Dutchman was booked seconds later for a dirty challenge on Harte and then went close as the Leeds defence dithered and his shot from outside the area went narrowly wide.

Seaman then saved well from Kewell with 15 minutes remaining as the England keeper got down to his shot from outside the box and turned it away for a corner.

In a thrilling encounter, it was Arsenal's turn next to go close as Henry saw his curling shot from the edge of the area beat Paul Robinson and hit the post.

15 � 20. : What do the following words mean, as they are used in the previous seven paragraphs?

15. Miserable

a. Very unhappy
b. Very poor, or very low in degree or amount
c. Causing discomfort

16. Hesitant

a. Unwilling
b. Slow in deciding
c. Uncertain

17. The post

a.  The official system for carrying letter, parcels, etc. from the sender to the receiver
b. A small distant fort, camp, etc. esp. at a border or in a desert, where a body of soldiers is kept
c. A strong, thick upright pole or bar made of wood, metal, etc. fixed into the ground as a support for the goal net.

18. Unmarked

a. Not identified
b. Not being watched by the enemy and therefore not likely to come to harm
c. Not attended to or watched for any dangerous action

19. Dirty

a. Not clean
b. Concerned with sex in an unpleasant way
c. Mean, unsporting, unfair, against the rules

20. Dithered

a. Acted nervously
b. Were  unable to decide
c. In a state of nervous excitement

The final paragraph of this story contains many verbs to tell us about the players� actions. They do not only describe the actions but they also convey something of the emotions of the audience as they watch the game. Try to imagine the tension and the excitement of the game as you read the next paragraph. Be creative and guess what kind of action is happening even if you do not know the individual words. Note: Two of the words are not verbs.

However, it was to be the outstanding Viduka who settled it two minutes from time as he sprinted onto a brilliant ball by Dominic Matteo, cut inside and rifled the ball past Seaman sending manager Reid into manic celebrations while Wenger complained about offside to the linesman.

21. Sprinted

a. Ran a short race
b. Ran at his fastest, esp. for a short time

22. Cut inside

a. Interrupted
b. Ran between other players unexpectedly
c. Changed direction suddenly to move in front of someone else

23. Rifled

a. To make curved cuts inside the barrel of a gun
b. To search through and steal everything valuable from a place
c. To move very fast like a bullet shot from a gun

24. Settled it

a. Decided the result of the game
b. Paid the bill
c. Made it calm

25. Time

a. The end of the game
b. A measurement of duration
c. The passing of days, months and years as a whole

26. Manic

a. Suffering from mania (a disorder of the mind of a very forceful kind, dangerous to others)
b. Wild and thoughtless
c. Crazy with happiness

Tip: Imagine you are a sports commentator who works for a radio station. Read this final paragraph out loud onto tape. Get your friends to help with sound effects. Try to make your commentary as exciting and emotion-filled as possible. Play it back to your class.