雅思阅读测试题（部分自编）_雅思英语阅读

雅思阅读测试题（部分自编）

　　After an uninterrupted history of almost 1,200 years the Games were abolished in A.D. 394, the Christian era, because of their pagan origin. It was over 1,500 years before there was another such international athletics gathering. The Greek institution was revived in 1896 and the first small meeting took place in Athens. After the 1908 London Olympics, success was re-established and nations sent their best representatives. In times of peace, the Games have taken place ever since at four-yearly intervals. In Munich in 1972, competitors from more than 120 countries were watched by huge crowds.

　　Nowadays, the Games are held in different countries in turn. The host country provides vast facilities, including a stadium, swimming pools and living accommodation, but competing countries pay their own athletes expenses. Athletic contests are still the main feature, but now many more sports are represented, women compete, the ancient pentathlon, for example, has been modified into a more comprehensive test, and the marathon races, initiated in 1896, are now a celebrated event.

　　The Olympics start with the arrival in the stadium of a torch, lighted on Mount Olympus by the suns rays. It is carried by a succession of runners to the stadium. The torch symbolizes the continuation of the ancient Greek athletic ideals, and it bums throughout the Games until the closing ceremony. The well-known Olympic flag, however, is a modem conception: the five interlocking rings symbolize the uniting of all five continents participating in the Games.