Opción B - I * COMPREHENSION · Inglés PAU Andalucía Ordinaria Reserva B 2013

OPTION B: “History of football”

1 A sport similar to football (also called soccer) was played 3000 years ago in Japan. A Chinese text from 50 BC

2 mentions football-type games between teams from Japan and China. Ancient Greeks and Romans also played a game that

3 was similar to football – although the Greeks permitted carrying the ball.

4 How the sport spread from the East to Europe is not clear, but England became the home of modern football. At first

5 the game had a bad reputation among English royalty – possibly because of the noise the fans made – by whose insistence

6 the government passed laws against it. In 1365 King Edward III prohibited football because of its excessive violence and for

7 military reasons: playing took time away from archery practice. Laws failed to slow the popularity of football and by 1681 it

8 received official sanction in England. The games were still violent and noisy, with players hardly ever leaving the field without

9 broken bones. There was no standard set for the size of teams or the field; the earliest organized games in England had

10 goals as far as 5 km apart. It was only by 1801 that it was agreed that teams should have an equal number of players and

11 that the playing area should be about 91metres. Records show that Eton College first put into writing the rules of football in

12 1815.

13 Today football is known worldwide. Its players have become some of the most influential people, their styles and

14 trends being followed by kids and adults everywhere, and the World Cup is the most watched sporting event in the world.

I * COMPREHENSION (4 points: questions 1-3, 1 point each; 4-5, 0.5 points each)

ANSWER QUESTIONS 1-3 ACCORDING TO THE INFORMATION GIVEN IN THE TEXT. USE YOUR OWN WORDS.

1.

Was football played the same way everywhere in the ancient world?

2.

Why did the English government adopt laws against football?

3.

How did the size of football teams become regulated around 1801?

ARE THESE STATEMENTS TRUE OR FALSE? JUSTIFY YOUR ANSWERS WITH THE PRECISE WORDS OR PHRASES FROM THE TEXT, OR USE YOUR OWN WORDS.

4.

The popularity of football declined after the government's prohibitions.

TRUE

FALSE

5.

The number of players for each team was balanced before the rules were written.

TRUE

FALSE