浙江省乐清市知临2020-2021学年高二下学期英语期末考试试题

    Curling(冰壶)is a winter sport played on ice. Therefore, it's most popular in northern countries like Canada. Curling is played in the USA by about 15,000   people.Scottish winters were long and there were forms of entertainment. So people began making a sport out of sliding heavy stones on the frozen lakes. The game spread, and in the 1700s curling clubs formed. Then Scottish soldiers brought it to North America.

    Men, women, and children often compete on the same team, if they can slide a forty-pound stone down the ice! Both teams slide their stones toward the same goal. After all 16 stones have been cast, the team whose stone has slid closest to the goal gets one point.

    The ice is so smooth and the stone is so heavy that even the smallest misjudgment in a throw can make the stone slide much too far or stop too suddenly.Water helps the stone slide, but it can also change the stone's path.

In curling, a broom is part of each player's equipment. A good curler must know how much force to use. The player must know the exact conditions of the ice on the court.That may explain why the international Olympic Committee decided to make curling an Olympic sport in 1998.

A. Players compete on the court.

B. Then the play begins in the other direction.

C. Curling is played by teams of four people.

D. In other words, a good curler must be a fine athlete.

E. The rules are easy to learn, but playing the game is hard.

F. The melting of the ice makes things tough for the curlers.

G. Curling probably began in Scotland in the 1500s or earlier.