Australia's Sporting Success Reading Answers

Australia's Sporting Success Reading Answers Cambridge 6 Test 1 Reading Answers

READING PASSAGE I

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below

Australia's Sporting Success

A 

They play hard, they play often, and they pray to win, Australian sports teams win more than their fair share of titles, demolishing rivals with seeming ease. How do they do it? A big part of the secret is an extensive and expensive network of sporting academies underpinned by science and medicine. At the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), hundreds of youngsters and pros live and train under the eyes of coaches. Another body; the Australian Sports Commission (A SC)„ finances programs of excellence in a total of 96 sports for thousands of sportsmen and women. Both provide intensive coaching, training facilities, and nutritional advice.

B 

Inside the academies, science takes center stage. The AI S employs more than I 00 sports scientists and doctors and collaborates with scores of others in universities and research centers. AI scientists work across a number of sports, applying skills learned in one — such as building muscle strength in golfers — to others, such as swimming and squash. They are backed up by technicians who design instruments to collect data from athletes. They all focus on one aim: winning can't waste our time looking at ethereal scientific questions that don't help the coach work with an athlete and improve performance,' says Peter Fr icker; chief of science at AIS.

C 

A lot of their work comes down to measurement — everything from the exact angle of a swimmer's dive to the second-by-second power output of a cyclist. This data is used to wring improvements out of athletes. The focus is on individuals, tweaking performances to squeeze an extra hundredth of a second here, an extra millimeter there. No gain is too slight to bother with, It's the tiny gradual improvements that add up to world-beating results, To demonstrate how the system works, Bruce Mason at AI S shows off the prototype of a 3D analysis tool for studying swimmers. A wire-frame model of a champion swimmer slices through the water her arms moving in slow motion. 

Looking side-on, Mason measures the distance between strokes. From above, he analyses how her spine swivels_ When fully developed, this system will enable him to build a biomechanical profile for coaches to use to help budding swimmers. Mason's contribution to sport also includes the development of the SWAN (SWimming ANalysis) the system now used in Australian national competitions. It collects images from digital cameras running at 50 frames a second and breaks down each part of a swimmer's performance into factors that can be analyzed individually — stroke length, stroke frequency. the average duration of each stroke. velocity start, lap and finish times, and so on. At the end of each race, SWAN spits out data on each swimmer

D '

Take a look.: says Mason. pulling out a sheet of data He points out the data on the swimmers in second and third place. which shows that the one who finished third actually swam faster So why did he finish 35 hundredths of a second down? His turn times were 44 hundredths of a second behind the other guy' says Masonlf he can improve on his turns, he can do much better: This is the kind of accuracy that AI S scientists' research is bringing to a range of sports, With the Cooperative Research Centre for Micro Technology in Melbourne. they are developing unobtrusive sensors that will be embedded in an athlete's clothes or running shoes to monitor heart rate, sweating, heat production, or any other factor that might have an impact on an athlete's ability to run. There's more to it than simply measuring performance. 

Fricker gives the example of athletes who may be down with coughs and colds I 1 or I 2 times a year: After years of experimentation, AIS and the University of Newcastle in New South Wales developed a test that measures how much of the immune-system protein immunoglobulin A is present in athletes' saliva. If IgA levels suddenly fall below a certain level. training is eased or dropped altogether. Soon. IgA levels start rising again, and the danger passes. Since the test was introduced, AI S athletes in all sports have been remarkably successful at staying healthy.

E 

Using data is a complex business, Well before a championship, sports scientists and coaches start to prepare the athlete by developing a competition model', based on what they expect will be the winning times.' You design the model to make that time: says Mason. 'A start of this much. each free-swimming period has to be this fast, with a certain stroke frequency and stroke length. with turns done in these times,' All the training is then geared towards making the athlete hit those targets, both overall and for each segment of the race. Techniques Ike these have transformed Australia into arguably the world's most successful sporting nation.

F 

Of course. there's nothing to stop other countries copying — and many have tried. Some years ago, the AIS unveiled coolant-lined jackets for endurance athletes. At the Atlanta Olympic Games in I 996, these sliced as much as two percent off cyclists' and rowers' times, 

Now everyone uses them. The same has happened to the 'altitude tent', developed by Al5 to replicate the effect of altitude training at sea level. But Australia's success story is about more than easily copied technological fixes, and up to now, no nation has replicated its all-encompassing system.

Questions 1-7

Reading Passage l has six paragraphs, A-F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, 4-F, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once

1 a reference to the exchange of expertise between different sports

an explanation of bow visual imaging is employed in investigations

3 a reason for narrowing the scope of research activity

4 how some AIS ideal have been reproducing

5 how obstacles to optimum achievement can be in.vestigated

6 an overview of the funded support of at

7 how performance requirements are calculated before an event

Questions 8-11

Classify the following techniques according to whether the writer states them

A are currently exclusively used by Australians

B will be used in the future by Australians

C are currently used by both Australians and their rivals

Write the correct Leiter, A, B, or CI in boxes 8-11 on your answer sheet.

8 cameras

9 sensors

10 protein tests

11 altitude tents

Reading Questions 12 and 13 Answer the questions below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 12 and 13 on your answer sheet,

12 What is produced to help an athlete plan their performance in an event?

13 By how much did some cyclists' performance improve at the 1996 Olympic Games?

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Australia's Sporting Success Reading Answers 

Cambridge 6 Test 1 Reading Answers

1. B

2. C

3. B

4. F

5. D

6. A

7. E

8. A

9. B

10. A

11. C

12. Competition model

13. 2%


Australia's Sporting Success Reading Answers with Explanation below

Question 1-7:

1. B (para B, first 4 lines: ―Inside the academies, science takes center stage. The AIS

employs more than I00 sports scientists and doctors and collaborates with scores of others in universities and research centers. AlS scientists work across a number of sports, applying skills learned in one - such as building muscle strength in golfers - to others, such as swimming and squash‖)

2. C (para C, last 5 lines: ―the system now used in Australian national competitions. It collects

images from digital cameras running at 50 frames a second and breaks down each part of a swimmer's performance into factors that can be analyzed individually — stroke length, stroke frequency, the average duration of each stroke, velocity, start, lap and finish times, and so on. At the end of each race. SWAN spits out data on each swimmer.‖)

3. B (para B, last 4 lines: ―up by technicians who design instruments to collect data from

athletes. They all focus on one aim: winning. ‗We can't waste our time looking at ethereal scientific  questions  that  don't  help  the  coach  work  with  an  athlete  and  improve performance.‘ says Peter Fricker, chief of science at AIS.‖)

4. F (para F, first 5 lines: ―Of course, there's nothing to stop other countries copying - and

many have tried. Some years ago, the AIS unveiled coolant-lined jackets for endurance athletes. At the Atlanta Olympic Games in l996.these sliced as much as two percent off cyclists‘ and rowers' times. Now everyone uses them. The same has happened to the altitude tent‘, developed by AIS to replicate the effect of altitude training at sea level.‖)

5. D (para D, last 6 lines: ―the example of athletes who may be down with coughs and colds

11 or 12 times a year. After years of experimentation, AIS and the University of Newcastle in New South Wales developed a test that measures how much of the immune-

system protein immunoglobulin A is present in athletes' saliva. If large levels suddenly fall below a certain level, training is eased or dropped altogether. Soon, lgA levels start rising again, and the danger passes. Since the tests were introduced. AIS athletes in all sports have been remarkably successful at staying healthy.‖)

6. A (para A, last 3 lines: ―pros live and train under the eyes of coaches. Another body, the

Australian Sports Commission (ASC), finances programs of excellence in a total of 96 sports for thousands of sportsmen and women. Both provide intensive coaching, training facilities and nutritional advice.‖)

7. E (para E, first 3 lines: ―Using data is a complex business. Well before a championship,

sports scientists and coaches start to prepare the athlete by developing a ‗competition model‘, based on what they expect will be the winning times. ‗You design the model to make that time.‗ says Mason.‖)

Question 8-11:

8. A (para C, line 11-12: ―contribution to sport also includes the development of the SWAN 

(SWimming ANalysis) the system now used in Australian national competitions. It collects images from digital cameras‖)

9. B (para D, line 6-7: ―With the Cooperative Research Centre for Micro Technology in 

Melbourne. they are developing unobtrusive sensors that will be embedded in an athlete's clothes or running shoes‖)

10. A (para D, line 11-13: ―years of experimentation, AIS and the University of Newcastle in New South Wales developed a test that measures how much of the immune system protein immunoglobulin A is present in athletes' saliva. If large levels suddenly fall below a certain level. training is eased or dropped altogether‖)

11. C (para F, line 2-5: ―ago, the AIS unveiled coolant-lined jackets for endurance athletes. 

At the Atlanta Olympic Games in l996.these sliced as much as two percent off cyclists‘ and rowers' times. Now everyone uses them. The same has happened to the altitude tent‘, developed by AIS to replicate the effect of altitude training at sea level.‖)

Question 12-13:

12. (a) competition model‘ (para E, first 2 lines: ―Using data is a complex business. Well 

before a championship, sports scientists and coaches start to prepare the athlete by 

developing a ‗competition model‘, based on what they expect‖)

13. (by) 2%‘ (para F, line 2-3: ―ago, the AIS unveiled coolant-lined jackets for endurance 

athletes. At the Atlanta Olympic Games in l996, these sliced as much as two percent off cyclists‘ and rowers' times.‖)