The Opening Ceremony 开幕式 1
Beijing 2008 Opening Ceremony 北京 2008 奥运开幕式 An Unforgettable Show 一场令人难忘的表演 The 2008 Beijing Olympics began officially on Friday 8th August 2008 at 8pm in front of a crowd of 90,000 eager spectators in the Bird's Nest stadium. Things got off to a bang with an initial firework display which lit up Beijing's skyline, followed by a total of 2,008 energetic drummers beating a countdown. Then the crowd was treated to an amazing sequence of intricatelychoreographed, beautifully-lit vignettes which took them through 5,000 years of Chinese history and culture. After these performances, it was time for the athletes themselves to take centre stage. In keeping with tradition, Olympic founders Greece led the 204 competing nations into the stadium. China's 639 athletes entered last behind towering flag bearer Yao Ming, to a thunderous reception from the crowd. Finally, the cauldron was lit by a jet of fire from Chinese Olympic hero Li Ning, who had been hoisted up to the roof of the stadium on wires. China, of course, was not alone in watching the opening ceremony. British newspaper The Guardian said the show "outdid all of its predecessors in numbers, colour, noise and expense." The Financial Times was equally impressed. "No country ever has or surely will match the Chinese in effort, human power, synchronicity, ingenuity and, it has to be said, money they were willing to put into what was once a little show." No pressure on the next Olympic host city then! With just four years to go, the London Olympic organisers have promised to deliver an equally inspirational ceremony. Let s hope they can pull it off. 2
Glossary 词汇表 eager spectators 热切的观众们 skyline 天际 countdown 倒数计时 intricately-choreographed 复杂的编排 take centre stage 到舞台的中心 flag bearer 旗手 cauldron 大锅, 在这里指奥运体育场内的主火炬 outdid 超越了 synchronicity 同步性 inspirational 鼓舞人心的 things got off to a bang 非常成功的开始 energetic 充满活力的 sequence 次序 vignettes 小插曲, 小片断 towering 高大的 thunderous reception 雷鸣般的接待 hoisted 被吊起来 predecessors 前任, 这里指前任奥运主办国家 ingenuity 独创性 pull it off 圆满完成 1. Reading Quiz 阅读测验 Are these sentences true or false? Circle the correct answer. 以下句子哪句是真? 哪句是假? 请圈出正确答案 1. The 2008 Olympics opened in Beijing on 8 th August at 18:00 hours. 2. There were 2,888 drummers beating the countdown. 3. The Greeks always lead the athletes procession in the opening ceremony. 4. There were 204 athletes representing Greece in the Beijing Olympics. 5. The Financial Times gave positive comments about the opening ceremony. 3
2. Spellings 拼写 Can you remember the correct spellings of these words? Try not to look back at the text! 能默写出下列单词吗? 试试看 1. a) spectators b) specatators c) spectaters 2. a) enegetic b) energetic c) inergetic 3. a) contdown b) cantdown c) countdown 4. a) coreograph b) choreographed c) chroeographed 5. a) hoisted b) hiosted c) hoisded 6. a) vignets b) vingettes c) vignettes 7. a) syncronicity b) synchronicity c) synchronocity 8. a) corldron b) coldrumn c) cauldron 4
3. Label the pictures 标注图片 Look at the pictures. Do you know what they are? To help you, the words are at the bottom of the page. 请看下列图片 你知道这些是什么吗? 请将正确的表达写在图片下面 提示在最下面 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. athletes drummer crowd stadium fireworks 5
4. Wordsearch 单词搜索 Try to find the words associated with Opening Ceremony in the puzzle below. There are ten words to find. Words can be written horizontally (g), vertically (i) or diagonally (m) 请在下面的字谜游戏中, 找出与开幕式有关的英语单词来 共有 10 个单词, 其组成方式可能以水平的 (g) 垂直的 (i) 或对角的 (m) 形式出现 e n t h y d s o s t e c d a y s d k v i k e u a i n g e n u i t y a n u n a t e a c g e l k c l s k y w r w n y i a k d p i n g e a e t n r d r i t o n p q t d e k m o r a s p e c t a t o r n i e s e q u e n c e e i n c d q p a s t a g e r g r r g a h l r o n b g c o u n t d o w n e v l eager ingenuity vignettes skyline spectator inspiring countdown stage sequence cauldron 6
Answers 答案 1. Reading Quiz 阅读测验 Are these sentences true or false? Circle the correct answer. 以下句子哪句是真? 哪句是假? 请圈出正确答案 1. The 2008 Olympics opened in Beijing on 8 th August at 18:00 hours. False 2. There were 2,888 drummers beating the countdown. False 3. The Greeks always lead the athletes procession in the opening ceremony. True 2. Spellings 拼写 Can you remember the correct spellings of these words? Try not to look back at the text! 能默写出下列单词吗? 试试看 1. a) spectators b) specatators c) spectaters 2. a) enegetic b) energetic c) inergetic 3. a) contdown b) cantdown c) countdown 4. a) coreograph b) choreographed c) chroeographed 5. a) hoisted b) hiosted c) hoisded 6. a) vignets b) vingettes c) vignettes 7. a) syncronicity b) synchronicity c) synchronocity 8. a) corldron b) coldrumn c) cauldron 4. There were 204 athletes representing Greece in the Beijing Olympics. False 5. The Financial Times gave positive comments about the opening ceremony. True 3. Label the pictures 标注图片 Look at the pictures. Do you know what they are? To help you, the words are at the bottom of the page. 请看下列图片 你知道这些是什么吗? 请将正确的表达写在图片下面 提示在最下面 1. _stadium 2. _drummer_ 4. Wordsearch 单词搜索 e s c a v k a i n g e n u i t y u n e g l l s r n i d p e n r i t e o r s p e c t a t o r n i s e q u e n c e n s t a g e g c o u n t d o w n 3. _crowd_ 4. _fireworks_ 5. athletes_ 7