NOTE: If any key is necessary for the activities we'll be doing here, I will upload them when we finish each unit.
WHEN YOU HEAR THE FINAL WHISTLE
1. F
One of the hardest things for any sportsperson to do is to know when to
retire. Do you retire when you are at your physical 'peak' or do you
wait until your body (or your coach) tells you that it's time to go? But
even harder is finding the answer to the question 'What am I going to
do with the rest of my life?'
2. __________________________________________ 'There's a high risk of depression and people
often find adjusting to a new way of life difficult', says Ian
Cockerill, a sports psychologist. 'For sportspeople, there's an extra
trauma - the loss of status, the loss of recognition, and the loss of
the glamour. That's the hardest part'. As Eddie Acaro, the US jockey
says, 'When a jockey retires, he becomes just another little man'.
3. __________________________________________ Perhaps they just can't stand life
without the 'high' of playing professional sport. Michael Jordan, the
greatest basketball player of all time, retired three times. He retired
once from the Chicago Bulls, made a successful comeback with the Bulls,
then retired again. His second comeback with an inferior team ended in
failure and he retired for ever at the age of 38. Jordan said, 'There
will never be anything I do that will fulfil me as much as competing
did'.
4. __________________________________________
Muhammad Ali needed the money, but his comeback fight, at the age of 39,
against Trevor Berbick, was one of the saddest spectacles in modern
sport. After losing to Berbick, Ali retired permanently. Three years
later he developed Parkinson's disease.
5. __________________________________________ As Jimmy Greaves, an ex-England international
footballer said, 'I think that a lot of players would prefer to be shot
once their career is over'. Many of them spend their retirement in a
continual battle against depression, alcohol, or drugs.
6. ___________________________________________ Franz
Beckenbauer is a classic example of a footballer who won everything with
his club, Bayern Munich. After retiring he became a successful coach
with Bayern and finally president of the club. John McEnroe, the
infamous 'bad boy' of tennis, is now a highly respected and highly paid
TV commentator. But sadly, for most sportspeople these cases are the
exceptions.
EXERCISES
1. Complete the article with sentences A-F below.
A. For some people the pain of saying goodbye never leaves them.
B. Others can't resist the chance of one last "pay day"
C. Some sportspeople go on playing too long.
E. Retirement for people in general is traumatic.
F. One of the hardest things for any sportsperson to do is to know when to retire.
2. Can you remember the noun of these words?
1. depressed -
2. glamorous -
3. lose -
4. recognize -
5. fail -
6. retire -
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