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CONVERSATION WORKSHEET: SPORTS Part 1: Vocabulary Builder

A Sport nouns
1 Match the sports to the places where you do them. Some can be used more than once.
1 baseball ____

a rink

2 tennis ____

b court

3 ice hockey ____

c bike lane

4 soccer ____

d field

5 basketball ____

e court

6 surfing ___

f ocean

7 swimming ____

g cliff

8 skateboarding ____

h slope

9 horseback riding ____

i pitch

10 cricket ____

j pool

11 skiing _____

k arena

12 climbing _____

l skate park

13 cycling _____

2 Match the sports from the box to the nouns.

baseball basketball cricket golf gymnastics hockey running skiing soccer tennis

1 hoop

________

2 lift

________

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3 net

_________

4 goal

_________

5 wicket

________

6 base

_______

7 sand trap

______

8 balance beam

________

9 puck

________

10 track

_________

B Verbs for playing sports.

1 In what sports do you use these verbs? (Some can be used in more than one sport.)
kick swing throw jump shoot catch pass run pitch dive tackle score
Baseball

American football

Soccer (football)

Basketball

Swimming

Kick

2 Complete the sentences with verbs from the table.

1 If you move your leg back farther you can _____ the ball with more force.
2 The reason baseball players wear a leather mitt is so they can _____ the ball without injuring their hand.
3 Susan is afraid of heights, so she doesn't like to _____ from the high board into the pool.
4 Darryl is the shortest player on the team, but he can _____ so high that he almost always gets the ball
through the hoop.
5 If you're surrounded by players from the other team, you should _____ the ball to a teammate in a
better position.
6 Do you want to _____ your golf club like Tiger Woods? A good grip, posture and a lot of practice will
help you.
7 Young children dont _____ the baseball from a professional distance. Its too far for them.
8 The Wolf soccer team _______ twice in the first 15 minutes of the first half of the game, killing the
other team off and winning the game by 3 to nothing.

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C Winning and losing.

Complete the sports news with the correct verb in the correct form. (Two of the verbs are
interchangeable.)
win

defeat

beat

lose

tie

1 FOOTBALL: Ukraine ____ the match against England and is heading to the next World Cup.
2 TENNIS: Rogers knee injury affected his performance and unfortunately he _____the US Open title this
year.
3 BASKETBALL: Is there any team which can _____ the fabulous Lakers?
4 HOCKEY: The German womens hockey team ______ with New Zealand 2-2 .
5 BASEBALL: The NY Yankees celebrate after ____the Minnesota Twins 3 to1.
D Read and record
1 Read about two people talking about a football game they attended. Mark where they were sitting
during the match. Then, record the text. (You can use Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/stream )

Paul: I didn't see you at the game last night. What happened to you?
Mark: I was there. I arrived late, so I couldn't get to my regular seat in the double-C section.
P: So where did you end up sitting?

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M: I was at the north end of the stadium. The scoreboard was just behind me, so I couldn't see any of the
scores go up. It was pretty frustrating.
P: It must have been! I was a lot luckier than you. I ran into an old friend who writes about sports for the
newspaper, and he invited me to sit with him.
M: So you were sitting directly opposite me?
P: No. There are two press boxes in the stadium. We were in the other one, with a view right across the
field from the sidelines.
M: Lucky you! So what did you think of the game?
P: Our team was a mess! They didn't seem to know what they were doing.
M: Yeah, they're normally a lot better than that. I guess all teams have their off days.
P: I just wish it wasn't when I had such a great seat.

2 Listen to a peers recording. Answer the questions.

1 How was the game?
2 Why did Paul feel so frustrated?
3 Why was Mark luckier than Paul?

E READING
Kobe Bryant (1978- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Can you imagine if one of the most successful basketball players in the world had
decided to go in for another sport? It's a bit like picturing an alternate universe where
up is down, down is up, and basketball pros shoot hoops with their feet. Or is it?
Kobe Bryant's father moved his family to Italy when Kobe was just six years old. His
father was also a basketball player and was pursuing a professional career in Europe. It
was there that Kobe had his first exposure to soccer a far more popular sport in Italy than basketball
and he fell in love with it. He normally went to the parks to play basketball, and he would often get in on a
game of soccer before getting to the basketball court.
Was he a good player? "I wasn't anything spectacular," Bryant says. "I would have moments of doing
something crazy that really wasn't done on purpose. I'd pull off a nice move that was unintentional." He
started out as a goalkeeper because his arms were so long and he wasn't used to handling the ball in the
field. Later on he improved, and got to play midfield.

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When his family returned to the US in 1991, there were very few kids who played soccer in his
Philadelphia neighborhood, so he focused on basketball. But if his family had stayed in Italy? "I would
have kept playing [soccer], that's for sure," he says. "I wanted to play for AC Milan. That was my team
growing up." Surprisingly, he has never seen the team play in person. While his family was in Italy, his
mother wouldn't let him go to soccer matches because she thought the crowds were too violent and that
he could get hurt. Nowadays, Bryant imagines what a US soccer team would be like if he and other great
basketball players had grown up playing soccer instead. "If we had played soccer all our lives, I think [the
US soccer team] would have been pretty potent." And it would certainly be the tallest team in the world!
[adapted from: http://www.jetsinsider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123637 ]

1 Draw Kobe Bryant's three key life moments.

________________________________________

2 Which moment marks a turning point in his career? Why?

_______________________________________________________.
3 Find five sport terms in the text.
goalkeeper

Scroll down for the answer key

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Answer key
CW Vocabulary Builder SPORTS
A 1)
1d
2b
3a
4d
5e
6f
7 j/f
8l
9k
10 i
11 h
12 g
13 c
2)
1 basketball
2 skiing
3 tennis
4 soccer
5 cricket
6 baseball
7 golf
8 gymnastics
9 hockey
10 running

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B1
Baseball

American football

Soccer (football)

Basketball

Swimming

throw

kick

kick

shoot

dive

catch

pass

pass

jump

jump

pitch

tackle

run

run

run

score

score

throw

swing

score

score

B2
1 kick
2 catch
3 dive
4 jump
5 pass
6 swing
7 pitch
8 scored

C
1 won
2 lost
3 defeat/beat
4 tied
5 beating/defeating

D Read and record

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Script
1
Mark was sitting NORTH V
Paul was sitting Press box L
2
1 It was not a good game.
2 Because he couldnt see the scoreboard from where he was sitting.
3 Because a friend who works for a sports newspaper gave him seat in the press box from where he had
an excellent view across the field.

E
1
1978

1984(6 years old) 1991 (13 years old)

________________________________________

was born in moved to Italy/played soccer

moved back to US. Focused on basketball and became a star

2
Even though Kobe Bryant had become a good midfielder in Italy, soccer was not that popular in the US, so
he started playing basketball and became a star.
3
Soccer, basketball player, shoot hoops, soccer, field, midfielder, team, ball, basketball court, soccer match

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