Culture
Famous sporting
events
1 Read the text and match the paragraphs with the
headings. Be carefull There are two extra headings.
1 Learning to row
2 International teams
3 The history of the Boat Race
4 The people in the boats
5 Two colours of blue
6 When, where, what is it?
7 Why is it so popular?
The Boat Race
A Every year, in spring, about 250 000 people go to the
River Thames in London to watch the Boat Race.
And another 28 million people around the world
watch it on TV. The Boat Race is sometimes called
the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, and it's
a rowing race between the universities of Oxford
and Cambridge. The rowers race from Putney Bridge
to Mortlake. It's a distance of 6.7 kilometres, and it
takes between 16 and 18 minutes.
B There are eight rowers in each boat. They're all big,
heavy men who weigh between 95 and 110 kilos.
There's also a cox in the boat, who doesn't row.
The cox has to be a very light person, so it's often
a woman. She sits at the front of the boat and steers
it. She also shouts at the rowers to make them row
better and go faster. All the people in the rowing
teams are students at the two universities.
C The rowers in the Oxford and Cambridge teams wear
blue uniforms and they're called Blues. The Cambridge
team wear light blue and the Oxford team wear dark blue.
Cambridge supporters shout, 'Come on the light blues!"
And Oxford supporters shout, 'Come on the dark blues!"
D Although the Boat Race is a famous British sporting event,
a lot of the rowers are not British. In 2010, for example,
only six people in the two teams were British. The other
12 were American, German, Canadian, Irish and Dutch.
E Why are people interested in a race that is just
18 minutes long? People like it because it's free. You don't
need a ticket and it's a fun day out near the river. Before
and after the race, people have picnics in the park. People
also like it because it's a very old tradition. The first
Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race was on the Thames
near Oxford in 1829.