Americans play tennis, hockey and most other international sports but they do not play football in the same way as the rest of the world. The players can run with the ball, touch and push each other. Players wear special clothes for American football with helmets on their heads, because the game can be dangerous. Like international football teams, American teams have eleven players. The field looks different and even the ball is a different shape. American football is very different game.
   Americans love winter sports and ice hockey is the most popular game. This game is very fast and can be dangerous. Basketball is another popular game in America. Only five people in each team.
   Baseball is the most popular summer sport in America. The first American baseball match was in 1839 in New York. To play baseball you need two teams of nine players. Americans start playing baseball young. There are "leagues" which children of eight can join. The top players become big stars and earn a lot of money every year.
   
   Questions:
   1. Describe the way Americans play football.
   2. Do Americans love winter sports?
   3. How many people are there is basketball team?
   4. When did American baseball match first take place?
   5. What do you need to play baseball?
   
   Vocabulary:
   to push — толкать
   helmet — шлем
   shape — форма
   league — лига
   to earn — зарабатывать

   Americans' interest in sports seems excessive to many foreign visitors. Television networks spend millions of dollars arranging to telecast sports events. Publications about sports sell widely. In the US professional athletes can become national heroes.
   Sports are associated with educational institutions in a way is unique. High schools have coaches as faculty members, and school teams compete with each other.
   Nowhere else in the world are sports associated with colleges and universities in the way they are in the States. College sports, especially football, are conducted in an atmosphere of intense excitement and pageantry. Games between teams attract nationwide television audiences.
   The sport that is most popular in most parts of the world — soccer — is not well known in the US. The most popular sports are football and baseball, games that are not played in large number of countries.
   Sports play such an important role in American life that the sociology of sports, sports medicine, and sports psychology have become respectable specializations.
   Many Americans jog every day, or play tennis or bridge two or three times a week. They go on ski tri/ps and hunting expeditions that require weeks of planning and organizing. In the Americans' view, all these activities are worth the discomfort they may cause because they contribute to health and physical fitness. That is probably why Americans are known as a healthy nation.
   
   Questions:
   1. Are Americans interested in sports?
   2. Do professional athletes become national heroes?
   3. Are there sport teams in high schools?
   4. Are there any coaches in the faculty?
   5. What are the most popular sports in the USA?
   6. What specializations have become respectable thanks sport?
   7. Why do Americans spend so much time on sport activities?
   
   Vocabulary:
   excessive — чрезмерный
   unique — уникальный, единственный в своем роде
   high school — средняя школа
   coach — тренер
   pageantry — пышность, блеск
   sociology — социология
   to require — требовать
   to contribute — способствовать
   physical — физический

   Americans are very fond of sport. The most popular sports in the USA are football, which is played from April to October, baseball, played from September to December, basketball, played from October to April and ice hockey, played in most northern cities from October to March.
   American football derives from the English game of rugby. It started at Harvard University in the 1870's. It is a game for two teams of eleven men on the field. The object of the game is to have the control of the ball and to score points by carrying it across the goal-line.
   Baseball is a teamgame derived from the English game of cricket. It is played with a bat and ball by two teams of nine players each, on a field with four bases. Baseball is the national game in the USA and it is very popular in Canada too.
   Basketball is a game which nowadays is popular all over the world. It was invented in 1891. During the 20's the first US league championship was organized. In the 70's the American Championshi p was divided into two leagues: the ABA (American Basketball Association), which does not exist any longer and which played with a blue, red and white ball and the NBA (National Basketball Association).
   The NBA is a professional league which still plays.
   There are more activities which Americans take part in such as golf, swimming, tennis, aerobics, wrestling, etc.
   
   Vocabulary:
   field — поле
   invented — изобретена