1 . The butterfly, which is competitive swimming’s newest stroke (划水), was developed in the mid-1930s, but it wasn’t allowed in the Olympics until 1956. The story of the butterfly is a good illustration of how coaches and swimmers are constantly searching for ways to improve stroke efficiency.
During the 1920s, the Japanese Olympic coaches used underwater photography to research stroke mechanics, and their efforts paid off when Japanese competitors won five of the six men’s swimming gold medals at the 1932 Games in Los Angeles.
It was a wake-up call to the rest of the swimming world, and one of the top US coaches — David Armbruster at the University of Iowa — began doing his own filming.
Armbruster was seeking to make the breaststroke faster. He knew that the action of bringing their arms forward underwater slowed breaststrokes down, so he came up with a method of bringing the arms forward over the water. The revised stroke (he kept the breaststroke kick) brought great improvements in speed.
The following year, Jack Sieg, an Iowa swimmer, developed a technique involving swimming on his side and beating his legs in unison (一致) similar to a fish tail. As Armbruster later explained in the book Weissmuller to Spitz: The History and Background of the Olympic Games: “Sieg tried the same action while swimming face down. Sieg synchronized his leg action with the butterfly arm action using two leg beats to each arm pull.” But the kick was ruled illegal because the legs moved in the vertical (垂直的) plane.
Within a few years, nearly every breaststroker was using this overarm butterfly action without the kick. The pure butterfly wasn’t legalized for some two decades, but at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne “the fly” became an official event.
1. The best title of the article is _____.| A．Why did the coaches and swimmers improve stroke efficiency? |
| B．How did the butterfly come into being? |
| C．How did the Japanese wake up the swimming world? |
| D．When did “the fly” become an official event? |
| A．wake up the swimming world |
| B．be paid more money |
| C．know how to be a mechanic |
| D．improve stroke efficiency |
| A．15 | B．20 | C．30 | D．35 |
| A．The Japanese coaches improved butterfly stroke. |
| B．David Armbruster used filming to study stroke mechanics. |
| C．Sieg came up with the idea of beating legs like a fish tail. |
| D．The butterfly was added to the Olympics in 1956. |
2 . History has been made at the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia, as men competed in synchronized swimming(花样游泳) for the first time .
There was nothing in the world that could prevent July 26, 2015 from being the best day in Bill May’s life. The 36-year-old American synchronized swimmer became the first male world champion in mixed synchronized swimming.
“It’s something that I have dreamed of my entire life,” said May. His partner Christina Jones believed “this is the future of synchronized swimming”.
Synchronized swimming has been an Olympic sport since 1984, but only as an event for women. Nevertheless, men kept training in the hope that a chance might come for them to compete at the top international level, at the Olympics or the World Championships.
“Men’s choreography(舞蹈编排) is different from women’s. It is a completely different style. In a mixed duet(混双项目) the man should personify strength and power The woman, on the contrary, beauty and grace,” Russian male synchronized swimmer Alexander Maltsev said.
However, some people still believe that synchronized swimming should be a sport purely for women. Although men are stronger, they are less flexible so it is harder to get the necessary extension in: the legs. Buoyancy(浮力) is also an issue. The sport is very difficult for men in general, because men don’t actually float like women.
As times have changed, women now can compete in every category of sport at the Olympics, but there still remain two that are closed off to men-synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics(艺术体操).
Some see FINA’s change as a sign that the International Olympic Committee(IOC)may also be ready to include mixed duets soon. Nevertheless, the IOC says that it will only consider adopting male synchronized swimming after a formal request from FINA and no such request has ever been made.
It may take many years for the IOC to open the door to male synchronized swimming but if and when it does, one thing is certain. “If synchronized swimming went to the Olympics, I would definitely be there to compete,” said Bill May, “even if I am 85. ”
1. According to the passage, Bill May dreamt of _______.| A．being the first male champion swimmer at the Olympic Games |
| B．being a professional synchronized swimmer and defeating other competitors |
| C．having a partner who could help him win the championship at the top international- level |
| D．competing in a world championship of synchronized swimming as a male athlete |
| A．they never gave up training |
| B．they kept appealing to the Olympic committee |
| C．they made synchronized swimming known to more people |
| D．they tried to gain support from the female swimmers |
①flexibility ②judgement ③floatability ④strength
| A．①② | B．①③ |
| C．②③ | D．③④ |
| A．FINA hasn’t made the formal request |
| B．Male synchronized swimmers are not fully prepared |
| C．Female synchronized swimmers are strongly against it |
| D．Rhythmic gymnastics hasn’t been adopted |
