1 . Wimbledon is the most important sporting event of the British summer. Since the first tournament (锦标赛) was played in 1877, the competition has become a global sporting event attended by over half a million people, and watched on television by millions.

Although the Wimbledon tennis championship (锦标赛) has been around for more than a century, the sport of tennis has a much longer history. Most experts agree that the modern game has its origins in a courtyard ball game played by French monks in the 11th century.

Much has changed since the first Wimbledon Tournament in 1877. The first champion, Spencer Gore, won a prize of £12;this year the prize money is £630,000. Indeed, success in tennis championships is a very profitable (有收益的) business. 2004 Wimbledon champion, Roger Federer has won nearly $17,000,000 in prize money since 1998. Even more impressive, Serena and Venus Williams have won $30,000,000 between them over the last ten years.

Although Wimbledon has traditionally been dominated by Americans and Europeans, other countries are beginning to produce world-class players. Zheng Jie and Yan Zi won China’s first Wimbledon title on July 9, 2006. They beat Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain and Paola Suarez of Argentina in the women’s doubles final.

In the future all Chinese competitors will be under pressure to do well; their coach, Jiang Hongwei, has gone on record as saying, “My goal is to lift my players into the top 30.”

On March 29, 1974, farmers were digging     1     (well) northeast of Xi’an when they made an amazing find: the bodies of life - sized figures These figures     2     (confirm) from the Qin Dynasty by archaeologists later. People dug up statues of more than 500 warriors, 24 horses, and 6 chariots in that same field within weeks, making     3     the archaeological find of the century.

The     4     (found) of the Qin Dynasty was Qinshihuang, who made his capital the city of Xianyang, which is on the northwestern border. It was no secret that when Qinshihuang died, he was buried in     5     enormous tomb more than 70 meters tall, northeast of Xi’an. About 500 secondary tombs and sites were discovered nearby.     6    , through the ages, details of his tomb had become forgotten so when the first terracotta soldiers were unearthed in 1974, the whole world reacted     7     surprise.

Only a small part of the area around Qinshihuang’s tomb bas been explored, and the contents of the tomb itself is still a mystery. According to old stories, it contains a     8     (mass), underground palace, filled with treasure. While some research has been done on the tomb, and it appears     9     these old stories may be true, the tomb has not been discovered because of the challenges     10     (involve) in preserving what is found It could take many more years to discover all the secrets buried there.

7 . Once Popular Sports in Ancient Capital Xi'an

The ancient capital Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi province is holding the National Games. As the capital of 13 dynasties throughout Chinese history, the ancient city has never been far from sports. Starting from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, the city has held many sports events.

Cuju: Origin of modern soccer

Cuju was an ancient Chinese competitive game involving kicking a ball through an opening into a net. As the ancestor of soccer, it first appeared in the renowned ancient Chinese historical work Zhan Guo Ce（“Strategies of the Warring States”）, which describedCuju as a form of entertainment among the general public. Later, cuju was commonly played in the army for military training purposes, during the Han Dynasty.

Jiaodi: Chinese-style wrestling

Sumo, known as Japan's “national sport”, actually started in ancient China. Sumo was called jiaodi or jiaoli in ancient times. Ancient jiaodi,a Chinese-style wrestling, was performed by athletes wearing ox horns and wrestling with each other imitating wild oxen. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, jiaodi was highly favored by emperors. In the Tang Dynasty, jiaodi was part of military training and a kind of entrainment and athletic sports.

Jiju: Ancient polo

Jiju is a sport which uses a stick to hit balls while riding on a horse, pretty similar to modern polo. It was popular in the royal court and among common people in the Tang Dynasty. There were many fields for playing polo in the court and it was also a major military training program in the army. In the Tang Dynasty capital, there were formal polo courts, such as the stadium pavilion in Chang' an palace.

Archery

During ancient times, the origin of archery was closely related with hunting and defense. Ancient archery was not only an athletic event,a military training program, and an entertainment activity, but also part of education. As early as in Zhou Dynasty, the archery was listed as one of the six practical disciplines, also called the Six Arts, becoming an important and competitive form.