full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Armand D'Angour: The ancient origins of the Olympics

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Thousands of yreas in the making, what began as part of a religious festival honoring the Greek god Zeus in the rural Greek town of oipymla has today become the gaseetrt show of sporting excellence on Earth. The inception date in 776 BC became the basis for the Greek's earliest calendar, where time was marked in four-year ietmernncs called olympiads. What could it be? Why, it's the Olympic games, of course. Competition feosrts eeelnlxcce, or so tghouht the Ancient Greeks. In atoiddin to sporting events, contests were held for music, singing, and poetry. You can read about them all yourself in classical literary works, like Homer's "Iliad" and Virgil's "Aeneid." Even mythical heroes appreciate a good contest every now and then, wouldn't you say? For the first thirteen games, the Ancient Greek Olympics featured just one enevt, the two hundred yard dash. But over time, new exciting contests, like bxoing, chariot and mule racing, and even a footrace where the competitors wore a full suit of armor enticed many hopeful champions into the Olympic stadium. The cnmiboed running, jumping, wlntirseg, javelin throwing, and hrliung the discus events known as the pentathlon inspired world-class cttmeioiopn, and the pankration, a no holds barred fight where only biting and eye-gouging were prohbiited, ensured the toughest men were victorious. And victorious they were. Nobody tops the laocl baker Coroebus, who 776 BC became the very first oipylmc champion. And we'll never forget Orsippus of meraga, the 720 BC Olympic victor tore away his loincloth so he could race unimpeded, inaugurating the Ancient Greek tradition of competing in the nude. Now there's a winning streak, if ever we've seen one. But all good things must end. In 391 AD, the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius banned pagan pcieartcs, so the world soon bid a fond farewell to the Olympic games. But just like those early pankration athletes, you can't keep a good one down, and 1500 years later in 1896, the mdreon Olympic games kicked off in Athens, gceree. Today, the Summer and Winter Olympics brnig international world-class athletes together by the thousands, uniting fans by the biiollns for the world's foremost sporting competition. ciiuts, Altius, Fortius. Three cheers for the Olympics.

Open Cloze


Thousands of _____ in the making, what began as part of a religious festival honoring the Greek god Zeus in the rural Greek town of _______ has today become the ________ show of sporting excellence on Earth. The inception date in 776 BC became the basis for the Greek's earliest calendar, where time was marked in four-year __________ called olympiads. What could it be? Why, it's the Olympic games, of course. Competition _______ __________, or so _______ the Ancient Greeks. In ________ to sporting events, contests were held for music, singing, and poetry. You can read about them all yourself in classical literary works, like Homer's "Iliad" and Virgil's "Aeneid." Even mythical heroes appreciate a good contest every now and then, wouldn't you say? For the first thirteen games, the Ancient Greek Olympics featured just one _____, the two hundred yard dash. But over time, new exciting contests, like ______, chariot and mule racing, and even a footrace where the competitors wore a full suit of armor enticed many hopeful champions into the Olympic stadium. The ________ running, jumping, _________, javelin throwing, and _______ the discus events known as the pentathlon inspired world-class ___________, and the pankration, a no holds barred fight where only biting and eye-gouging were __________, ensured the toughest men were victorious. And victorious they were. Nobody tops the _____ baker Coroebus, who 776 BC became the very first _______ champion. And we'll never forget Orsippus of ______, the 720 BC Olympic victor tore away his loincloth so he could race unimpeded, inaugurating the Ancient Greek tradition of competing in the nude. Now there's a winning streak, if ever we've seen one. But all good things must end. In 391 AD, the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius banned pagan _________, so the world soon bid a fond farewell to the Olympic games. But just like those early pankration athletes, you can't keep a good one down, and 1500 years later in 1896, the ______ Olympic games kicked off in Athens, ______. Today, the Summer and Winter Olympics _____ international world-class athletes together by the thousands, uniting fans by the ________ for the world's foremost sporting competition. ______, Altius, Fortius. Three cheers for the Olympics.

Solution


  1. combined
  2. years
  3. competition
  4. modern
  5. billions
  6. excellence
  7. local
  8. hurling
  9. fosters
  10. thought
  11. bring
  12. boxing
  13. greatest
  14. wrestling
  15. greece
  16. citius
  17. increments
  18. event
  19. olympic
  20. addition
  21. practices
  22. megara
  23. olympia
  24. prohibited

Original Text


Thousands of years in the making, what began as part of a religious festival honoring the Greek god Zeus in the rural Greek town of Olympia has today become the greatest show of sporting excellence on Earth. The inception date in 776 BC became the basis for the Greek's earliest calendar, where time was marked in four-year increments called olympiads. What could it be? Why, it's the Olympic games, of course. Competition fosters excellence, or so thought the Ancient Greeks. In addition to sporting events, contests were held for music, singing, and poetry. You can read about them all yourself in classical literary works, like Homer's "Iliad" and Virgil's "Aeneid." Even mythical heroes appreciate a good contest every now and then, wouldn't you say? For the first thirteen games, the Ancient Greek Olympics featured just one event, the two hundred yard dash. But over time, new exciting contests, like boxing, chariot and mule racing, and even a footrace where the competitors wore a full suit of armor enticed many hopeful champions into the Olympic stadium. The combined running, jumping, wrestling, javelin throwing, and hurling the discus events known as the pentathlon inspired world-class competition, and the pankration, a no holds barred fight where only biting and eye-gouging were prohibited, ensured the toughest men were victorious. And victorious they were. Nobody tops the local baker Coroebus, who 776 BC became the very first Olympic champion. And we'll never forget Orsippus of Megara, the 720 BC Olympic victor tore away his loincloth so he could race unimpeded, inaugurating the Ancient Greek tradition of competing in the nude. Now there's a winning streak, if ever we've seen one. But all good things must end. In 391 AD, the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius banned pagan practices, so the world soon bid a fond farewell to the Olympic games. But just like those early pankration athletes, you can't keep a good one down, and 1500 years later in 1896, the modern Olympic games kicked off in Athens, Greece. Today, the Summer and Winter Olympics bring international world-class athletes together by the thousands, uniting fans by the billions for the world's foremost sporting competition. Citius, Altius, Fortius. Three cheers for the Olympics.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
ancient greek 2
olympic games 2


Important Words


  1. ad
  2. addition
  3. altius
  4. ancient
  5. armor
  6. athens
  7. athletes
  8. baker
  9. banned
  10. barred
  11. basis
  12. bc
  13. began
  14. bid
  15. billions
  16. biting
  17. boxing
  18. bring
  19. calendar
  20. called
  21. champion
  22. champions
  23. chariot
  24. cheers
  25. christian
  26. citius
  27. classical
  28. combined
  29. competing
  30. competition
  31. competitors
  32. contest
  33. contests
  34. coroebus
  35. dash
  36. date
  37. discus
  38. earliest
  39. early
  40. earth
  41. emperor
  42. ensured
  43. enticed
  44. event
  45. events
  46. excellence
  47. exciting
  48. fans
  49. farewell
  50. featured
  51. festival
  52. fight
  53. fond
  54. footrace
  55. foremost
  56. forget
  57. fortius
  58. fosters
  59. full
  60. games
  61. god
  62. good
  63. greatest
  64. greece
  65. greek
  66. greeks
  67. held
  68. heroes
  69. holds
  70. honoring
  71. hopeful
  72. hurling
  73. inaugurating
  74. inception
  75. increments
  76. inspired
  77. international
  78. javelin
  79. jumping
  80. kicked
  81. literary
  82. local
  83. loincloth
  84. making
  85. marked
  86. megara
  87. men
  88. modern
  89. mule
  90. music
  91. mythical
  92. nude
  93. olympia
  94. olympiads
  95. olympic
  96. olympics
  97. orsippus
  98. pagan
  99. pankration
  100. part
  101. pentathlon
  102. poetry
  103. practices
  104. prohibited
  105. race
  106. racing
  107. read
  108. religious
  109. roman
  110. running
  111. rural
  112. show
  113. singing
  114. sporting
  115. stadium
  116. streak
  117. suit
  118. summer
  119. theodosius
  120. thirteen
  121. thought
  122. thousands
  123. throwing
  124. time
  125. today
  126. tops
  127. tore
  128. toughest
  129. town
  130. tradition
  131. unimpeded
  132. uniting
  133. victor
  134. victorious
  135. winning
  136. winter
  137. wore
  138. works
  139. world
  140. wrestling
  141. yard
  142. years
  143. zeus