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  3. Olympic Torches Every two years, people around the world wait in anticipation as a torch-beating runner enters the Olympic a

Olympic Torches Every two years, people around the world wait in anticipation as a torch-beating runner enters the Olympic a

admin2009-04-23  37
问题                                         Olympic Torches
    Every two years, people around the world wait in anticipation as a torch-beating runner enters the Olympic arena and lights the cauldron(主火炬). The symbolic lighting of the Olympic flame marks the beginning of another historic Olympic Games.
    The opening ceremony is the end of a long journey for the Olympic torah. By the time it arrives in the stadium, it has traveled thousands of miles. It may have crossed oceans and deserts and traversed mountains. It may have been carried on planes, trains, bicycles, boats, and even dog sleds. And it will have passed through the hands of thousands of different people around the globe. This article chronicles the history of the Olympic torch, reveals how it is designed to stay lit through even the harshest weather conditions, and follows its path from Olympia, Greece, to the Olympic Games.
History of the Torch
    Fire is always held great power for humans. It cooks our food, keeps us warm, and lights our way through the dark.
    The ancient Greeks revered the power and fire. In Greek mythology, the god Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and gave it to humans. To celebrate the passing of fire from Prometheus to man, the Greeks would hold relay races. Athletes would pass a lit torch to one another until the winner reached the finish line.
    The Greeks held their first Olympic Games in 776 B.C. The Games, held every four years at Olympia, honored Zeus and other Greek gods. The Olympics also marked the beginning of a period of peace for the often warring Greeks. At the start of the Games, runners called "heralds of peace" would travel throughout Greece, declaring a "sacred truce(休战) "to all wars between rival city-states. The truce would remain in place for the duration of the games, so that spectators could safely travel to the Olympics.
    A constantly burning flame was a regular fixture throughout Greece. It usually graced the alters(祭坛) of the Greek gods. In Olympia, there was an altar dedicated to Hera, goddess of birth and marriage. At the start of the Olympic Games, the Greeks would ignite a cauldron of flames upon Hera’s altar. They lit the flame using a hollow disc or mirror called a skaphia, which, much like the modern oval mirror, focused the sun’s rays into a single point to light the flame. The flame would burn throughout the Games as a sign of purity, reason, and peace.
    The Greeks stopped holding their Olympic Games after about a thousand years, and the torch, relays and lighting of the flame also stopped. The Olympic Games did not reemerge until 1896, when the first modern Games were held in Athens. The torch relay took a bit longer to reemerge.
The Birth of the Modern Torch Relay
    The flame was reintroduced to the Olympics at the 1928 Amsterdam Games. A cauldron was lit, but there was no torch relay.
    The first Olympic torch relay was at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games. Carl Diem, a German history professor and Secretary General of the Organizing Committee of the Games inn, educed the relay as a way of reconnecting the modern Olympics with the Games’ historical roots. The flame was lit in Olympia, Greece, just as it had been centuries before. Then it was carried to Berlin, Germany, for the start of the Olympics.
    The torch relay was not introduced to the Winter Olympics until the 1952 Games. It was lit that year not in Olympia, Greece, but in Norway, which was chosen because it was the birthplace of skiing. But since the 1964 Olympics at Innsbruck, Austria, every Olympic Games—Winter and Summer—has begun with a torch-lighting ceremony in Olympia, Greece, followed by a torch relay to the Olympic stadium.
The Lighting of the Olympic Torch
    The Olympic torch is lit several months before the start of the actual Games. The flame begins its journey at the site of the original Olympic Games—Olympia, Greece. It is lit,just as it was in ancient times, at the Temple of Hera.
    An actress dressed as a ceremonial priestess, in the robes of the ancient Greeks, lights the torch via the same technique used in the original Games. She uses a parabolic(抛物线型的) mirror to focus light rays from the sun. The parabolic mirror has a curved shape. When it is held toward the sun, the curvature focuses the rays to a single point. The energy from the sun creates a great deal of heat. The priestess holds a torch in the center of the parabolic mirror, and the heat ignites the fuel in the torch, sparking a flame.
    If the sun is not shining on the day of the lighting ceremony, the priestess can light the torch with a flame that was lit on a sunny day before the ceremony.
    The flame is carried in a fire pot to an altar in the ancient Olympic stadium,where it is used to light the first runner’s torch. For the Winter Games, the relay actually begins at the monument to Pierre de Coubertin (the man who founded the modern Olympic Games in 1896), which is located near the stadium.
    Then, the relay begins.
The Torch Relay
    The Olympic Torch Relay begins with the torch lighting in Olympia, Greece. From there, the journey to the host city varies from year to year. The Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (OCOG) determines the route, as well as the theme, modes of transportation for the torch, and the stops that it will take along its way to the Opening Ceremony.
    The torch is generally carried from one country to another on a plane. Once it arrives in a city, it usually spends one day being carried from torchbearer to torchbearer on foot. It may also be ferried from place to place by car, boat, bicycle, motorcycle, dog sled, horse, or virtually any other type of conveyance.
    On certain legs of the relay, the torch must be housed in a special container. For a trip across the Great Barrier Reef before the 2000 Olympic Games, a special torch was designed to burn underwater. On airplanes, where open flames are not allowed, the flame is typically stored in an enclosed lamp, much like a Miner’s lamp. At night, it is kept in a special cauldron until the relay begins once again the following day.
    As in any relay race, each runner carries the torch for only one short leg of its trip. As a runner completes a leg, he lights the torch of the next person in the relay.
    It is considered a great privilege to be chosen as a torchbearer. Athlete, actors, musicians, sports figures, and politicians have all carried the flame. In 1996, boxing legend Muhammed Ali lit the Olympic cauldron to mark the start of the Games in Atlanta. But the brunt(主要的重荷) of the running is done by average citizens all around the world.
    Almost anyone can carry a torch, provided that he is at least 14 years old and is able to carry it for at least 400 meters (437 yards). Handicapped people can be (and have been) torchbearers—they can carry the torch while riding in a wheelchair. The torchbearers are chosen by the Olympic sponsors and organizers, usually because they have made a significant contribution to their community and because they personify the theme of that particular Olympics. The Olympic sponsors (for example, Coca-Cola) also get to choose several torchbearers from within their organizations.
    Each torchbearer is accompanied by a caravan with security personnel, a medical team, the media, and extra torches in case the torch the runner is carrying goes out.
    At the end of the relay, the last torchbearer enters the Olympic stadium in the host city. The identity of that torchbearer is usually kept secret until the last moment. The final torchbearer is usually an Olympic athlete, sports figure, or an individual who has made a very special contribution to society. That individual runs around the stadium track once, then lights the Olympic cauldron, signaling the official start of the Olympic Games.
    When the competition ends about two weeks later, the flame is extinguished at the Closing Ceremony, marking the end of the Games.
选项 A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案B
解析 由题干关键词opening ceremony可将答案定位至第二段第一句。The opening ceremony is the end of a long journey for the Olympic torch，此句说明题干陈述中starts…from the opening ceremony是错误的。
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