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  3. Football Modern football originated in England in the 19th century. The first international football match was played in 187

Football Modern football originated in England in the 19th century. The first international football match was played in 187

admin2010-04-12  48
问题                             Football
    Modern football originated in England in the 19th century. The first international football match was played in 1871 between Scotland and England and the final score was nil all. Nil is the term used in football to indicate a score of zero and nil all means both teams did not score.
    FIFA stands for Federation of International Football Associations and was founded in Paris on 21st May 1904. The first World Cup was held in South America in Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay in July 1930. FIFA’s president at the time, Jules Rimet, was able to persuade 13 teams to meet in Uruguay. Uruguay, planning the celebration of its 100th anniversary of independence in 1930, was assigned the organisation of the first FIFA World Cup. It was the only event not to involve the modern qualifying rounds and the only European teams that came were France, Belgium, Yugoslavia, and Romania. Other European teams either wished to remain in purely amateur events, or argued that the time needed for the trip to South America was far too long. Other than Uruguay six additional South American teams participated, including Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Peru. Two teams remained to complete the final 13 for 1930, Mexico and the United States. Victory and the first World Cup went to Uruguay when they beat Argentina four two in the final.
    The French sculptor, Abel Lafleur, created the first World Cup trophy, the famous Jules Rimet Cup. This trophy had an interesting history. During the Second World War, it was hidden from the Germans under a bed in an Italian home. After surviving World War Ⅱ, the World Cup was stolen in London during a public exhibition just before the 1966 England World Cup. Fortunately, the trophy was found hidden under a bush by a dog named Pickles before the tournament began. It was stolen again in Brazil in 1983 after the soccer superpower won it permanently after their third World Cup success in 1970. The trophy has never been recovered and many believe that thieves melted it down, leaving Brazil with only a replica of the cup. Under FIFA regulations revised after the disappearance of the Jules Rimet Cup, nowadays even three time champions cannot permanently keep the trophy.
    The present trophy is the work of an Italian sculptor named Silvio Gazzaniga and it is 36 centimeters tall and weighs 4.97 kilograms. It was first awarded at the 1974 games in Germany and the champions of the 2006 tournament, also to be held in Germany,  will take home a gold-plated replica, which is a little smaller than the original.
    Brazil and Germany are the most successful teams in the history of World Cup football. Brazil has won the World Cup five times, including the 2002 World Cup in Japan/South Korea, and taken second place twice. Germany has made it to the final seven times and won the World Cup three times. The only player to have won three World Cups is the Brazilian, Pele whose real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento.
    From 9 June to 9 July 2006, 32 teams will be playing in Germany for the title of the 18th FIFA Football World Champion. There will be a total of 64 matches at 12 venues. After the World Cup in 1974, this is the second time Germany will host the greatest football event in the world and 3.2 million football fans and guests are expected from around the world. The opening match is in Munich on 9 June 2006 and the final match will be in Berlin on 9 July 2006. It will be Germany’s second time to host the World Cup after 1974. So far the tournament has been arranged 9 times in Europe, 4 times in Latin America, 2 times in Central America, once in North America and once in Asia( Korea & Japan). It has been never arranged in Africa.
    A record number of 205 national teams participated in the qualifiers and there were some surprises in the results. Of the five teams from Africa, Ghana, Togo, Angola and Cote d’Ivoire( Ivory Coast) qualify for the first time with only Tunisia, reigning African Champions, having played in the World Cup before. All together there are eight "new boys" to the competition including the tiny Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago. There are eight groups with four teams in each one and Trinidad and Tobago finds itself in group B alongside England, Paraguay and Sweden. The other newcomers are Ukraine, Serbia and Montenegro and Czech Republic. They are scattered amongst the remaining seven groups.
    The sixteen tournaments since 1930 have seen only seven different winners but there have been dramatic upsets to the general trend. The United States defeating England  in 1950, North Korea’s defeat of Italy in 1966 and Cameroon’s emergence in the 1980s and their opening match defeat of the Argentinean cup-holders in 1990. New ground was also broken when Japan and Korea were co-hosts of the 2002 World Cup. Up till then the event had always been held in the Americas or Europe.
    It is an event that has captured the world’s imagination and an accumulated audience of over 37 billion people watched the France 98 tournament on television, including approximately 1.3 billion for the final alone. Over 2.7 million people went to watch the 64 matches live in the ten French stadia throughout the country. It was the largest World Cup ever with 32 teams competing and set the trend for subsequent World Cups. Previously the cup table had included only 24 teams.
    As Germany organizes, like Mexico, Italy and France before, its second FIFA World Cup we can note some important changes since its first in 1974. Then sixteen sides took part with only Zaire representing Africa. Now thirty-two teams include African and Asian ones capable of producing a semifinalist and, without doubt, soon a finalist.  World football has come a long way in the last quarter of a century!
Italy has hosted the world cup ______.
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答案twice
解析 依据文章第十段第一句。
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