EXTRA READING COMPREHENSION 8

  1  Read the text. What do the numbers below refer to?

RUNNING A MARATHON How many kilometres can you run? Maybe you can run two or three kilometres easily. But what about 42.195 kilometres? That’s the official distance of a marathon. The name marathon comes from an ancient Greek legend. According to the legend, in 490 BC, a Greek messenger was sent from Marathon to Athens to tell the people about the Greek victory over the Persians. The messenger, Pheidippides, ran to Athens without stopping. It was about 40 kilometres, and after he gave people his message, he fell down and died. Is the legend of Pheidippides true? People don’t know the answer, but the legend is very well known in Greece. When the first modern Olympic games were held in Athens in 1896, Pierre de Courbertin, the organiser of the games, decided to have a 40-kilometre marathon race like the one in the legend. In 1908, 2.195 kilometres were added to the marathon at the London Olympics so athletes could run from Windsor Castle to the royal box at the Olympic stadium in White City. Later, people decided to make 42.195 kilometres the official distance. Today, people compete in more than 800 marathons a year. They must train hard for many months to run this distance. Some people run quickly and some run slowly, but everyone receives a medal for finishing a marathon.

       1.  42.195   ……………………                      5.  1908    ……………………

       2.  490        ……………………                      6.  2.195   ……………………

       3.  40          ……………………                      7.  800      ……………………

       4.  1896      ……………………

  2   Answer the questions according to the article.

1.       Who told the Greek people about their victory?
2.        What did Pierre de Coubertin organise?
3.        Where did the 1908 marathon begin?
4.        What do all marathon participants receive?