Grade 7 Language Structure and Use

The Tokyo Olympics 2021 (1) Over two thousand seven hundred years ago, the Olympics began as part of a religious festival in Olympia in ancient Greece. The Greeks took part in the Olympic Games to celebrate the Greek Gods, Zeus and Hera. Only men and boys were allowed to take part in the events, which included wrestling, boxing, long jump, javelin, discus, and chariot racing. The games occurred every four years, until the Greek Empire was defeated and they were forgotten about. (2) In 1894, the games were resurrected and the International Olympic Committee was formed. Since the first modern games in 1896, the Olympic Games have taken place every four years, with athletes from all over the world taking part in different events. Olympic medals are awarded to athletes who come 1st, 2nd or 3rd in their event. Gold is awarded to 1st, silver to 2nd and bronze to 3rd place. (3) In the ancient Olympic Games, to show the start of the Olympics, a torch was lit outside of the Temple of Hera. The flame of the torch was produced using the rays of the Sun. Messengers took the torch around the country so that people knew that the games were going to begin. Today the torch is lit, as it was during the ancient Olympic Games. The flame travels around Greece and then to the country where the games will be taking place. (4) In 2021 Tokyo will be hosting the Summer Olympics from 23rd July to 8th August. South Africa will be sending teams to compete in the various events. South Africa has its hopes pinned on bringing home several medals in swimming. Swimming has been the second most successful sport for South Africa, apart from athletics, with a total of 19 medals being won during the 2012 Olympics. (5) Swimming was first introduced as an Olympic sport in 1896 in Athens and has been included at every Summer Games since then. At first, only crawl or freestyle events took place. In 1900, at the Paris Olympics, the first backstroke race was added and, in 1904, breaststroke events were also included. In the 1940s, the butterfly stroke was invented and it was included as an Olympic event in 1956. It was only from 1912, in the Stockholm Games, that women were allowed to compete in swimming events. (6) This year, the swimming squad features some new superstars as well as some of our best achievers in past Olympics. Tatjana Schoenmaker, currently the top-ranked swimmer in the world in the 200m breaststroke, will be representing South Africa for the first time at the Olympics and will also form part of the women’s 100m freestyle relay. South Africa will also compete in the Artistic Swimming event. Artistic swimming, or synchronised swimming, is a pool event that combines swimming, dance and gymnastics. Each team presents a routine of elaborate moves in the pool, in time to a piece of music. (7) This year’s Olympics has created a lot of excitement amongst the fans and competitors and South Africa is very optimistic that they will bring home a few medals! Source: www.twinkl.com 4.1 Find a synonym in paragraph 1 for the word: permitted