Never before ______ won gold medals in the Olympic Games.

Never before _____ won gold medals in the Olympic Games.

About 50 years ago the idea of disabled people doing sports was never heard of. But when the annual games for the disabled were started at Stroke Mandeville, England in 1948 by Sir Ludwig Guttmann, the situation began to change. Sir Ludwig Guttmann, who had been driven to England in 1939 from Nazi Germany, had been asked by the British government to set up an injuries centre at Stroke Mandeville Hospital near London. His ideas about treating injuries included sports for the disabled.In the first games just two teams of injured soldiers took part. The next year, 1949, five teams took part. From those beginnings things developed fast. Teams now come from abroad to Stroke Mandeville every year. In 1960 the first Olympics for the Disabled were held in Rome. Now, every four years the Olympic Games for the Disabled are held, if possible, in the same place as die normal Olympic Games, although they are organized separately. In other years Games for the Disabled are still held at Stroke Mandeville. In the 1984 wheelchair Olympic Games, 1, 604 wheelchair athletes from about 40 countries took part. Unfortunately, they were held at Stroke Mandeville and not in Los Angeles, along with the other Olympics.The Games have been a great success in promoting international friendship and understanding, and in proving that being disabled does not mean you can't enjoy sports. One small source of disappointment for those who organize and take part in the games, however, has been the unwillingness of the International Olympic Committee to include the disabled events at the Olympic Games for the able bodies. Perhaps a few more years are still needed to convince those fortunate enough not to be disabled that their disabled fellow athletes should not be excluded.The first games for the disabled were held________after Sir Ludwing Guttmann arrived in England.

What must the applicants do to meet the demands of the 2008 Olympic Games?Contribute sufficient funds, products, and ____.

（）for the Olympic Games begin about ten years in advance.

（）for the Olympic Games begins about ten years in advance.

_____ the 2008 Olympic Games, the air quality in Beijing would not be so good these days.

The History of the Olympic Games　　The first Olympic games at Olympia were held in 776 B.C. Scholars have speculated that the games in 776 B.C. were not the first games, but rather the first games held after they were organized into festivals held every four years as a result of a peace agreement between the city-states of Elis and Pisa.　　The games were held every four years from 776 B.C. to 393 A.D. when they were abolished by the Christian Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I. The ancient Olympic Games lasted for 1,170 years. If the Modern Olympic games last that long, they will still be held in 3066 A.D.　　The ancient Greeks were highly competitive and believed strongly in the concept of competition or contest. The ultimate Greek goal was to be the best. All aspects of life, especially athletics, were centered around this concept. It was therefore considered one of the greatest honors to win a victory at Olympia. The fact that the only prize given at Olympia was an olive wreath illustrated this point. The athletes competed for honour, not for material goods.　　In ancient Greece, games were closely connected to the worship of the gods and heroes. Games were held as part of religious ceremonies in honour of deceased heroes. Games were also held in the context of many ancient fertility festivals. Later, the Olympic games began to be usurped by the prominent cult of Zeus, and eventually lost much of their religious character.　　The Greek calendar was based on the conception of the four-year Olympiad. When Greek historians referred to dates, they most often referred to a year within the Olympiad that the event occurred. The winner of the state race in a given year had the Olympiad named in honour of him. The first Oympiad is therefore known as that of Koromikos of ELis, the winner of the state in 776 B.C.　　Every four years for over 1,100 years, from 776 B.C. to 393 A.D., thousands of people ceased all warfare and flocked to a small sanctuary in north-western Greece for five days in the late summer for a single reason—to witness the Olympic Games. During that time, competitors from all over the Greek world competed in a number of athletic events and worshipped the gods at the sanctuary of Olympia. However, unlike modern Olympics, only free men who spoke Greek could compete and the games were always held at Olympia instead of moving around to different sites every time.　　From the beginning, the games at Olympia served to strengthen the Greek sense of national unity. During the Hellenisitic period, Greeks who came to live in foreign surroundings such as Syria, Asia, and Egypt, strove to hold on to their own culture. One of the ways they did was to build athletic facilities and continue their athletic traditions. They organized competitions, and sent competitors from their towns to compete in the Panhellenic games. In the 2nd century A.D., Roman citizenship was extended to everyone within the Roman empire. After this point there were many competitors from outside of Greece, and the Olympic games became more internationalized. When the Greek government reinstated the games in 1896, this internationalized character of the competitions was preserved by Baron de Coubertin. Now, the Olympic games attract competitors from countries all over the world.

（）, or drum is used for hauling in or letting out the wires or ropes which will fasten the ship to the shore.

The （） is used for hauling in or letting out the wires or ropes.

Practice 4　　The Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event subdivided into summer and winter games. They are each held every four years. Until 1992, they were both held in the same year. Since then, they have been separated two years apart.　　There are more than 20 Summer Olympics sports, including swimming, basketball, soccer, gymnastics, boxing, weight-lifting, yachting, cycling and equestrian events. Skiing, ice-skating and ice hockey are among the 7 Winter Game sports. A competitor must be the citizen of the country he or she represents. No more than three entries from any country are permitted in each event (4 in the winter games). Only one team per country is allowed in a team sport.　　There are many myths surrounding the origin of the ancient Olympic Games. The most popular legend describes that Heracles was the creator of the Olympic Games and built the Olympic stadium and surrounding buildings as an honor to his father, Zeus after completing his 12 labors. According to that legend, he walked in a straight line for 400 strides and called this distance a “stadium” that later also became a distance calculation unit. This is also why a modem stadium is 400 meters in circumference length (1 stadium = 400 meters).　　From then on, the Olympic Games were quickly becoming more and more important throughout ancient Greece, reaching their zenith in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. The Olympics were of fundamental religious importance, contests alternating with sacrifices and ceremonies honoring both Zeus (whose colossal statue stood at Olympia), and Pelops, divine hero and mythical king of Olympia famous for his legendary chariot race, in whose honor the games were held. The number of events increased to 20, and the celebration was spread over several days. Winners of the events were greatly admired and were immortalized in poems and statues. The Games were held every four years, and the period between two celebrations became known as an “Olympiad’’. The Greeks used Olympiads as one of their methods to count years. The most famous Olympic athlete lived in these times: the 6th century BC wrestler, Milo Croton, is the only athlete in history to win a victory in six Olympics.　　The Games gradually declined in importance after the Romans gained power in Greece. After Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the religion of the Empire and banned pagan rites, the Olympic Games were outlawed as a pagan festival in 393 AD.　　In 1894, a French noble man, Pierrde, called a meeting in Paris that led to the first modern Olympic Games, held in Athens in 1896. Thirteen nations sent a total of 285 men, and the Games were revived. Since then the Olympics have been held in different cities of the world once every four years, with the exception of war years 1916, 1940 and 1944. Women first competed in 1912. In 1924 the Winter Olympics were instituted at Chamonix, France.

The starter (赛跑发令员) gave the（） for the race to begin.