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AUSTRALIA'S SPORTING SUCCESS

A

They play hard, they play often, and they play to win. Australian sports teams win more than

their fair share of titles, demolishing rivals with seeming ease. How do they do it? A big part of the

secret is an extensive and expensive network of sporting academies underpinned by science and

medicine. At the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), hundreds of youngsters and pros live and train

under

the

eyes

of

coaches.

Another

body,

the

Australian

Sports

Commission

(ASC),

finances

programmes

of

excellence

in

a

total

of

96

sports

for

thousands of

sportsmen

and women.

Both

provide intensive coaching, training facilities and nutritional advice.

B

Inside the academies, science takes centre stage. The AIS employs more than 100 sports

scientists and doctors, and collaborates with scores of others in universities and research centres.

AIS scientists work across a number of sports, applying skills learned in one - such as building

muscle

strength

in

golfers

-

to

others,

such

as

swimming

and

squash.

They

are

backed

up

by

technicians

who

design

instruments

to

collect

data

from

athletes.

They

all

focus

on

one

aim:

winning. ‘We can't waste our time looking at ethereal scientific questions that don't help the coach

work with an athlete and improve performance,' says Peter Fricker, chief of science at AIS.

C

A lot of their work comes down to measurement - everything from the exact angle of a

swimmer’s

dive

to

the

second

-by-second

power

output

of

a

cyclist.

This

data

is

used

to

wring

improvements out of athletes. The focus is on individuals, tweaking performances to squeeze an

extra hundredth of a second here, an extra millimetre there. No gain is too slight to bother with.

It’s the tiny, gradual improvements that add up to world

-beating results. To demonstrate how the

system

works,

Bruce

Mason

at

AIS

shows

off

the

prototype

of

a

3D

analysis

tool

for

studying

swimmers.

A

wire- frame

model

of

a

champion

swimmer

slices

through

the

water,

her

arms

moving

in

slow

motion.

Looking

side-on,

Mason

measures

the

distance

between

strokes.

From

above, he analyses how her spine swivels. When fully developed, this system will enable him to

build a biomechanical profile for coaches to use to help budding swimmers. Mason's contribution

to sport also includes the development of the SWAN (SWimming ANalysis)system now used in

Australian national competitions. It collects images from digital cameras running at 50 frames a

second and breaks down each part of a swimmer's performance into factors that can be analysed

individually - stroke length, stroke frequency, average duration of each stroke, velocity, start, lap

and finish times, and so on. At the end of each race, SW

AN spits out data on each swimmer

D

‘Take

a

look,'

says

Mason,

pulling

out

a

sheet

of

data.

He

po

ints

out

the

data

on

the

swimmers in second and third place, which shows that the one who finished third actually swam

faster. So why did he finish 35 hundredths of a second down? ‘His turn times were 44 hundredths

of a second behind the other guy,' says M

ason. ‘If he can improve on his turns, he can do much

better’ This is the kind of accuracy that AIS scientists' research is bringing to a range of sports.

With

the

Cooperative

Research

Centre

for

Micro

Technology

in

Melbourne,

they

are

developing unobtrusive sensors that will be embedded in an athlete's clothes or running shoes to

monitor heart rate, sweating, heat production or any other factor that might have an impact on an

athlete's ability to run. There's more to it than simply measuring performance. Fricker gives the

example of athletes who may be down with coughs and colds 11 or 12 times a year. After years of

experimentation, AlS and the University of Newcastle in New South Wales developed a test that

measures how much of the immune-system protein immunoglobulin A is present in athletes' saliva.

If IgA levels suddenly fall below a certain level, training is eased or dropped altogether. Soon, IgA

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levels start rising again, and the danger passes. Since the tests were introduced, AIS athletes in all

sports have been remarkably successful at staying healthy.

E

Using

data

is

a

complex

business.

Well

before

a

championship,

sports

scientists

and

coaches

start

to

prepare

the

athlete

by

developing

a

‘competition

model',

based

on

what

they

expect will be th

e winning times. ‘You design the model to make that time,' says Mason. ‘A start

of this much, each free-swimming period has to be this fast, with a certain stroke frequency and

stroke length, with turns done in these times.' All the training is then geared towards making the

athlete hit those targets, both overall and for each segment of the race. Techniques like these have

transformed Australia into arguably the world's most successful sporting nation.

F

Of

course,

there's

nothing

to

stop

other

countries

copying-and

many

have

tried.

Some

years ago, the AIS unveiled coolant-lined jackets for endurance athletes. At the Atlanta Olympic

Games in 1996, these sliced as much as two per cent off cyclists' and rowers' times. Now everyone

uses them. The same has h

appened to the ‘altitude tent', developed by AIS to replicate the effect of

altitude

training

at

sea

level.

But

Australia's

success

story

is

about

more

than

easily

copied

technological fixes, and up to now no nation has replicated its all-encompassing system.

Questions 1-7

Reading Passage 1 has six paragraphs, A-F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.

NB

You may use any letter more than once.

1

a reference to the exchange of expertise between different sports

2

an explanation of how visual imaging is employed in investigations

3

a reason for narrowing the scope of research activity

4

how some AIS ideas have been reproduced

5

how obstacles to optimum achievement can be investigated

6

an overview of the funded support of athletes

7

how performance requirements are calculated before an event

Questions 8-11

Classify the following techniques according to whether the writer states they

A

are currently exclusively used by Australians

B

will be used in the future by Australians

C

are currently used by both Australians and their rivals

Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 8-11 on your answer sheet.

8

cameras

9

sensors

10

protein tests

11

altitude tents

Questions 12 and 13

Answer the questions below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for

each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 12 and 13 on your answer sheet.

12

What is produced to help an athlete plan their performance in an event?

13

By how much did some cyclists' performance improve at the 1996 Olympic Games?

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篇章结构

体裁

说明文

主题

澳大利亚的体育成就

结构

A

段：澳大利亚体育成绩斐然

B

段：科技是第一生产力

C

段：精确测量和数据分析

D

段：精确测量和数据分析的实例

E

段：数据的实际应用

F

段：不可复制的成功

必背词汇

A

段

fair adj.

合理的

pro n.

职业运动员

demolish v.

击败；破坏，毁坏

under the eye of

在

……

的注意下

rival n.

竞争者，对手

body n.

团体，机构

seeming adj.

表面上的

(

通常事实并非如此

) finance v.

给

……

提供经费

ease n.

不费力，轻松

excellence n.

优秀，卓越

extensive adj.

广泛的，涉及面广的

intensive adj.

强化的

underpin v.

以

……

为稳固基础

nutritional adj.

营养的

B

段

centre stage

中心地位

squash n.

壁球

collaborate v.

合作

instrument n.

仪器，器械

golfer n.

打高尔夫球的人

ethereal adj.

飘渺的，引申为不切实际的

C

段

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come down to(sth.)

可归结为

wire-frame adj.

线框的

second-by-second

每秒的

slice v.

划开；切开

output n.

输出

slow motion

慢动作

wrin

g…out of

原义为扭，榨取，此处引申为从

……

中

(

经过努力

)

获得

side-on

从侧面

stroke n.

划动，划水

tweak v.

扭，用力拉

spine n.

脊柱

world-beating adj.

举世瞩目的

swivel v.

旋转

prototype n.

原型

biomechanical

adj.

生物力

(

学

)

的

< br>

profile n.

原义为轮廓、外形，此处意为模型

velocity n.

速度，速率

lap n.

一圈

budding adj.

发展中的

spit out

原义是吐出，此处引申为显示出、分析出

frame n.

帧，画面

D

段

turn time

转身时间

immunoglobulin n.

免疫球蛋白

unobtrusive adj.

不显眼的，不醒目的

present adj.

存在的

sensor n.

传感器

saliva n.

唾液

embed v.

使插入；使嵌入

ease v.

减轻，减弱

sweat v.

出汗，发汗

remarkably adv.

显著地，引人注目地；非常地

experimentation n.

实验，试验

immune-system

免疫系统的

E

段

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complex adj.

复杂的

transform v.

转换，转变，改变

championship n.

冠军赛

arguably adv.

可论证地

(

可辩论地

)