GAME - PLAYFULNESS - CREATIVITY
То win the game is great.
To play the game is greater.
To love the game is greatest.
Although play or game already existed long before1 a human appeared (playfulness of animals) and his culture developed2, it is, nevertheless, its basic element. In every phase of the development of a human being, at least3 at the level of his perception4, the following basic conditions have been required: beyond any doubt, they represent the idea of our enjoying the surrounding world in "children's", easygoing manner. If an individual isn't able to enjoy a game, we can suspect him in having definite problems, and he isn't usually liked by other people. That could even be a way of individual's resistance5 to the world he lives in. Freedom, relaxation and absence of fear expressed in their own way in the human's inner world, even if not existing in reality (e.g., a child's game during war) seem to be something untouchable, a part of a human's inner world which is not possible to be taken away.
Only a human, feeling the inner freedom, is capable of playing. Relaxation in play enables him to live in an imaginative world, and to extend areas and the timelessness of his existence. The physical and spiritual efforts experienced during a play represent an experience of freedom and its possible extensions and limits. Those values put sports creativity beyond time and space. It is the same with fear. Indeed, there is a high risk in some sports, e.g., climbing, even on the verge of life and death. Still, as many greatest alpine climbers say: "It is not a question of conquering the fear of death, but rather a question of broadening human's recognition frontiers and his potentials." It does not mean to challenge death, it is more a confirmation of inner powers. Play, being an element of creativity, may be accompanied by fear only as fiction which disappears in the moments of creative efforts.
Playing, playfulness and creativity in sport are elements defending a human's self-realization. It is worth stressing that such an understanding of sport does not mean only utility values like health, working efficiency, evaluative retardation process, prevention of patho-sociological phenomena among the young from delinquency to drug abuse, and many others made possible by sport.
Notes
1. long before - задолго до
2. develop - развивать, развиваться
3. at least - по крайней мере
4. perception - восприятие, понимание
5. resistance - сопротивляемость (организма)
Questions
1) Which is greatest: to win the game, to play the game, or to love the game?
2) What do freedom, relaxation and absence of fear represent?
3) What does relaxation in play enable a human?
4) Do we need to conquer the fear of death?
5) What are the utility values of sport?
Текст № 3
TELESCOPE
In 1609 Galileo (1564 - 1642), the famous Italian scientist, heard hat a Dutch spectacles-maker had invented a new kind of instrument. With it he could make things faraway appear to be close.
The Dutch spectacles-maker, most accounts say, was Hans Lipper-shey. One story tells that a boy who was learning the trade from Lippershey was playing with some of the lenses Lippershey used for spectacles. He happened to hold one in front of another and look through them. To his surprise the lenses seemed to bring what he was looking at much closer. He showed Lippershey his discovery. Lippershey put the two lenses in a tube. He put the new toy in his shop window. It was, of course, a simple telescope. The word telescope means "seeing far away".
As soon as he heard of a telescope, Galileo decided to make one for himself. With the first telescope he made Galileo found that he could sight vessels too far out at sea to be seen with the naked eye. Galileo soon made better telescopes than the first one. When he finished his fourth telescope, it occurred to him to look up at the sky with it. He turned it toward the moon, and had a great surprise. The moon was not a smooth, shining ball as people had said. Instead, it had mountains and valleys and plains on it.
Ever since that time, telescopes have been used to explore the sky. There are still small telescopes for seeing distant things on the -earth. But the famous telescopes have all been built to study the sky. Galileo's telescopes were made with two small lenses. Some of the best telescopes in the world are still made with lenses. Telescopes made with lenses are called refracting telescopes.
Not long after Galileo's time the famous English scientist Newton invented another kind of telescope. In it he used mirrors instead of lenses. Telescopes made with mirrors are called reflecting telescopes.
It is possible for an astronomer to study the sky by looking through the world's biggest telescopes. But scientists have found a better way of making discoveries with them. A photographic plate is a better "eye" than a real eye. Astronomers therefore use the telescopes as giant cameras. They take pictures of the part of the sky they wish to study and then study the pictures.
Questions
1) What does the word "telescope" mean?
2) Who was Hans Lippershey?
3) Why was Galileo greatly surprised when he turned his telescope toward the moon?
4) Galileo's telescopes were made with two small lenses, weren't they?
5) How are telescopes made with mirrors called?
6) How can astronomers use the telescopes?