Lacrosse
Trevor Kraus is back, this time explaining about a typical sport from US which origins come all the way back to the Native Americans. We have included the script so you can follow easily.
Search This Blog
Great podcasts in English by our students and teachers. Listen up!
SCRIPT:
ReplyDeleteHello out there, the two-minute report is back on the air! I’m your host, Trevor Kraus. Today, we’ll break down a sport that is not well-known outside of North America: Lacrosse.
The roots of the game stretch back to Native American and Canadian Iroquois, who seem to have first played the game around the year 1100 in what is now known as New York and Pennsylvania. By the seventeenth century, it was documented by Jesuit priests in Ontario and Quebec, Canada.
The game is almost a combination of basketball, hockey, and soccer. It is played on grass, with a ball, and the object is to put the ball into the opposing team’s net. Each team can have ten players on the field at one time: typically, three attacks, three midfielders, three defenders, and one goalie. The ball is carried in the air by a stick, with a small basket on the end. The team in possession of the ball typically passes it, while the defense attempts to block shots and retrieve the ball.
The sport remains popular in the United States and Canada — in fact, it is lacrosse, not hockey, which is Canada’s official “national sport.” There are both indoor and outdoor professional lacrosse leagues in North America, which include teams from the U.S.A.’s east coast, Ohio, Florida, and several major cities in Canada such as Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary.
Perhaps the most popular form of the game is played in American universities. The strongest of those teams are typically along the east coast: Duke University in North Carolina, the universities of Maryland and Johns Hopkins in the state of Maryland, and Syracuse University in New York finished last season near the top of the rankings.
However, lacrosse has also been controversial. Some people believe the sport, which is typically very expensive to play, excludes minorities and people without money. The game’s reputation suffered in 2006, when players on the Duke University lacrosse team were accused of raping a black woman. Even though the players were ultimately found innocent in court, the trial created media interest and debate about race, class-status, and gender in the American court system.
Lacrosse has appeared in the summer Olympics twice: 1904 and 1908. It was an exhibition sport in the 1928, 1932, and 1948 Olympics, as well. Recent efforts to bring lacrosse to the Olympics have failed because the game is not yet popular enough around the world.
For CSA English radio, this has been Trevor Kraus, with your two-minute report.