Table of Contents
BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 484
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 484 – PASSAGE – 2
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST – 484
READING PASSAGE – 2
Polo
Polo is a horseback riding team sport. It is one of the world’s firstborn known team sports. Polo was primary played in the state of Manipur (India) at dates given from the 6th century BC to the 1st century AD. Polo was at first a training game for cavalry units, generally the king’s guard or other elite troops. From there it spread to the total of Persia and beyond. It is now widespread around the world, with well over 100 member countries in the Federation of International Polo. It is played professionally in 16 countries. It was an Olympic sport from 1900 to 1936.
Polo has been named “the sport of kings”. It has become a viewer sport for equestrians and society, frequently maintained by sponsorship. The game is played by two opposite teams with the objective of scoring goals by using a long-handled wooden mallet to knockout a small hard ball through the opposite team’s goal. Each team has four riding riders, and the game typically continues one to two hours, separated into periods named chukkas (or “chukkers”).
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Arena polo has analogous rules and is played with three players per team. The playing area is minor, enclosed, and usually of compressed sand or fine aggregate, often indoors. Arena polo has more manoeuvring due to space restrictions, and uses an air-filled ball, slightly larger than the hard field polo ball. Standard mallets are used, though somewhat larger head arena mallets are a choice.
Origins
Although the origins of the game are mysterious it most likely initiated as a simple game played by mounted Iranian nomads in Central Asia, from where it feasts to Iran (Persia) and beyond. In time polo became a Persian national sport played widely by the nobility, women and men both played the sport. During the period of the Parthian Empire (247 BC to 224 AD), the sport had great backing under the kings and noblemen.
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According to the Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, polo was a Persian ball game and a vital activity in the court of the Sasanian Empire (224-651). It was also part of royal education for the Sasanian ruling class. Emperor Shapur II learnt to play polo when he was seven years old in 316 AD. Known as chovgan it is still played in the region today.
Rules
The rules of polo are written for the safety of both players and horses. Games are cautiously observed by umpires. A whistle is blown when an infraction happens, and penalties are presented. Strategic plays in polo are based on the “line of the ball”, an imaginary line that spreads through the ball in the line of travel. This line traces the ball’s path and ranges past the ball along that path. The line of the ball describes rules for players to approach the ball safely. The “line of the ball” changes each time the ball changes direction.
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The player who hits the ball usually has the right of way, and other players cannot cross the line of the ball in front of that player. As players approach the ball, they ride on either side of the line of the ball giving each access to the ball. A player can cross the line of the ball when it does not make a dangerous situation. Most infractions and penalties are connected to players improperly crossing the line of the ball or the right of way.
When a player has the line of the ball on his right, he has the right of way. A “ride-off” is when a player changes another player off the line of the ball by making shoulder-to-shoulder contact with the other players’ horses.
The defensive player has a variety of prospects for his team to gain control of the ball. He can push the opponent off the line or snip the ball from the opponent. Another common defensive play is called “hooking.” While a player is taking a swing at the ball, his opponent can block the swing by using his mallet to knob the mallet of the player swinging at the ball.
A player may hook only if he is on the side where the swing is being made or directly behind an opponent. A player may not deliberately touch another player, his tack or pony with his mallet. Unsafe hooking is a foul that will upshot in a penalty shot being awarded. For example, it is a foul for a player to reach over an opponent’s mount to hook.
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The other elementary defensive play is called the bump or ride-off. It’s like a body check in hockey. In a ride-off, a player rides his pony together with an opponent’s mount in order to move an opponent away from the ball or to take him out of a play. It must be implemented properly so that it does not threaten the horses or the players. The angle of contact must be safe and cannot blow the horses off balance or harm the horses in any way. Two players following the line of the ball and riding one another off have the right of way over a single man coming from any direction.
Like in hockey or basketball, fouls are possibly unsafe plays that infringe on the rules of the game. To the beginner spectator, fouls may be difficult to distinguish. There are degrees of dangerous and unfair play and penalty shots are awarded reliant based on the severity of the foul and where the foul was committed on the polo field. White lines on the polo field specify where the mid-field, sixty, forty- and thirty-yard penalties are taken.
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The official set of rules and regulation interpretations are studied and published annually by each country’s polo association. Most of the smaller associations follow the rules of the Hurlingham Polo Association, the national governing body of the sport of polo in the United Kingdom, and the United States Polo Association.
Questions 15-21
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
TRUE – If the statement agrees with the information
FALSE – If the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN – If there is no information on this
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15. Polo is an individual sport.
16. Polo was invented by a king of India.
17. Polo was a training game and was played by the kings of that time.
18. Arena polo has four players in each team.
19. Arena polo has a smaller and indoor area of play than regular polo.
20. An air inflated ball is used in Arena polo as compared to a hard ball.
21. In Persia, only men played polo.
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Questions 22-27
Write no more than THREE WORDS for each answer
22. The game of polo is carefully watched by ……………….
23. A ………………. is blown when a foul is committed.
24. Line of the ball is an ………………. line.
25. In hooking, the defensive player can ………………. the swing of his opponent.
26. Bump or ride-off in polo is like ………………. in hockey.
27. While bump or ride-off, the angle of contact must be ……………….
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ANSWERS
15. FALSE
16. NOT GIVEN
17. FALSE
18. FALSE
19. TRUE
20. TRUE
21. FALSE
22. UMPIRES
23. WHISTLE
24. IMAGINARY
25. BLOCK
26. BODY CHECK
27. SAFE
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