Задание

Read the text and make the sentence complete.

There were no national sports in Great Britain in the eighteenth century. At that time sports were closely connected to church festivals. Traditional games include leaping, coursing, horse-racing, animal (bull, bear) baiting and cook fighting. Boxing and wrestling were the most popular individual sports. Rowing was the most popular spectacular sport. Cricket is the oldest team sport.

In the first half of the nineteenth century fox-hunting turned into the most popular form of sport.

The mid-nineteenth century was connected with the growth of public schools (Eaton, Harrow) and the tendency to spread the team spirit and cooperation among the boys. Typical sports taught at public schools were athletics, football, cricket, rugby and rowing.

Team games started to be very popular at the end of the nineteenth century. Besides, people started to like Alpine climbing, hiking and tourism.

The 19th century gave also greater freedom to women. Lawn tennis and croquet became popular among many of them. English sports (lawn tennis, cricket and polo) spread widely through India, Australia, Africa and the West Indies.

But British does not mean only English. The Irish did not want to accept British sports. They created their own game of field hockey. However, football, tennis and rugby are also popular Irish sports. Rugby has also become the most popular Welsh sport as well as the symbol of the Welsh. Cricket, rugby and football are the favourite Scottish sports, too.

Sports used to be closely connected to ___________.

church festivals

hunting

fighting