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| Words in the News
Monday 25 February 2002
Vocabulary from the news. Listen to and read the report then find explanations of difficult words below.
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Winter Olympics come to close amid controversy
Summary: The Winter Olympics have closed in Salt Lake City with a huge display of international music and dance. However, the event has become entangled in controversy. This report from David Willis:
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| | The News | |
| | | The culmination of 17 days of skating, sliding, skiing and sledding was filled with Olympic spirit. Almost all of the 2,500 athletes who competed in Salt Lake came to mingle and party together in the final gathering of the 77 nations who'd contested the Games.
Notable absentees - three athletes who earlier in the day had been expelled for taking drugs. The biggest doping scandal since Ben Johnson's expulsion from the 1988 Seoul Olympics saw two of the Games' biggest cross-country stars, one from Russia, the other from Spain, stripped of their medals, and another disqualified only hours before the closing ceremony, after they tested positive for a new drug, called darbepoetin, which enhances endurance.
It was the latest twist in an Olympic drama which had also seen boycott threats and vote rigging.
Germany finished top of the medals table with 35, including a dozen gold. Hosts, USA, boosted by home cheers, collected 34, ten of them gold - their best Winter Olympics performance ever.
David Willis, BBC News, Salt Lake City
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| | The Words
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| | | culmination
the culmination of an activity, or series of events happens at the end of it and is its highest point
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| | | to mingle
to move around and chat with people
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| | | notable absentees
here - important athletes who were not present at the ceremony
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| | | doping scandal
a situation involving athletes who are caught taking illegal drugs, which is seen as shocking and immoral
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| | | stripped of
if an athlete is stripped of a medal, it is taken away from them
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| | | enhances endurance
makes you feel fitter and stronger and perform better
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| | | twist
an unexpected and significant development
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| | | vote rigging
voting that is organised dishonestly, to get a particular result
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| | | boosted by home cheers
supported by their fellow countrymen
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