People need to relax and enjoy themse1ves. One way they can have a good time is to watch a baseball game or another sports event. Even thousands of years ago, groups of people gathered to watch skilled athletes (运动员).

Over 2000 years ago in Greece, certain days in the year were festival days. These were holidays when people stopped work and enjoyed themselves. They liked to watch athletes take part in races and other games of skill.

The most important festival was held every four years at the town of Olympia. It was held in honor of the Greek god Zeus (Zus). For five days, athletes from all parts of the Greek world took part in the Olympic Games. At the Olympic Games, people could watch them box, run, jump and so on. There was a relay race between two teams of men in which a lighted torch (火矩) was passed from runner to runner. The Olympic Games were thought to be so important that cities which were at war with one another had to stop fighting. People were allowed to travel to the games safely. Thousands of people came to Olympia from cities in Greece and from her colonies (殖民地) in Africa, Asia and Italy. They met as friends to cheer their favorite athletes and to enjoy themselves.

Like other languages, English has changed greatly, so that an English speaker of 1300 would not have understood the English of 500 nor the English of today. Changes of every sort have taken place in the sounds and in the grammar. Although the pronunciation of English has changed greatly since the 15th century, the spelling of English words has changed very little over the same period. As a result, English spelling is not a reliable guide to the pronunciation of the language.

The vocabulary of English has naturally expanded, but many common modern words are derived from the vocabulary of the earliest English, e.g. bread, good, and shower. French words, such as castle, began to come into English shortly before the Norman Conquest in 1066. After the Conquest, Norman French became the language of the court and of official life, and it remained so until the end of the 14th century.

During these 300 or more years English remained the language of the common people, but an increasingly large number of French words found their way into the language, so that the French element in the English vocabulary was very considerable. Most legal terms and words denoting (表示) social ranks and institutions (such as duke), together with a great number of other words that cannot be classified readily, e.g. honor, courage, season, manner, study, and poor, belong to this period of French influence.

Since nearly all of these French words are mainly derived from Late Latin, they may be regarded as an indirect influence of the classical languages upon the English vocabulary.

The direct influence of the classical languages began with the Renaissance (the period in Europe in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries when there was a new interest in art, literature, and science) and has continued ever since; even today Latin and Greek roots are the chief source for English words in science and technology. English vocabulary has also been greatly expanded by the blending (混合) of existing words (e.g. smog from smoke and fog) resulting in a new word, usually with a related meaning.