1) Match the English with the French.

trade: facilities: a delay: be worth:billion (bn):a bid for the Olympics: to host (an event): fool's gold: a slump: a legacy:the spillover:narrow: wide:

□ une candidature pour les jeux olympiques□ valoir□ organiser (un évènement)□ les retombées□ large□ commerce□ un héritage:□ un retard:□ étroit:□ une baisse d'activité:□ équipements□ milliard (1,000,000,000)□ or des fous, miroir aux alouettes (illusion qui

sert à appâter

2) Who could have said the following sentence ? What does it mean ?

“The London Olympics was delightful but to think we'll ever recover the cost is like believing in Santa Claus.”

3) True/False. Justify.

1. Business has gone up 30% in London tourist places in August

2. TV broadcast and the opening celebration were disappointing.

3. Locog (=London Organising Committee for Olympic Games) was very efficient at trade negotiation, work planning, and cost evaluation.

4. Locog has had to call soldiers from the army during the Olympics.

5. The Olympics cost over £5,000,000,000.

6. Everybody agrees that the Olympics are worth spending a lot of money.

7. The cities that hosted the Olympics have become vibrant and modern.

8. Costs are high but the expected profits are higher.

9. The Olympics have boosted British economy.

10. Barcelona prospered a lot thanks to the Olympics.

11. London lost a lot of tourists because of the Olympics.

12. New York, which lost its bid to host the 2012 summer Olympics, didn't spend the money allocated to the Games.

13. Politicians said that the Olympics give a good image of London but are unprofitable.

The London Olympics was delightful but to think we'll ever recover the cost is like believing in Santa Claus.

Trade at hotel, restaurant, theatre and other tourist places has fallen by about 30% in August.

The Olympic Games is fine. The facilities at Stratford (London's Olympic park, in east London) are as good as ever. The park, the flowers, the "Henman hill" (a sitting area in Wimbledon, for 10,000 people to watch the events on a giant screen) are a delight. The opening was very well done. Television's celebration of youthful energy was good fun in a world full of problems.

However, we must point to Locog 's persistent overoptimism (Locoq = London Organising Committee for Olympic Games), combined with inappropriate commercial arrangements, under-estimation of costs, and responsibility in the serious delays.

Soldiers were even asked to come and pack empty seats for some sport events !

So is it worth £9bn? No, of course not. But those who doubted that Great Britain could deliver two weeks of enjoyable and scandal-free sport were wrong.

It is worrying to see that governments decide that any gesture of national prestige, glory and self-congratulation is "worth every penny", and it is worrying to see their decision is beyond rational debate.

To disagree with any aspect of the games is seen as unpatriotic.

In 2005 Tessa Jowell (a British politician) was saying that Athens had become "a changed place: cleaner, brighter … vibrant and modern", when it was already plunging off the cliff. In his final bid for London 2012 in Singapore, Ken Livingstone (London's mayor at the time)called it the "regeneration games". Locog's Lord Coe talked of the "Olympics profit". David Cameron (the Prime Minister) talked about "making £13bn".

We have talked a lot about the impact of big-budget sports events on host cities and how to avoid bad surprises. Studies from the International Association of Sports Economists (IASE) are warning. Atlanta, Barcelona, Sydney, Athens and Beijing all tell of hotel slumps, unpaid debts, empty parks and subsequent disillusion.

A study of Sydney by Australia's Monash University found there was no benefit or economic boost from the Games. An IASE report on Atlanta called "Bidding for the Games: Fool's Gold?" found that "diverting resources from more productive uses results in slower economic growth". Leaders talk desperately of "legacy" but no study can find any. Barcelona saw hotel occupancy fall from 80% to 50% in the year after the Games. The city's subsequent prosperity is now attributed to cheap flights and the Spanish boom. Beijing has seen no games-related uplift.

On London, a report for the European Tour Operators Association pointed out that sport is a "narrowly focused" form of travel, with no spillover into wider tourism. "During the Olympics, a destination closes for normal business," it warned. A more ironic study is Mitchell Moss's "How New York City Won the Olympics". It points to

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how, by losing the 2012 bid, resources allocated to the Games were diverted to the Lower West Side and other, now booming, locations.

There is no evidence of an Olympics profit, apart a "promotional legacy".

Their problem is what the government said. The sports minister, Hugh Robertson toldeveryone to prepare for a boom. Hotels raised prices and took on extra staff. Bus andtube drivers were paid bonuses to cope with the crush. Central London was told to expect an invasion and that residents should stay at home. The mayor, Boris Johnson, said the same. Were they lying?

I can find no warning in recent years from any official body that August 2012 would be anything but prosperity. Last week Johnson was still saying that Londoners should expect "a million extra visitors a day". He must have known this was rubbish. Reports from London business associations show that trade at hotel, restaurant, theatre and other tourist venues has dropped by 30%.

Clearly the authorities massively misjudged, but it was entirely because they refused to believe the evidence of past games. They were glory-blinded. Had the government said from the start that London was a rich city staging the Olympics as a costly but generous gesture to the world, there could be no further argument. Ministers said no such thing. They claimed the games would make money, now and, if not now, then sometime in the future. This was dishonest. Everyone knows there is no Olympic legacy, but, as with Santa Claus, we dare not tell the children.

London will not recover the cost of the Olympics and may as well forget it. We shouldstop pretending. The real victims of London's lies will be the poor and unlucky citizensof Rio in 2016. They really cannot afford it.

The Guardian, 2ndAugust 2012

1. Give two positive aspects of the Olympics given in the article and two negative points.

2. What is the tone ? What is the journalist's opinion ?

3. What do the Olympic Games mean for a city?

4. What did you think about what you read?

5. Do you think the Olympics are the world’s most important sporting event?

6. What’s your favourite event at the Olympics?

7. What can you remember from previous Olympics?

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Britain is set to use surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) to protect the London Olympics from an attack by air. U.K. Defence Minister Philip Hammond said on Monday: "All necessary measures to ensure the security and safety of the London Olympic Games will be taken including, if the advice of the military is that it is required, appropriate ground-to-air defences." Such military weapons have been made available before to protect an international sporting event. China deployed them near its main venues for the Beijing games in 2008. Missiles were also on standby for the Athens Games in 2004. It is the first time missiles will be used in Britain since World War II. London's Olympic security coordinator Chris Allison said the reports of SAMs were not true.

The 2012 Games are likely to be the best-defended Olympics ever. They have been the target of terrorists before. At the Munich Olympics in 1972, members of the Palestinian Black September group killed eleven Israeli athletes and coaches and a West German police officer. In an attack on the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, two peopledied and 111 were injured in a bomb attack at the Olympic Park. The USA has welcomed the security measures. They are sending up to 1,000 FBI and undercover agents to protect American athletes and diplomats. More than 6,000 British soldiers disguised as security guards plus 10,000 volunteer guards and 12,000 police will boostsecurity for the London Games.