【Native Speaker每日综合训练—32系列】【32-02】文史哲

pennyz

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speaker:
we will learn the most nature way to run.------------->running on bare foot!!
The winter olympic games opened up yesterday in Sochi,Russia.
We can see a lot of comments on this game.
In this post,we have three article.
article 1:
the prediction of medals via statistical models
article 2 and article 3
the tracking reports of the anti-gay laws of Russia before the games
obstacle:
after criticizing the discrimination against homosexuals,the obstacle talks about gender discrimination
看了很多有关西方媒体对冬奥会的评论，觉得他们真心好敢讲------众口铄金，积毁销骨啊= =

---

Part I:   Speaker

Are we born to run

【rephrase 1】


[dialog,15:51]



Source: Ted
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/christopher_mcdougall_are_we_born_to_run.html

pennyz

Part II: Speed

Can a Statistical Model Accurately Predict Olympic Medal Counts?

Data miners have developed models that predict countries' medal counts by looking solely at stats like latitude and GDP
By Joseph Stromberg

【Time 2】

If someone asked you to predict the number of medals each country is going to win in this year's Olympics, you'd probably try to identify the favored athletes in each event, then total each country's expected wins to arrive at a result.

Tim and Dan Graettinger, the brothers behind the data mining company Discovery Corps, Inc., have a rather different approach. They ignore the athletes entirely.

Instead, their model for the Sochi games looks at each country's geographic area, GDP per capita, total value of exports and latitude to determine how many medals each country will win. In case you're wondering, it predicts the U.S. will come out on top, with 29 medals in total.

The Graettingers aren't the first to employ this sort of data-driven, top-down approach to predicting medal counts. Daniel Johnson, a Colorado College economics professor, built similar models for the five Olympics between 2000 and 2008—achieving a 94 percent accuracy overall in predicting each country's number of medals—but did not create a model for Sochi.

Dan and Tim are newer to the game. Dan—who typically works on more conventional data mining projects, for example predicting a company's potential customers—first got interested in using models to predict competitions four years ago, during the Vancouver Winter Olympics. "I use data about the past to predict the future all the time," he says. "Every night, they'd show the medal count on TV, and I started wondering if we could predict it."

Even though the performances of individual athletes can vary unpredictably, he reasoned, there might be an overall relationship between a country's fundamental characteristics (its size, climate and amount of wealth, for instance) and the number of medals it would likely take home. This sort of approach wouldn't be able to say which competitor might win a given event, but with enough data, it might be able to accurately predict the aggregate medal counts for each country.

【332 words】

【Time 3】

Initially, he and his brother set to work developing a preliminary model for the 2012 London games. To begin, they collected a wide range of different types of data sets, on everything from a country's geography to its history, religion, wealth and political structure. Then, they used regression analyses and other data-crunching methods to see which variables had the closest relationship with historical data on Olympic medals.

They found that, for the summer games, a model that incorporated a country's gross domestic product, population, latitude and overall economic freedom (as measured by the Heritage Foundation's index) correlated best with each country's medal counts for the previous two summer Olympics (2004 and 2008). But at that point, their preliminary model could only predict which countries would win two or more medals, not the number of medals per country.

They decided to improve it for the Sochi games, but couldn't rely on their previous model, because the countries that are successful in the winter differ so greatly from summer. Their new Sochi model tackles the problem of predicting medal counts in two steps. Because about 90 percent of countries have never won a single Winter Olympics medal (no Middle Eastern, South American, African or Caribbean athlete has ever won), it first separates the ten percent that are likely to win at least one, then predicts how many each one will win.

"Some trends are pretty much what you'd expect—as a country's population gets bigger, there's more of a likelihood that it'll win a medal," Tim says. "Eventually, though, you need some more powerful statistical machinery that can grind through a lot of variables and rank them in terms of which are the most predictive."

Eventually, they came upon a few variables that accurately separate the ninety percent of non medal-winning countries from the ten percent that will likely win: these included migration rate, number of doctors per capita, latitude, gross domestic product and whether the country had won a medal in the previous summer games (no country had ever won a winter medal without winning one the previous summer, in part because the pool of summer winners is so much larger than the winter one). By running this model on the past two Winter Olympics, this model determined which nations took home a medal with 96.5 percent accuracy.

[387 words]

【Time 4】

With 90 percent of the countries eliminated, the Graettingers used similar regression analyses to create a model that predicted, retroactively, how many medals each remaining country won. Their analysis found that a slightly different list of variables best fit the historical medal data. These variables along with predictions for the Sochi games are below:

Some of the variables that turned out to be correlative aren't a huge shock—it makes sense that higher-latitude countries do better at the events played during the winter games—but some were more surprising.

"We thought population, not land area, would be important," Dan says. They're unsure why geographic area ends up fitting the historical data more closely, but it might be because a few high population countries that don't win winter medals (like India and Brazil) throw off the data. By using land area instead, the model avoids these countries' outsized influence, but still retains a rough association with population, because on the whole, countries with larger areas do have larger populations.

Of course, the model isn't perfect, even in matching historical data. "Our approach is the 30,000-foot approach. There are variables we can't account for," Tim says. Some countries have repeatedly outperformed the model's predictions (including South Korea, which wins a disproportionate amount of short-track speed skating events) while others consistently underperform (such as the U.K., which seems to do far better at summer events that would be expected, perhaps because—despite its latitude—it gets far more rain than snow).

Additionally, a consistent exception they've found to the model's predictions is that the host country bags more medals than it would otherwise, based simply on the data. Both Italy (during the 2006 Turin games) and Canada (during the 2010 Vancouver games) out-performed the model, with Canada setting its all-time record in winning 14 golds.

Still, based on their statistically-rigorous approach, the Graettingers are confident that on the whole, their model will predict the final medal counts with a relatively high degree of accuracy.

How do their predictions compare to those of experts that use more conventional strategies? The experts don't differ dramatically, but they do have a few traditionally-successful countries (Norway, Canada, Russia) winning higher numbers of medals, along with a few others (China, the Netherlands, Australia) each winning a few fewer.

To date, the Graettingers haven't put down any bets on their predictions, but they do plan on comparing their model's output to the betting odds just before the games kick off. If they see any discrepancies they'd like to exploit, they might end up putting their money where their mouth is.

[431 words]

Source: Smithsonian
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/can-statistical-model-accurately-predict-olympic-medal-counts-180949627/

Google makes a point on gay rights at Sochi Games

BY TIMOTHY HERITAGE
SOCHI, Russia Fri Feb 7, 2014 2:39am EST

【Time 5】

(Reuters) - Google has placed a rainbow version of its logo on its search page, increasing pressure on President Vladimir Putin over Russia's "gay propaganda" law at the Sochi Winter Olympics.

The page now shows a winter sports competitor above each of the six letters in the U.S. Internet giant's name, set against backgrounds in the six colors on the gay pride flag - red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

The page also includes a quote from the Olympic charter underlining the right to practise sport without discrimination.

"The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play," it says.

Google Inc. did not immediately comment.

The international outcry over the law, signed by Putin last year, threatens to undermine his hopes of using the Games to portray Russia as a modern state that has come a long way since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Putin says the legislation, banning gay propaganda among minors, is needed to protect young people. Critics says it fosters a climate of discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) groups.

Telecoms company AT&T, a sponsor of the U.S. Olympic team, criticized Russia this week over the law, increasing pressure on other companies to speak out.

[233 words]

【Time 6】

The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT rights organization, praised Google for what it called a move to show solidarity with LGBT Russians and visiting athletes.
"Google has once again proven itself to be a true corporate leader for equality," HRC President Chad Griffin said.

"Alongside Olympic sponsors like AT&T, Google has made a clear and unequivocal statement that Russia's anti-LGBT discrimination is indefensible. Now it's time for each and every remaining Olympic sponsor to follow their lead. The clock is ticking, and the world is watching."

PRESSURE ON SPONSORS

Companies including McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble pay around $100 million each for rights to sponsor the Olympics over a four-year period and want to tap into a feel-good atmosphere during the Games.

These companies are also facing pressure to speak out over the "gay propaganda" law.

"These brands have spent millions to align themselves with the Olympics, but have repeatedly refused to support the founding principles of the Games," Andre Banks, one of the founders of gay rights group All Out, said earlier this week.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned sexual discrimination and attacks on homosexuals in a speech to the International Olympic Committee in Sochi on Thursday which also drew attention to Russia's record on gay rights.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said shortly afterwards in Sochi that there would be no discrimination at the Games, due to open later on Friday.

"We're all grown-ups and every adult has the right to understand their sexuality," Kozak said. But, echoing a remark by Putin, he added: "Please do not touch kids."

[263 words]
Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/07/us-olympics-gay-idUSBREA160AX20140207

Decoding the Anti-Gay Messages in the Olympics Opening Ceremony
By June Thomas

[Time 7]

Sochi may be 850 miles from Moscow’s Red Square, but Kremlinology—the art of deducing major news developments from almost imperceptible signals, as perfected at the May Day parades of the Soviet era—was alive and well at the Opening Ceremony of the 22nd Winter Olympics. Many of us approached the spectacle wondering if the carefully choreographed event would include any commentary on Russia’s hideously homophobic “gay propaganda” legislation.

In truth, explicit criticism of the Russian law was scarce. In his welcoming speech, IOC President Thomas Bach stressed the importance of “embracing diversity,” which isn’t exactly a radical statement. Nevertheless, his words were seized upon as a coded rebuke to Putin and co. (Others suggested he was directing his shade at the world leaders who stayed away from Sochi to protest the law.) Otherwise, the gay elements in the Opening Ceremony were probably visible only to those of us who are primed to see rainbows everywhere: It was in the bodies of the male ballet dancers (especially when they mimed playing the flute), in the music of gay composer Peter Tchaikovsky, in the rainbows on the German team’s uniforms, and in the very name of the Olympic flame. (Or maybe not. My colleague Simon Doonan found the entire spectacle profoundly, utterly, gloriously gay.)

Those of us alert to coded statements also noted the presence of Yelena Isinbayeva in the final group of athletes to carry the Olympic torch. Isinbayeva is indeed a great pole vaulter (a sport that appears in the Summer Olympics, it should be noted), and her trophy cabinet includes two Olympic golds, but she has also gained notoriety for an anti-gay attitude. At the 2013 World Championships, when asked about the anti-gay law, she said of her fellow Russians: “We consider ourselves as traditional people, when men live with women. If we will allow to promote and do all this stuff on the streets, we are very afraid for our nation.” (She later said she was misunderstood and blamed her poor English.)

Isinbayeva’s presence in the final six has been overshadowed by that of Putin’s alleged mistress, former rhythmic gymnast and current Duma member Alina Kabaeva, and another former champion and current Duma member, pairs skater Irina Rodnina, who is now better known as the woman who tweeted a racist picture of President Barack Obama and the first lady.

On second thought, maybe you don’t need to be a paranoid Kremlinologist to decode the messages that the Russians were transmitting in this Opening Ceremony.

[417 words]
Source: Slate
http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2014/02/07/olympics_opening_ceremony_the_anti_gay_messages.html

pennyz

Part III: Obstacle




How much do sex differences matter in sports?
By David Epstein, Saturday, February 8, 6:45

【Paraphrase 8】

The Russian men’s ski jump coach offered a chilly welcome to the athletes who will be competing in the debut of the women’s event at the Winter Olympics on Tuesday. “I’m not a fan of women’s ski jumping,” Alexander Arefyev told the newspaper Izvestia. “It’s a pretty difficult sport with a high risk of injury. If a man gets a serious injury, it’s still not fatal, but for women it could end much more seriously.” For good measure, Arefyev added: “Women have another purpose — to have children, to do housework, to create hearth and home.”

As jarring as that sounds in 2014, it is that sort of thinking about sex differences and athletic performance that helped keep women’s ski jump out of the Olympics until this year. If Arefyev could see past his prejudice, he might notice that female biology can be advantageous in his sport. The goal, after all, is to be an in¬cred-ibly light projectile in a semi-permeable suit. Women can be endowed to fly as far as men, or in some cases farther. Ahead of the 2010 Winter Games, American Lindsey Van held the overall record for longest jump at the Vancouver Olympics site. She’ll be one of three U.S. women ski jumping in Sochi.

Women’s and men’s world records in many events are separated by persistent gaps.

But this breakthrough moment shouldn’t herald the end of separate men’s and women’s events. Certainly, a shameful history of discrimination has hindered female athletes. Willfully ignoring sex differences, though, isn’t good for women’s sports, either.

The pseudoscientific ideas that blocked female ski jumpers for so long are similar to the ill-informed notions that put hurdles in front of women’s track. In the interest of protecting female runners from feared consequences such as infertility and premature aging, all women’s events longer than 200 meters were eliminated after the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Games. News reports described an awful scene at the finish of the women’s 800-meter race that year, with runners sprawled on the cinders in exhaustion. A New York Evening Post reporter wrote about “11 wretched women, 5 of whom dropped out before the finish, while 5 collapsed after reaching the tape.” A New York Times piece concluded: “This distance makes too great a call on feminine strength.”

Except that’s not actually how the race went. As Running Times reported in 2012, none of the women dropped out, only one fell at the finish while leaning for the line — not unusual for men or women — and three others bested the previous world record. It’s hard to believe that the Evening Post scribe even attended the race, as there were only nine women competing.

The fallacies he promoted were stubbornly persistent. Women’s middle- and long-distance events were banned for 32 years. Not until 2008 did women have all the same events on the Olympic track as men. Before Kathrine Switzer became the first woman officially to finish the Boston Marathon in 1967, she was told that her uterus would collapse. It was only around the millennium that the guidelines for exercise during pregnancy flipped, and rather than something to be avoided it is now recommended. British marathoner Paula Radcliffe was celebrated for training well into her third trimester and then leading the 2007 New York City Marathon from gun to tape 10 months after giving birth.

In fact, as women were given opportunities to participate, they began gaining on men. In 1992, the journal Nature published a paper by two UCLA physiologists with the title: “Will women soon outrun men?” The physiologists graphed men’s and women’s running records through history and saw that the improvement in women’s times was far steeper. By extrapolating the curves into the future, the authors determined that women should beat men in all running events in the first half of the 21st century. “It is the rates of improvement that are so strikingly different,” they wrote. “The gap is progressively closing.”

In 2004, Nature featured another such paper: “Momentous sprint at the 2156 Olympics? ” — a reference to the projected date when women would outstrip men in the 100-meter dash. A paper the following year in the British Journal of Sports Medicine did away with the question mark and simply declared in its title, “Women will do it in the long run.” Could it be that male dominance of world records was all along an artifact of the discrimination that kept women from competing? Well, no.

The papers predicting that women would overtake men implied that the progression of women’s performance from the 1950s to the 1980s was part of a stable trajectory. In reality it was a momentary explosion followed by a plateau — a plateau that women, but not men, have reached. In terms of top speed in a range of running events, women began leveling off by the 1980s, and their records stagnated after the crackdown on mega-doping of female athletes from some Eastern Bloc nations. The numbers are now unequivocal: Elite women are not catching elite men nor maintaining their position. Men are ever so slightly pulling away.

From the 100 meters to the 10,000 meters, the gap between elite male and female performers generally stands around 11 percent. At the pro level, that’s a chasm. The women’s 100 record would have been too slow by a quarter-second to qualify for entry into the men’s field at the 2012 Olympics. In the 10,000 meters, the women’s world-record performance would be lapped by a man who made the minimum Olympic qualifying standard. Larger gaps occur in throwing and pure explosion events. In the long jump, women are 19 percent behind men. The gap in distance swimming races is smaller — 6 percent in the 800-meter freestyle.

Thanks in large part to testosterone, men are generally heavier and taller than women. They have longer limbs relative to their height, bigger hearts and lungs, less fat, denser bones, more oxygen-carrying red blood cells, heavier skeletons that support more muscle — 80 percent more in the upper body, on average, which is about the difference between male and female gorillas — and narrower hips that make for more efficient running and decrease the chance of injury. But since these differences generally don’t appear until puberty, boys’ and girls’ records in track tend to be identical before age 10. There’s scant biological reason to separate young boys and girls in competitions.

In 2011, the NCAA, after consultation with scientific experts and bodies like the National Center for Lesbian Rights, determined that male-to-female transgender athletes should sit out a year while undergoing testosterone-suppression treatment before competing on women’s teams. That guideline fits well with the experiences of transgender athletes such as Joanna Harper, a 57-year-old medical physicist and 2012 U.S. national cross-country champion for the 55-to-59 age group.

Harper was born male but started hormone therapy in August 2004 to suppress her body’s testosterone and physically transition to female. Like any good scientist, she recorded data, and she found herself getting slower by the end of the first month. “I felt the same when I ran,” she says. “I just couldn’t go as fast.”

Harper’s time in the Helvetia Half Marathon in Portland, Ore., was about 50 seconds per mile slower in 2005 than it was in 2003, just before the transition. But age- and sex-graded performance standards indicate that Harper is precisely as competitive now as a female as she was as a male. And data she has for a half-dozen other athletes with similar histories follow the same pattern.

Given the history of discrimination, it is easy to understand why some supporters of women’s athletics might feel the urge to deny the male advantage in many sports. But it can be taken to ridiculous extremes.

In the 2007 book “Playing With the Boys,” for instance, Eileen McDonagh and Laura Pappano wield a misleading statistical argument in an attempt to show that women are faster than men and that there should be no sex separation. The authors analyze the times of the top 207 finishers from the 2003 Boston Marathon and find that the women in that group finished several minutes faster on average than the men. Of course, that is because the race unfolds like this: The pro men finish; 15 minutes later, the pro women finish; then a stream of people, mostly amateur men, finish. So the authors are really slicing the data so as to compare pro women to pro men diluted by amateur men. A more telling stat would have been simply to say that only 16 women finished in the top 207 runners, and the 16th woman was more than 20 minutes behind the 16th man.

As Alice Dreger, professor of clinical medical humanities and bioethics in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, told me: “The reason we have females separated in sports is because in many sports, the best female athletes can’t compete with the best male athletes. And everybody knows that, but nobody wants to say it. Females are structured like a disabled class for all sorts of, I think, good reasons.”

If we wanted simply to see the fastest runners, we could have cheetahs race instead of humans. But sports are the ultimate contrivances: Take agreed-upon rules, add meaning. We must be vigilant to ensure that all women who want to compete have the opportunity to do so, but the idea that women’s athletic performances must be equivalent to men’s in order to be deemed remarkable belittles the achievements of female competitors.

Similarly, in instances when women do equally well or better than men, as can happen in ski jump, it should come as no affront to male athletes. Biology may help explain those times, those distances, those records. In long-distance swimming, for instance, the performance gap between men and women closes, particularly when the water is very cold, perhaps because women’s higher percentage of body fat becomes advantageous.

As the Russian coach’s comments show, though, men who grew up believing that they have a monopoly on biological advantages in sports may have trouble accepting female athletes’ success. Whitney Childers, spokeswoman for the U.S. women’s ski jump team, says that some of the resistance to women competing had to do with the idea, especially in Northern Europe, that women “would diminish the masculinity of the sport.”

That idea is silly, and it was never the point of the fight for inclusion of women’s ski jump in the Olympics. “The women are super stoked for their male [ski jumping] friends,” Childers says. “They don’t want to compare themselves, they just wanted their own competition. They just want to show that they’re devoted and are not these fragile little creatures.”

Come Tuesday, if not for the announcers, you won’t be able to tell if those are men or women with their skis splayed, flying through the air. All you’ll see are athletes.

【1809 words】

Source: Washingtonpost
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-much-do-sex-differences-matter-in-sports/2014/02/07/563b86a4-8ed9-11e3-b227-12a45d109e03_story.html

疏离无罪

第二个沙发~~感谢Penny
今天速度有6篇哦
Speaker:Human is born to run.Many prooves show that structure of human is suitable to run in many aspect such as sweat and fat which keep human run long distance and help cooling off.We can do sth extraordinany everyday without any preparation:running.

01:27
A model was built to predict Sochi Winter Olympic medal counts by using data of a country's GDP percapital,geographic areas and so on instead of traitional athletes's data.

01:34
They had built an incomplete model for 2012 London Olympic.And now they creat a new model fo Sochi since the summer Olympic is different from winter olympic.And this model has a high accurancy.

01:35
They predict which countrie can get medals and who many they will get.Population is an important factor while geographic area was considered.

01:12
Google placed a rainbow version logo to support LGBT group.And the world criticize Putin's new law about LGBT.

01:22
This action shows google is a real leader of equality.But many olympic sponsors do not do similar thing to support this games principle.

02:04
Many anti-gay messages were hiden in the opening ceremony.

06:04
Main Idea:Sex difference really matter in sports,but discrimination shouldn't exist.
Male and female are separateby persistent gaps and discrimination is always there on female athletes.Although discrimination on sex is not a good thing,ignoring sex difference is not good,too.
Males have better body strength than females and have advantage in many sports items.E.g running.Women were thought that they could not run too long,or they will die.But study shows that femals may overrun males in the near future.
Actually boys is not better than girls before puberty.
So we should admit sex difference and not put in into ridiculus extreme.Women can make the gap close in long-distance running,but the gap is still there.

ieveline

有板凳那~~~明天早上补作业！！！

楼主辛苦了！！！

Speaker
An example of women marathon.
Long distance running makes men capable of kill animals without weapon.
Humen are hunting pack animal,sweating well makes human capable of long-distance running
Running shoud be without shoes

Speed
1--01:47
Two persons from mining company use country's GDP, geograhic area, econimic data to predict the number of medals ,it will have in olympic games.
2--01:57
They prediect the numbers in summer olympic games in 2002 and 2008.
Now they will do it in winter games.
The data they use are different from the data they used for summer games.
But there is connection between medal number in summer game and winter game.
By the data and connection, they predict the country which will take one medal with 96.5% accuracy.
3--02:28
some data they found can be accounted for, such as geographic area.
They advocate their prediction has relatively high degree of accuracy.
Compared with conventional strategies, the reuslts seems similar.
They did not put down any bets on the prediction, but consider it as a game kickoff.
But one day, they will.
4--01:24
Google made a logo about gay pride, which call the attention to against gay law.
Putin said the law is for protecting children.
AT&T showed its critic to this issue.
5--01:40
All the sponsor of games are underpressure.
And some comments about gay propaganda.
Putin still emphasises children.
6--02:33
Winter games's speech, shows and even the person who carried torch are labeled as aganist gay.
Obstacle-10:21
Begins with someone said women should be weaker than men in some sports area.
Some history events are listed to show show that women are limited to some sports.
Some data shows women improve faster than men.
opposite idea...
then go back
then we will see...
可能是我读混乱了，总觉得写的观点翻来翻去的。。。晕。。。

AceJ

地板，谢谢Penny。今天的文章有点长啊~

Speaker
Are We Born to Run
We have three mysteries: a, how are we killing animals before weapon? b, why is it that women get stronger as distances get longer? c, geriatrics are performing as well as they did as teenagers
We can sweet and breadth at the same time and we can pack.
And what they have found uniformly is you get rid of the shoes, you get rid of the stress, you get rid of the injuries and the ailments.

Speed
Can a Statistical Model Accurately Predict Olympic Medal Counts?
Time1: 1'55" Tim and Dan looks at each country's geographic area, GDP per capita, total value of exports and latitude to determine how many medals each country will win
Time2: 2'23" How did Tim and Dan determine variables that will affect numbers of medals. The accuracy is 96.5%
Time3: 3'06" Of course, the model isn't perfect, even in matching historical data

Google makes a point on gay rights at Sochi Games
Time4: 2'02" Google and other companies increased pressure on Russia about gay rights
Time5: 1'48" But some main Olympic sponsors like McDonald's and Coca-Cola refused to support the founding principles of the Games

Decoding the Anti-Gay Messages in the Olympics Opening Ceremony
Time6: 3'22" In truth, explicit criticism of the Russian law was scarce. Otherwise, the gay elements in the Opening Ceremony were probably visible

Obstacle
How much do sex differences matter in sports?
Time7: 13'12"
Considering hurts that may occur, female ski jumping wasn't added in Winter Olympics until 2014
The pseudoscientific ideas that blocked female ski jumpers for so long are similar to the ill-informed notions that put hurdles in front of women’s track
In fact, as women were given opportunities to participate, they began gaining on men
Thanks in large part to testosterone, men are generally heavier and taller than women

sherlock1992

Thx, Penny.     
---------------------------------
2'02''
2'21''
2'54''
1'21''
1'46''
2'42''

lastak

1   2:28.11 the number of olympic medals that a country gets has some positive relationships with the country's national conditions
2   3:05.29 the brothers decided to get new data from the sochi olympic games to improve their study but the winter games' data is much different than summer games' data they should consider many conditions
3   3:44.66 the number of olympic medals that a country gets retains a rough association with the country's population
4   1:40.67 the new logo of google wedpage which have rainbow colors made a pressure to russia's discrimination against homosexuality
5   2:04.42 after the LGBT&olympic game's sponsors made a pressure to russia,putin still insists his own opinion that  homosexuality will be harmful to the kids
6   3:06.50 the anti-gay message in the sochi olympics opening ceremony

第一次跟阅读小分队训练。。。烂透了！！！TAT
而且第六段好长好散。。。读完也总结不出来。。。
急着出门，晚上回来补越障。

MAGGIEHE1993

占~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~谢谢楼主啦~~~~~~~冬奥会的文章热乎乎的啊
time1: 1min 42"
       Tim and Dan Graettinger have developed a way of predicting the medals each country will win in the Sochi Winter Olympics.
       They use the data of GDP per capita, latitude and other factors to predict the figures.

time2: 2min 14"
       Tim and Dan Graettinger has developed a different way to predict the medals that each country will win in the Sochi Winter
       Olympics.

time3: 2min 51"
       There are some unconventional variables and exceptions of Tim and Dan's model but they are still confident about it.

time4: 1min 40"
       Google hung a picture criticising Russia's law of "gay propaganda".

time5: 2min 01"
       The sponsors of the Games are under pressure to speak out over the "gay propaganda" law. Other organizations are also  
       putting pressure on the Russia's sexual discrimination.

time6: 3min 15"
       The anti-gay messages that the author decoded at the opening ceremony of the Sochi Olympic Games.
Obstacle: 13min 50" 今天的越障长的看傻了。。。。。
          The Russian men's ski jump coach does not think it's a good idea for women to compete in the ski jump competition.
          In fact women is as endowed as men in ski jumping.
          It is not a good idea either to adopt sex discrimination or ignore sex differences.
          The pseudoscientific ideas that blocked female ski jumpers for so long are similar to the ill-informed notions that
          put hurdles in front of women's track.
          The fallacies promoted were stubbornly persistent.
          In fact, as women were given opportunities to participate, they began gaining on men.
          Some press thought women will outstrip men someday in the future.
          The progression of women's performance was a momentary explosion followed by a plateau.
          From the 100 meters to the 10,000 meters, the gap between elite male and female performers generally stands around 11  
          percent.
          Thanks in large part to testosterone, men are more fit for sports than women.
          The reason why females are separated in sports is that in many sports, the best female athletes can't compete with the
          best male athletes.
          Women are physically more talented in some sports than men.
          The writer thinks it's silly for men to believe that they have a monopoly on biological advantages in sports just because
          they have trouble acceptin female athletes' success.

云游

占个座位！！！！！
Speaking: Human Species are genetically inherited with the ability to run.
Time 1:2'01'' Instead of the conventional medal predicating method (predicate through each country's individual athlete's performance), analysts nowadays are inclined to apply a overall factors of a country(eg. size, climate, per captia GDP,etc.) to make an general inference on a specific country's performance.
Time 2: 2'12'' Those brothers first applied those methods into summer olympics and achieved success. However, while implement this method into winter sochi Olympics, another method is required because winter olympic gold winning countries varies a lot from that in summer olympics.
Time 3: 2‘13’‘ Excluding the 90 percent countries, analysts find that a slightly differet variables fit that the data: normally higher latitude countries dose better;geographic datas weighs more with a gold medal record; The model is not perfect and some exceptions exist;those conventional predicate in a same accurate manner.
Time 4:1'11''
Time 5:1'23''
Time 6:2'15''
Obstacle: 12'34''