TEXT 11. OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES FOR ADULTS

If you are an adult who has a busy daily schedule, then keeping some time aside to indulge in interesting outdoor activities is a great idea to recharge your energy levels for another hectic week. Read on to know about various such activities that adults can enjoy.

 

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

Everyone is trying hard to move ahead in today's world of tough competition. Every person is extremely busy with his/her daily schedule. Are you one of them? You may have experienced that you often end up feeling exhausted. This is the right time to take a break from your daily routine and get some much-needed relaxation. As children, we had so much fun playing with our friends on the playground, swinging upside down and hanging out on those colorful slides. But, who says that adults can no more have fun doing outdoor activities? Firstly, as counter-intuitive as it may sound, outdoor activities are very revitalizing for the mind, soul as well as the body. Secondly, they keep you feeling fit and young. Now, would you say no to some adventure and amusement? Check out here some interesting options for activities that you could consider for your next weekend trip.

Interesting Outdoor Activities for Adults

Modern lifestyle is loaded with so much stress and tension, it fails to surprise me that we now suffer from such a ginormous list of physical and mental health problems. Many people opt for different relaxation techniques for stress management. Wonder if it truly helps though. Anyway, I really believe that inside each one of us is a child who is waiting to be set free. You see what I mean? I find outdoor activities are one of the best options to relieve stress and get refreshed physically and mentally. They give you an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of nature and can be used as an effective medium for education and team building too. You could do it alone and feel the sense of accomplishment of a one-man/woman mission or be accompanied by a group of friends and bond more with each other. Either ways, you create memories as you go.
There are several different types of outdoor activities that adults can enjoy. They can be categorized as forest activities, mountain activities, aero activities, desert activities, freshwater activities and beach.

(Source: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/outdoor-activities-for-adults.html)

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TEXT 12. DARTS

The player, a 49-year-old Englishman nicknamed ‘The Power’, walks forward to the line on the floor and looks at the target. He will win £200,000 in prize money if he can guide the object between his fingers to a small area on the edge of the circular board in front of him. The crowd in the indoor arena in London has spent most of the game shouting and cheering, but now falls silent. A much bigger audience is watching live on TV, this being one of the most popular televised sports in Britain. He throws, and the crowd erupts – he’s world champion again!
Most people who have lived in Britain will know that the sport described above is darts. The modern form of darts developed in Britain as a game people played in pubs while having a drink and chatting to friends, and the local pub is still the place where most of Britain’s darts players practise their skills. At least 6 million people – ten per cent of the total population – play the game at least occasionally. Since the 1970s darts has also been a serious professional sport, with world championships in which players from more than 30 countries now compete. The most important championships are usually dominated by British players, the most successful of whom is the aforementioned Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor, but Dutch and Australian players have also done well in recent years.

The sport involves throwing pointed metal darts, from a distance of around 2.5 metres, at a circular board (dartboard) with a diameter of about 45 centimetres. Games are usually contested by two players, who take it in turns to throw three darts at the board. The darts are usually around 15 centimetres in length and have very thin pieces of plastic (flights) attached to their tails that allow them to fly well, while most dartboards are made of a special fibre that allows the darts to penetrate and yet doesn’t get damaged by them.

The board is divided into sections, numbered 1 to 20, for which the players score a corresponding number of points when they hit them with their darts. Low numbers are usually next to high numbers so as to punish players who are inaccurate when aiming for a high number. Within each of the 20 sections there is also a small ‘double’ and an even smaller ‘treble’ (or ‘triple’) area: a player scores 20 points for hitting the double area of the 10 section, for example, and 30 points for hitting the treble.

The maximum score with one dart is 60, achieved by hitting the treble 20. Good players often achieve this, even though each treble section is less than one centimetre wide, and professional players sometimes manage it with three consecutive darts, which always brings a roar from the crowd and an excited shout of ‘one hundred and eighty!’ from the referee.

( Source : Стройков, С.А. Broaden Your Horizons /Учебное пособие по переводу общественно-публицистических текстов с английского языка на русский – Самара: Издательство «Офорт», 2011. – 192 с.)

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