新西兰英语 351 Commonwealth Games finished

　　The Commonwealth¹ Games finished last night. India will be pleased that there were no major problems from terrorism or anything else. India was second with the number of medals and this is the best result ever for India. Australia was first, well ahead of all other countries. New Zealand was only 7th but we got 6 gold medals, 22 silver and 8 bronze, a total of 36 medals. The New Zealand team was the biggest ever with 191 athletes and officials. It was very expensive for our country to send so many people.
For the host country, India, it was also very expensive as they had to build new facilities for so many sports and provide accommodation for so many athletes. Some sports officials have suggested that Commonwealth Games in future could be smaller. Perhaps teams events like hockey, rugby and netball do not need to be in the games. Smaller Commonwealth Games would make it easier for poorer countries to be the hosts. 54 countries belong to the Commonwealth, many of them third world countries in Africa and the Caribbean.
The next Commonwealth Games will be held in Glasgow, Scotland² in 2014.
For more about the Commonwealth Games, listen to September 18th 2010
Questions
1. Commonwealth is a group of countries which used to belong to England but now has extended³ to include countries like Rwanda and the Cameroons. However, Europe and the US do not belong. Do we need a Commonwealth?
2. These Games did not fill all the spectator⁴ seats. Why was that? Will that mean a financial loss for India?
3. Some people argued that the money for the Games should have been used for better housing⁵ for Indian people instead. What do you think? Will Indian people benefit from these Games?

1 commonwealth   

n.共和国，联邦，共同体

参考例句：

• He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
• Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。

2 Scotland   

n.苏格兰

参考例句：

• He has been hiking round Scotland for a month.他围着苏格兰徒步旅行了一个月。
• Scotland is to the north of England.苏格兰在英格兰之北。

3 extended   

adj.延伸的；伸展的；延长的；扩大的v.延伸(extend的过去式和过去分词)；伸展；延长

参考例句：

• an extended lunch hour 延长了的午餐时间
• France has greatly extended its influence in world affairs. 在世界事务中，法国的影响已大大地扩大了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 spectator   

n.观众，目击者，旁观者

参考例句：

• A spectator threw the ball back to the players.一个观众把球掷回给球员。
• He was content to stand by as an impassive spectator.他满足于站在旁边做一个冷漠的旁观者。

5 housing   

n.房屋，住宅；住房建筑；外壳，外罩

参考例句：

• Do you think our housing sales will turn around during this year?你认为今年我们的住宅销路会好转吗？
• The housing sales have been turning down since the summer.入夏以来，房屋的销售量日趋减少。