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The origins of the Olympic Games can be traced ___1___
to ancient Greece, to as ___2___
back as 776 B.C. It was a Greek tradition to ___3___
athletic competitions every four years ___4___
honour of their gods or dead heroes. There were also
competitions to ___5___
their skills in music ___6___
poetry.
The prizes awarded to the ___7___
of each event in those ___8___
were a crown of olive and a palm branch. ___9___
this may seem meaningless in modern times, the true ___10___
lay in the honour of having won the event. The
winners were ___11___
as heroes in their hometowns; they were ___12___
places of honour on public occasions. In some towns,
they were even exempted ___13___
paying taxes.
The first modern Olympics was held in Athens in
1896. ___14___
then, nations from around the world have been
meeting ___15___
four years to compete ___16___
one another. New Olympic records are ___17___
every time they meet. The only ___18___
to this quadrennial event was in 1944, ___19___
the Olympic Games was not held ___20___
of the Second World War.
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