Inside the daredevil world of Parkour - Unit 2
B2 First · Gapped Text · Ready for B2 First 4th Edition, Macmillan Education Limited
You are going to read an article about parkour. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-G the one which fits each gap (1–6). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.
Inside the daredevil world of Parkour
An expression of attitude, exploring boundaries and calculated risk, free running has official status in the UK.
Their interest has been propelled by parkour's high profile on YouTube and in popular culture.
Some highlight the apparent risks associated with parkour, but the organisation insists that the injury rate is lower than in other sports.
Later, in 2016, he set up Fluidity Freerun with fellow parkour enthusiast Craig Robinson and a £150,000 loan.
Parkour is defined as the discipline of moving ‘freely’ over and through any terrain using only the abilities of the body.
Given the lack of outdoor space and the funding challenges, the great thing about parkour is that all you need is a pair of trainers.
One of those children, Sébastien Foucan, became president of Parkour UK, the sport’s governing body.
He started when he was just twelve years old.
Frazer Meek jumps down from a wooden platform and jogs across the floor of the Fluidity Freerun Academy, a huge warehouse on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Cardiff. It is a wintry Thursday evening and there are only a few people practising their leaps and swings on the purpose-built equipment, designed to imitate the bollards, railings and concrete building blocks of the great urban outdoors. In early 2017, the UK became the first country in the world to recognise parkour as a sport.
Its participants are capable of leaping to improbable heights while almost always seeming to land, cat-like, on their feet. Also known as free running and art du déplacement, the sport attracts thousands of mainly young, mainly male participants across the country.
This includes the opening sequence of the James Bond film Casino Royale, as well as advertising and music videos. ‘A lot of people from the parkour world don’t understand parkour,’ says Meek. ‘It’s not just about technique, it’s about the attitude. It’s about exploring boundaries, sensibly, seeing danger and calculating risk.’
‘I really hated conventional sports,’ he remembers. ‘I was a nervous kid who liked playing video games. Then I started to come across it on internet forums, and it seemed to be a lot of people who didn’t fit in with more conventional stuff, shy people. That’s what appealed to me about it.’ Some years ago, Meek got together with some like-minded spirits, and rented a gym to practise parkour. Within weeks, hundreds of kids were turning up.
It’s one of a handful of purpose-built parkour centres in the UK, offering a daily timetable ranging from Little Ninjas for ages two to four to adult drop-in sessions. Their business reflects the coming of age of a sport that started in the late 1980s, as little more than some friends playing around after school in a Paris suburb.
An early ambassador for parkour in the country, he appeared in Jump London, the television documentary that introduced the activity to a wider public in 2003 as he and two friends leapt across the capital’s rooftops. He also played Mollaka, the bomb-maker chased by Daniel Craig’s Bond in the memorable sequence at the start of Casino Royale. Participants point to the minimal equipment requirements as one of parkour’s advantages, arguing that now that it is recognised as a sport, parkour can extend its work in schools. This is a view echoed by Parkour UK chief executive Eugene Minogue.
‘It goes back to the core of what PE is about!’
Frazer Meek jumps down from a wooden platform and jogs across the floor of the Fluidity Freerun Academy, a huge warehouse on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Cardiff. It is a wintry Thursday evening and there are only a few people practising their leaps and swings on the purpose-built equipment, designed to imitate the bollards, railings and concrete building blocks of the great urban outdoors. In early 2017, the UK became the first country in the world to recognise parkour as a sport. ___ Its participants are capable of leaping to improbable heights while almost always seeming to land, cat-like, on their feet. Also known as free running and art du déplacement, the sport attracts thousands of mainly young, mainly male participants across the country. ___ This includes the opening sequence of the James Bond film Casino Royale, as well as advertising and music videos. ‘A lot of people from the parkour world don’t understand parkour,’ says Meek. ‘It’s not just about technique, it’s about the attitude. It’s about exploring boundaries, sensibly, seeing danger and calculating risk.’ ___ ‘I really hated conventional sports,’ he remembers. ‘I was a nervous kid who liked playing video games. Then I started to come across it on internet forums, and it seemed to be a lot of people who didn’t fit in with more conventional stuff, shy people. That’s what appealed to me about it.’ Some years ago, Meek got together with some like-minded spirits, and rented a gym to practise parkour. Within weeks, hundreds of kids were turning up. ___ It’s one of a handful of purpose-built parkour centres in the UK, offering a daily timetable ranging from Little Ninjas for ages two to four to adult drop-in sessions. Their business reflects the coming of age of a sport that started in the late 1980s, as little more than some friends playing around after school in a Paris suburb. ___ An early ambassador for parkour in the country, he appeared in Jump London, the television documentary that introduced the activity to a wider public in 2003 as he and two friends leapt across the capital’s rooftops. He also played Mollaka, the bomb-maker chased by Daniel Craig’s Bond in the memorable sequence at the start of Casino Royale. Participants point to the minimal equipment requirements as one of parkour’s advantages, arguing that now that it is recognised as a sport, parkour can extend its work in schools. This is a view echoed by Parkour UK chief executive Eugene Minogue. ___ ‘It goes back to the core of what PE is about!’
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