Daily Reads-53 (Level-2)

Reading Suggestion-1

Article Name: Zen and the art of the world’s deadliest motorcycle race
Author Name: Stephen Phelan
Source: The New Yorker
Category: Sports

Summary for this article:

In this article, the writer vividly describes, how over the years the Tourist Trophy – a weeklong series of motorcycle races held each year on the Isle of Man, had experienced fearless riders racing to compete against each other. Many deaths had taken place in the process; but the racing event continues to attract racers and enthusiastic spectators.
It’s a game of Life –the deadliest motorcycle races in the world.

To the casual observer, the T.T. may seem like madness incarnate. “You couldn’t do this if you were mad. It takes too much focus and discipline.”, said Quale a former racer. “Every rider out there is actually living their life, not wasting it like you see so many other people doing”, he said.

Over the years, the T.T. has become marginally safer. As dangerous as this sport may sound, yet the racers love it. According to Dan Kneel, racing in this track seems to be an experience of letting himself free.

Words to learn from this article:

Concussive: Agitation or impact (bump/collison)(suffered from concussion after falling on ice )
Winced: Facial expression showing pain or embarrassment
Also-ran: One who takes part in any contest but did not win
Paddocks: Enclosed area for keeping horses etc.

Reading Suggestion-1: Click to read full article

Reading Suggestion-2

Article Name: Mayweather vs. McGregor Is the Kind of Circus Matchup That Only Boxing Allows
Author name : KelefaSanneh
Source: The New Yorker
Category: Sports

Summary for this article:

In this article, the writer says how the upcoming boxing match between Mayweather and MCGregor is a less competitive one, the one that does not stir up the true spirit of boxing in it. But people are ready to watch it by paying huge sums of money, as they are more likely to be lured in by a big name than by a competitive match.

The match is scheduled to be held on August 26th between Floyd Mayweather who holds a record of 49-0 and with this win he will achieve his 50th boxing victory and Conor McGrgor, who is a brash U.F.C Champion from Ireland. McGregor’s chosen sport is mixed martial arts. He is not a boxer, but his worldwide celebrity stature would make this match a lucrative one.

Such a match could damage the sport’s business model; but then two people are willing to fight and people are ready to pay huge sums of money to watch them and if no one is in a position to stop this from happening, perhaps, that’s as good an argument as any, that the free-market world of boxing can still work pretty well.

Words to learn from this article:

Trash-talker: To verbally abuse or utter words for making the moral down of others (especially in sports; trash-talking is a term in boxing corresponding to sledging in cricket)
Travesty: Mockery, shocking or ridiculous
Swamped: Submerge or overwhelm
Queasy: Suffering from nausea

Reading Suggestion-2: Click to read full article

Reading Suggestion-3

Article Name: The Guardian view on arrogance: the Greeks had a word for it
Author Name: Editorial
Source: The Guardian
Category: Literature

Summary for this article:

In this article, the writer says how the word “hubris”, a word inherited from the Greeks went far beyond its original meaning.

For the Greeks, it did not simply signal that pride goes before a fall but, rather, something stronger and more morally freighted. Hubris described an act intentionally designed to dishonour its victim. Hubris was something expressly calculated to cause shame to the weak. Hubris was tinged with violence. Hubris was excessive and brutal.

The Grenfell tower incident wasn’t just the one that gave the word Hubris an appearance of an insulting contempt but Hubris has seemed to many to sum up the arrogance of the Tory party in its seven years in power.

Words to learn from this article:

Top-hole: excellent, A-class
Sneaks: to move secretly
Hubris: exaggerated pride or confidence
Barracked: to shout at derisively and harshly (derisively means to say in a a ridicule manner, Ex- laughed at him in derision)