Задача по теме: "Понимание основного содержания прочитанного текста"

A. Nowadays skateboarding is included in the list of the world’s top 10 sports. However, it took a long time to make skateboarding an Olympic sport. One of the reasons was that it was considered extremely dangerous. Nevertheless, in 2021 skateboarding competitions were included in the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. There were men’s and women’s street and park finals. The sportsmen who got the first Olympic awards were from Japan and Australia.  

B. Nowadays skateboarding is popular all over the world. It is a relatively new sport. The first version of the skateboard appeared about a century ago in California. Initially, it was a wooden box with wheels below. The device was used to move heavy things in warehouses. A later modification had the form of a board that could move straight ahead. Unfortunately, the wheels did not turn right or left, and it was difficult to use the board in the street.   

C. It was not until the 1960s that skateboards became available in shops. The US inventor, Larry Stephens, offered a wheel suspension to make the board mobile. He also added a special device to enable the wheels to turn left or right. To improve the forms of the board, its end (which is called a deck) was made curved. That allowed skateboarders to make special tricks. Although Stephens’s ideas were not patented, they helped to start the industrial production of the board.

D. Today millions of people do skateboarding as a regular sport. Of course, skateboarding is not easy to learn. It takes time to get confidence and learn to balance on the moving board. The beginners have a risk to fall down and hurt themselves. That's why wearing knee, elbow and palm protectors is highly recommended. The good news is that most people acquire the necessary skills very quickly. After a bit of practising, skateboarding feels safe and exciting.

E. Interestingly, such self-made boards turned out to be useful for surfers — the sportsmen who rode on waves on special boards. During the season, they had no problem when practising their sport. However, between the seasons, when the sea was not good for surfing, the surfers needed to go on practising on the land. It occurred to them to fix roller wheels to the back of the surfing boards. This brilliant idea inspired a new trend — sidewalk surfing that copied the movements of the surfers on the water.  

F. The love for skateboarding was growing constantly among teenagers and adults. It significantly increased after the film “Back to the Future’. In the film, the main characters, Marti and his girlfriend moved on hoverboards. The hoverboard was one of the naive special effects in that old science fiction film. It could fly over the land and water at miraculous speed, which looked fantastic in those days.