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Level 3 – Intermediate
Snooker
Snooker is an enormously popular television sport in Britain and millions of viewers have followed the world’s top players fighting for the championship title. Snooker world professional championships have been played since 1927. In general, Snooker is most popular in the countries of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland together with Commonwealth countries such as South Africa, Australia and Canada. However, other countries such as Thailand and America are starting to play seriously.
Snooker is an indoor game which is similar to billiards in that it is played on a six-pocket table covered with a green cloth. There are seven red balls and six coloured balls in snooker and two players take turns to knock them into the pockets using a cue and a white ball. They must do this in a specific order.
Snooker is a relatively recent game which developed from the older game of billiards. The origins of this game are uncertain but many people think that it derived from an outdoor game of the croquet family played during the fifteenth century in northern Europe. Bad weather may have encouraged people to play indoors!
Billiards became a popular pub game in Britain during the sixteenth century and was banned, along with other pub games, in the eighteenth century because it had gained a bad reputation. Towards the end of the nineteenth century it became respectable again. It was at about this time that the modern game of snooker appeared.
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Answer the questions below to check how well you understand the text.
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C2 Mastery
