Assignments,Reading of the passage,The triathlon promises to be one of the most popular Olympic sports. Recently it has drawn huge crowds attracted (and worried) by athletes swimming 1500m, cycling 40km, and then running 10km without stopping. Great for those watching, maybe, but what makes the triathletes want to punish their bodies so much? And what makes an attractive 17-year-old, with excellent academic results, give up everything for the strange pleasures it offers?,Reading of the passage,Melanie Sears has not yet learnt those often-repeated phrases about personal satisfaction, mental challenge and higher objectives that most athletes always use when asked similar questions. “You swim for 1500m, then get out of the water and jump on your bike, still wet. Of course, then you freeze. When the 40km cycle ride is over, you have to run 10km, which is a long way when youre feeling very tired. But its great fun, and all worth it in the end,“ she says. Melanie entered her first triathlon at 14. “I won the junior sectionbut then I was the only junior taking part. It seemed so easy that I was waving at my team-mates as I went round.“,Reading of the passage,Confidently, Melanie Sears entered the National Championships, and although she had the second fastest swim and the fastest run, she got nowhere. “I was following this man and suddenly we came to the sea. We realized then that we had gotten lost. I ended up cycling 20 kilometers too far. I cried all the way through the running.“,Reading of the passage,But she did not give up and is determined that she never will. “Sometimes I wish I could stop, because then the pain would be over, but I am afraid that if I stop just once, I would be tempted to do it again. Its dogged that does it.“,Reading of the passage,Melanie was top junior in this years European Triathlon Championships, finishing 13th. “I was almost as good as the top three in swimming and running, but much slower at cycling. Thats why Im working very hard at it. The big trouble is, I have no one of my age to train with,“ she says. Funny, that. Melanie is truly a teenager with a taste for endurance. With her devotion to the triathlon, she will succeed sooner or later.,