Reading: An Article about Schools

Objectives

• read about a football academy in Barcelona and a ballet school in London.
• talk about unusual schools in my country.

Read about the football academy La Masia and the Royal Ballet School.

La Masia Football Academy

BARCELONA

La Masia is Barcelona’s football academy. Some of the greatest footballers in the world have come from La Masia. The World Cup and the European Championships were full of players from this academy. There are about 80 boys between the ages of 11 and 18 at the academy. They go to school until half past two in the afternoon, then they have lunch and a siesta. Most boys have to use this time to study and do their homework. In the evening, they watch TV or play video games before they go to bed. For these boys, football is their life. They train hard because they want to be the best.

The Royal Ballet School

LONDON

The Royal Ballet School in the heart of London trains dancers and choreographers. The school has twp buildings, one near Richmond Park for 11 to 16-year-olds and the other in Covent Garden for older students. Students at the school mix normal school subjects with their dance classes. Many famous ballet dancers have come from this school. To get into the school, students have to audition – they have to perform in front of judges from the school. Over 2,000 children attended auditions for the school in 2012 About 70 boys and girls get a place each year. There are students from all over the world. In the evening, when students aren’t in class or practising ballet, they can play tennis or play table football in the student halls.

The amount of energy needed to perform a ballet is about the same as playing two full football matches or running almost 29 kilometres.