Sport in the UK: people and records
The sport section of the Life in the UK syllabus asks about the games as well as the people who made a mark in them. The existing sport, arts and culture quiz in this category covers the games: golf, Wimbledon, the Ashes, the Grand National, the Six Nations. This quiz covers the people and a few landmark facts, in twelve questions.
It starts with the records that belong to history: Roger Bannister's mile in under four minutes in 1954, Jackie Stewart's three Formula 1 world titles, and Bobby Moore captaining England to the 1966 World Cup, with Bobby Charlton among the distractors because he played in that final too. Then come the Olympic and world champions of recent decades: Mo Farah's 5,000 and 10,000 metres at two Games, Jessica Ennis-Hill's heptathlon at London 2012, Chris Hoy on the track, Bradley Wiggins as the first British winner of the Tour de France, Steve Redgrave's rowing golds at five Games in a row, and Ellen MacArthur's solo sail around the world in 2005. Andy Murray's Wimbledon title in 2013 is asked through why it mattered: no British man had won the singles there since 1936.
Two questions are about institutions rather than people. The Paralympic movement grew out of the 1948 Stoke Mandeville Games for injured servicemen and women, a British story the test likes. The Premier League is English football's top division, and Scotland runs its own leagues.
Each question names the person and asks what they did, which is the direction the test usually takes. Each explanation adds a line of context so that the name sticks, and several of the distractors are real achievements of other people in the same quiz. The material is a quiz only and covers part of one chapter, not the whole syllabus. The questions and explanations are Zestly's own and no handbook text is reproduced.
- Say what Bannister, Stewart and Moore achieved and when
- Match Farah, Ennis-Hill, Hoy, Wiggins and Redgrave to their sports and best-known wins
- Explain why Andy Murray's 2013 Wimbledon title was significant
- Say what Ellen MacArthur achieved in 2005
- Explain the link between Stoke Mandeville and the Paralympic Games, and what the Premier League is
Practice material written by Zestly from publicly known sporting records. No text is taken from the Life in the UK handbook.
Sample question
What is Sir Roger Bannister remembered for?
- Winning the Tour de France
- Captaining England's football team in 1966
- Being the first person to run a mile in under four minutes, in 1954
- Sailing alone around the world
See the answer
Being the first person to run a mile in under four minutes, in 1954
On 6 May 1954, at a track in Oxford, Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds — the first time anyone had run it in under four minutes. He later became a doctor specialising in the nervous system. The other achievements belong to Bradley Wiggins, Bobby Moore and Ellen MacArthur.