Task 1. You are going to read the text aloud. You have 1.5 minutes to read the text silently, and then be ready to read it aloud. Remember that you will not have more than 2 minutes for reading aloud.

Netball is played by over 20 million people in more than 70 countries of the world. It was invented in 1892 as women’s basketball. However, netball is different from basketball in many ways. For example, the ball and the basket are smaller and the court is bigger. The players cannot run with the ball. They are not allowed to touch the players who they are playing with. Netball has seven players in each team (not five as in basketball). During the 20th century, the game became very popular in English-speaking countries. Traditionally, only girls and women played netball. Nowadays, netball is the number one women’s sport in the world but boys and men are starting to play it too.