Athens will welcome the 2004 Olympic Games with open arms. Not only will the Games be returning to their birthplace, but they’ll also be entering a new period of Olympic history.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been looking for ways to make the world’s largest sporting event a bit smaller and easier for cities to host. Mexico is the only Latin American nation to have hosted the Olympics. And the games have never been held in Africa.

It costs well over$4 billion t host the Olympic Games. And this is stopping many poorer countries from trying to win the bid. Cities in Africa and Latin America, with great social and money problems, cannot even begin to make the bid.

So, the IOC has suggested 117 ways to make the Games smaller and easier for cities across the world. These ideas are to be put into practice soon---maybe in time for the Beijing 2008 Olympics. The IOC wants to save up to $400 million.

The suggestions include limiting the number of sports to 28 and the number of athletes to 10,500.

“Imagine a bus with 28 seats and some sports need to get off to give their places to other sports,”said an IOC official. Sports that might not appear in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games included baseball, softball and the modern pentathlon(五项全能)(shooting, fencing, horse, jumping, swimming and running).

“We think that the Olympic Games have to be made smaller, and the less costly so that they can be organized by all continents and subcontinents(次大陆),”said IOC president Jacques Rogge.

“Our dream is that a continent such as Africa will be able to organize the Olympic Games.”

36. What’s the main idea of the passage?

A. The Olympic Games have to be made smaller and less costly

B. The Olympic Games have to increase the number of sports.

C. The Olympic games have to increase the number of athletes.

D. The Olympic Games have to enlarge their global attraction.

37. From the passage, we can know that the Olympics have been held in four continents EXCEPT ____________.

A. Asia         B. America         C. Europe        D. Africa

38. The events which are most probably limited include ______ according to the passage.

A. basketball, baseball and football           

B. baseball, softball and volleyball

C. softball, baseball and the modern pentathlon 

D. softball, fencing and pentathlon

39. The purpose of writing the article is to ______.

A. think highly of the Athens Olympic Games

B. make many poorer countries be able to organize the Olympics.

C. increase the events of the Athens Olympic Games

D. make Athens enter a new period of Olympic history