A new anti-cheating system for counting the judges scores in ice skating is flawed, according to leading sports specialists. Ice skatings governing body announced the new rules last week after concerns that a judge at the Winter Olympics may have been unfairly influenced.
Initially the judges in the pairs figure-skating event at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City voted 5 to 4 to give the gold medal to a Russian pair, even though they had a fall during their routine. But the International Skating Union suspended the French judge for failing to reveal that she had been put under pressure to vote for the Russians. The International Olympics Committee then decided to give a second gold to the Canadian runners-up .
The ISU, skatings governing body, now says it intends to change the rules. In future 14 judges will judge each event, but only 7 of their scores-selected at random-will count.
The ISU wont finally approve the new system until it meets in June but already UK Sport, the British Governments sports body, has expressed reservations. 1 remain to be convinced that the random selection system would offer the guarantees that everyone concerned with ethical sport is looking for, says Jerry Bingham, UK Sports head of ethics .
A random system can still be manipulated, says Mark Dixon, a specialist on sports statistics from the Royal Statistical Society in London. The score of one or two judges who have been nobbled may still be in the seven selected.
Many other sports that have judges, including diving, gymnastics, and synchronized swimming, have a system that discards the highest and lowest scores. If a judge was under pressure to favour a particular team, they would tend to give it very high scores and mark down the opposition team, so their scores wouldnt count. It works for diving, says Jeff Cook, a member of the international government bodys technical committee. If you remove those at the top and bottom youre left with those in the middle, so youre getting a reasonable average.
Since the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, diving has tightened up in its system still further. Two separate panels of judges score different rounds of diving during top competitions. Neither panel knows the scores given by the other. We have done this to head off any suggestion of bias, says Cook.
Bingham urged the ISU to consider other options. This should involve examining the way in which other sports deal with the problem of adjudicating on matter of style and presentation, he says.
1. Who won the gold medal in the pairs figure-skating event?
A The Russian pair.
B The Canadian pair.
C Both the Russian pair and the Canadian pair.
D The French pair.
2. According to the new rules proposed by the ISU, which of the following is right?
A The number of judges will be doubled.
B Only half of the judges wilt score.
C Only some selected judges will score.
D Only half of the scores will count.
3.What does Jerry Bingham express by saying I remain to be convinced?
A His anger.
B His criticism.
C His agreement.
D His doubt.
4. The attitude of those concerned in the UK to the new rules proposed by ISU can be best described as
A indifferent.
B reserved.
C enthusiastic.
D positive.
5. Which of the following is NOT true of the scoring system for diving?
A It is more biased.
B It is more reasonable.
C It is fairer.
D It is tighter.
答案:1. C 2. D 3.. D 4.. B 5. A