You might have heard a lot about the Chinese Olympic team competing in the Beijing Olympics, but how much do you know about the British squad?

Team GB (Great Britain), as they are also known, have been training in Macau. The team are using the sports facilities that were used for the East Asian Games in Macau in 2005. Special gym equipment has been shipped in for them and the sportsmen and women are spending a week or so there before they head up to Beijing.

The idea behind the camp is to give the British team time to overcome the time difference between China and the UK. The team also need to adjust to the hot temperatures and the humidity. A tropical storm this week has however affected training.

UK Sport is an organisation responsible for managing the development in sport in the UK and they have set targets for the British team's achievements in Beijing. They want the team to achieve a minimum of 35 medals in total. Sports experts are predicting the British team will exceed this target but only time will tell.

The British team has plenty of strong contenders for medals. Ben Ainslie is a sailor and he is aiming for his third gold medal in Beijing. He has been described as Britain's top hope for a medal.

Katherine Grainger is a female rower and she will lead the women's rowing team. The team have scored other medals including an Olympic silver but they are aiming for a first British women's rowing team Olympic gold.

Everyone is talking about diver Tom Daley. He is only 14 years old and it's a great achievement to make it into the Olympic team at such a young age.

Paula Radcliffe is very well known in the UK for completing marathons in record time. In spite of her achievements, she has not won any Olympic medals, and at 34 years old Beijing may be her last chance. Her participation in the Olympics has however been in some doubt because of a thigh injury.

We wish both the Chinese and the British teams great Olympic success over the next couple of weeks.

• equipment [i´kwipmənt]   n.装备，设备   (初中英语单词)
• overcome [,əuvə´kʌm]   vt.战胜，克服   (初中英语单词)
• adjust [ə´dʒʌst]   vt.调整；校准；使适应   (初中英语单词)
• responsible [ri´spɔnsəbəl]   a.尽责的；责任重大的   (初中英语单词)
• achieve [ə´tʃi:v]   vt.完成；达到；获得   (初中英语单词)
• exceed [ik´si:d]   v.超(胜)过；凌驾   (初中英语单词)
• female [´fi:meil]   a.女(性)的 n.女人   (初中英语单词)
• everyone [´evriwʌn]   pron.=everybody 每人   (初中英语单词)
• achievement [ə´tʃi:vmənt]   n.完成；成就，成绩   (初中英语单词)
• injury [´indʒəri]   n.伤害；毁坏；侮辱   (初中英语单词)
• tropical [´trɔpikəl]   a.热带地区的   (高中英语单词)
• minimum [´miniməm]   n.最小量 a.最小的   (高中英语单词)
• humidity [hju:´miditi]   n.湿气；湿度   (英语六级单词)
• affected [ə´fektid]   a.做作的；假装的   (英语六级单词)
• participation [pɑ:,tisi´peiʃən]   n.参加，参与   (英语六级单词)