OSSLT Reading Read the selection below and answer the questions that follow it.
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Ice sculpting has been called a "spart"-part sport, part art. Like
athletes, ice sculptors vie for medals at international
competitions. Ice carving has been a Cultural Olympiad event at
the Olympic and Paralympic Arts Festival since the 1988 Calgary
Winter Games. The tools and the ice are heavy, so sculptors need
endurance and strength. "It's physically demanding working
non-stop under a time constraint," says Dan Rebholtz, who has
been carving for 22 years. He is a veteran of 100 competitions, a
three-time world champion and a certified judge with the National
Ice Carving Association. Most North American ice carvers have
art training. Their tools include chainsaws, carving chisels,
electrical sanders and torches, but most important, an imagination.
"Our favourite word is 'wow," says Rebholtz. It's the word most
people say when they see sculptures such as Surfacing Kingfisher
by the team of Junichi Nakamura (Japan) and Suguru Kanbayashi 15
(Canada). Although ice sculptures are beautiful and their creation
time-consuming, carvers must accept the potential for tragedy and
the certainty of impermanence for their masterpieces. Melting
can be a threat, but so too is crashing. Nakamura's team, which
included Rebholtz, worked almost 20 hours a day for six days on
The Birth of the Bluebird, a gigantic sculpture of a reclining
woman, her arm reaching up to a bird. Just before the judging, it
toppled, when its last supporting pillar was cut-a spectacle viewed
over 10 000 times on You Tube Sport Art With its challenge
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