Barcelona preapares to host basketball's Copa del Rey

 　　MADRID, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Thursday sees the start of the annual Copa del Rey in Spanish Basketball, a knockout competition that promises four days of thrilling basketball.

　　This year's Copa del Rey is held in the Palau San Jordi in Barcelona and brings together sides who occupied the top eight positions in the Endesa ACB league table at the halfway¹ point of the season.

　　It is the first tine the Copa has been played in Barcelona since 1986 and almost 13,000 fans can be expected to fill the venue² for the four days of the event.

　　The Copa is played in a straight knockout format³ with two quarter-finals held on Thursday, two more quarter-finals on Friday, the semi-finals on Saturday and the final on Sunday.

　　The eight sides taking part are Regal Barcelona, Real Madrid, Caja Laboral, Unicaja Malaga, Lucentum Alicante, Banca Civica, Lagun Aro and Fuenlabrada.

　　If results go according to seeding, Sunday's final will see Barcelona play Real Madrid, but the beauty of the Copa is that in 40 minutes on court almost anything can happen, especially as coaches have to try and dose⁴ their players' efforts in order to reach the final in the best possible condition.

　　The Copa del Rey is Basketball in its purest state when the slightest error can make the difference between success or failure.

1 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

2 venue   

n.犯罪地点，审判地，管辖地，发生地点，集合地点

参考例句：

• The hall provided a venue for weddings and other functions.大厅给婚礼和其他社会活动提供了场所。
• The chosen venue caused great controversy among the people.人们就审判地点的问题产生了极大的争议。

3 format   

n.设计，版式；[计算机]格式，DOS命令:格式化(磁盘)，用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据；v.使格式化，设计，安排

参考例句：

• Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
• The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。

4 dose   

n.(药的)剂量，一服；v.给(药)；(给…)服药

参考例句：

• In the accident,the workers received a heavy dose of radiation.在那次事故中，工人受到大剂量的辐射。
• He gave me a dose of medicine for my cold.他给我开了一剂治感冒的药。