【英语趣味课堂】落网球-Net Ball

Dai: So Naomi, you’re from Wales¹ and you’re eleven. So what does an eleven-year old girl do for fun in Wales?

Naomi: I do music. I play the piano and the violin and I play sports: netball.

 

Dai: Net ball? What’s that?

 

Naomi: Yeah, it’s like a basketball a bit, but mostly girls play it. You have to...you have two teams and you have to try and get the ball in each others’ nets.

 

Dai: Oh OK, so it’s just like basketball. You bounce² it around and...

 

Naomi: Well, you don’t really bounce it that much. You can only bounce it once.

 

Dai: Oh really?

 

Naomi: Yeah.

 

Dai: Oh OK, I see. And you play it indoors³ then or...?

 

Naomi: Yeah mostly indoors - in the summer sometimes outdoors.

 

Dai: Oh OK, sounds good. Yeah so, you can only bounce it once?

 

Naomi: Yeah, there’s three different passes you can do. One is you use a bounce called “bounce pass” and you can only use a bounce once.

 

Dai: OK, to pass it to your teammate⁴.

 

Naomi: Yeah.

 

Dai: OK, and what are the other passes?

 

Naomi: There’s “chest⁵ pass”.

 

Dai: And what’s that?

 

Naomi: It’s just a straight pass from your chest to the other person’s chest.

 

Dai: Oh OK.

 

Naomi: And “shoulder pass” which is sort of a lob.

 

Dai: Like a lob, you throw it over your shoulder kind of thing. And so, it’s just...well like basketball somebody throws it in the net and how many points do you get?

 

Naomi: It’s one point for every net - every ball that you get in the net.

 

Dai: Oh OK. and how long is a game of netball?

 

Naomi: Probably about an hour.

 

Dai: Oh really? So like half an hour each side or...?

 

Naomi: Yeah, I think so.

 

Dai: OK, and how many people are there on a team?

 

Naomi: Seven.

 

Dai: Seven?

 

Naomi: Yeah.

 

Dai: OK, nice.

 

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

mostly

 

Mostly girls play net ball.

 

The word 'mostly' is similar in meaning to 'almost all'.  Notice the following:

 

Football is mostly a man's sport.

That restaurant serves mostly chicken.

each other

 

You try and get the ball in each other's nets.

 

Here, we use the phrase⁶ 'each other' to talk about two teams. Notice the following:

 

The two teams do not like each other.

We gave each other present for the holidays.

bounce

 

You bounce the ball around.

 

When we drop a ball it bounces⁷ back up.  Notice the following:

 

You must bounce the ball in basketball.

The ball took a big bounce after I dropped it.

pass

 

There's three different passes you can do in net ball.

 

To pass means⁸ to quickly give something to someone.  In sports we pass to our teammates.  Notice the following:

 

She passed the ball to her teammate.

The most difficult pass in netball is the shoulder pass.

lob

 

The shoulder pass is sort of a lob.

 

The word 'lob' means to slowly throw something, usually a ball.  Notice the following:

 

We lobbed the ball to the baby.

When I get home I always lob my keys onto the table.

1 Wales   

n.威尔士(在大不列颠岛西南部)

参考例句：

• The company are opening up a new factory in Wales.公司将在威尔士开一家新工厂。
• She teaches English at the University of Wales.她在威尔士大学教英语。

2 bounce   

n.弹，反弹；冲劲，冲力；v.(使)弹起(跳起)

参考例句：

• She's got a lot of bounce.她浑身都是劲。
• The ball gave a high bounce.那球弹得很高。

3 indoors   

adv.(在)室内，(在)户内

参考例句：

• Because of the coldness of the weather we stayed indoors.我们因天气寒冷呆在家里。
• It is very cold outside,you'd better come indoors across the board.外面很冷，你们所有人最好都进屋。

4 teammate   

n.队友

参考例句：

• He is a great teammate.他是一个伟大的队友。
• He missed the ball passed from his teammate.他没能接住队友传来的球。

5 chest   

n.胸，大箱子，金库，资金，一箱，密封室，衣橱

参考例句：

• The bear's chest is hairy.那只熊的胸部毛茸茸的。
• Mother has a pain in her chest.母亲胸口疼.。

6 phrase   

n.短语，词组；成语，习语

参考例句：

• The phrase was caught on and immediately became popular.这个短语被采用后很快就流行了。
• That's exactly the phrase I was looking for.这就是我一直找的那个短语。

7 bounces   

v.弹回( bounce的第三人称单数 )；（电子邮件）被退回；拒付；（朝某个方向）颠簸行进

参考例句：

• Although fatigue shows readily on Carter, he bounces back quickly. 卡特虽然容易显出疲劳的样子，但他恢复得很快。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A rubber ball bounces well. 橡皮球弹力好。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 means   

n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富

参考例句：

• That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
• We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。