华尔街中级英语Lesson 38

     John, you are professional broadcaster and journalist, and you are also very keen on football.  When did that interest start?   As a small boy, and I think you will find this is a common story all over the world, not just in England.  My dad took me to a football match and I can remember being lifted over the turnstiles so in another words.  I was so small that the man on the gate didn’t want me to pay, or my dad to pay.  So I  was lifted over the turnstiles and taken into the stand.  So right from that point onwards, I was hooked.  And you used to play and what position did you play?  I was a winger, a right winger, I was on the right wing.  But you see today all those expressions have now gone, you are either striker or a mid-fielder or a back fore¹. In those days, I was an outside right.
     You mentioned memories of how the game used to be played and you’ve talked about how the game is played today.  What are the differences?  Amateur footballer, I don’t think that has changed all that much, the professional game clearly has changed.  And that’s what I’m concerned today.  In another words, the game that I used to see as a school boy when take over the turnstiles and sitting in the stands.  That’s changed enormously.  In those days, of course, players weren’t paid much money.  We didn’t pay very much money to go into the game.  But now, of course, players, as we all know are, paid enormous fees.  And to get into the ground.  You have to pay a lot of money.  And for example, a programme today at any English league  football match will probably cost you about 1.5 pounds.  1.5 pounds would given you a center stand seat in those early days when I was a school boy.  So things have changed and it’s largely in the professional games a financial change, I would say.  Clubs buy and sell players and on the strength of   the players they buy and sell they either become a better club or indeed they get worse? Do you agree with the way money dictates² how good a club can be?  No, I don’t.  I don’t like the way that money dictates football today.  What I object to are the really big clubs. And  this is not only confined to England, but its throughout Europe of course where very simply.  . Because we are simple a very, very rich man, and fellow directors purl money into the club and say to the manager now go out to buy whoever you like.  Now that to me is not what is all about.  Sadly, it’s the way that football, that top football is going today.  So the rich clubs are getting richer.  And the poor clubs, not only are getting poorer, but many of them having to go out of the game altogether.
     Does all of this effect the game as a spectator sport, how it looks?  Do you think that’s changed at all?  Yes.  I do again, because, today particularly in what we now call the premier³ league, that was the first division, by and large the important thing now is to stay in that division and to survive effectively at any cost literally⁴ at any cost.  That means that you’ve got to win.  And to me it maybe perhaps be an old-fashioned view.  But sport is not about necessarily winning, but it’s competing and if you lose occasionally, that’s something that you must accommodate.  Today, winning is crucial.  Winning by one goal is all at matters.  And so much of the flare⁵ and creativity has gone because there is so much a stake and that has definitely affected⁶ the game for the worse.  

1 fore   

adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部

参考例句：

• Your seat is in the fore part of the aircraft.你的座位在飞机的前部。
• I have the gift of fore knowledge.我能够未卜先知。

2 dictates   

n.命令，规定，要求( dictate的名词复数 )v.大声讲或读( dictate的第三人称单数 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• Convention dictates that a minister should resign in such a situation. 依照常规部长在这种情况下应该辞职。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He always follows the dictates of common sense. 他总是按常识行事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 premier   

adj.首要的；n.总理，首相

参考例句：

• The Irish Premier is paying an official visit to Britain.爱尔兰总理正在对英国进行正式访问。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

4 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

5 flare   

v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发

参考例句：

• The match gave a flare.火柴发出闪光。
• You need not flare up merely because I mentioned your work.你大可不必因为我提到你的工作就动怒。

6 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。