英语访谈对话 237 Football Fan

 　　Todd: So, Lois have you ever been to a professional football match in England?

　　Lois: Yes, I have. I support a team called Leicester city, and when I used to be at university I used to live in Leicester. I used to go to quite a few of their matches.

　　Todd: OK, so what's it like when you go to a professional game?

　　Lois: So first of all, the fans are all separated, because in England there's sometimes violence at football, so they like to keep the fans away from each other, and there's always a lot of police there, but I've never been at a match where there's been any trouble, so that's been OK. Um, the atmosphere is normally¹ amazing because the smallest grounds hold about 20,000 people, so you get quite a good crowd, and because their stadiums are quite small, you're quite close to the pitch, so my team weren't very good though, so often my team would lose, so it wasn't so good, but when they one it was fantastic. Really, really good atmosphere and lots of fun.

　　Todd: That's cool. So how much does it cost to get it?

　　Lois: See again, it's quite expensive so maybe now for the lower teams it probably, cheapest ticket is 25 pounds, but for example if you wanted to go and see Manchester United play, play then maybe 50 pounds or more, but it's really really difficult to get tickets for Manchester United because everybody has a season ticket, so if you want to go and watch them you have to know somebody who can get you a ticket. It's difficult to just buy a ticket for those games.

　　Todd: Do you like Manchester United?

　　Lois: I think there a good team. I think that the reason a lot of people don't like them is because they used to win all the time, so now they don't win so much, because now Arsenal² win most of the time. So I think they're a good team, but I don't think you can like them if you're not from Manchester.

　　Todd: So Leicester is a very hard word to spell. I take it it's not L-E-S-T-E-R, no?

　　Lois: No. If you were an American you would probably pronounce it Lie-Se-Ster, so it's spelled L-E-I-C-E-S-T-E-R.

　　Todd: Well, again! One more time!

　　Lois: L-E-I-C-E-S-T-E-RTodd: Wow, that's quite a handful³. Alright, thanks, Lois.

1 normally   

adv.正常地，通常地

参考例句：

• I normally do all my shopping on Saturdays.我通常在星期六买东西。
• My pulse beats normally.我脉搏正常。

2 arsenal   

n.兵工厂，军械库

参考例句：

• Even the workers at the arsenal have got a secret organization.兵工厂工人暗中也有组织。
• We must be the great arsenal of democracy.我们必须成为民主的大军火库。

3 handful   

n.一把；少量，少数，一小撮

参考例句：

• We invited 30 people, but only a handful came.我们邀请了30人，但是只到了几个人。
• He pulled out a handful of coins from his pocket.他从口袋里掏出一把硬币。