【英语听和读】对板球的狂热喜爱

 Amber¹: Hello, I’m Amber and this is bbclearningenglish.com.

In Entertainment today, we listen to extracts from an interview with John

Major, who was the British Prime Minister before Tony Blair. He’s written a

book about the history of cricket from the 18th century to the First World War –

it’s called More Than a Game – the Story of Cricket’s Early Years, and, as

we’ll hear, there’s plenty to say about the ways politics and cricket meet.

First, here’s John Major talking about how cricket used to be very ‘classridden’.

In other words, it followed the class divisions of society. He agrees

that cricket was very bound-up with class, but that was becoming less true, it

was ‘beginning fade’, when he fell in love with the game, as a boy growing up

in a working class family. He says there were meaningless, or ‘absurd’,

practices, such as men of different status having to enter the pitch through

different gates and use different dressing² rooms!

As you listen, try to catch the expression John Major uses to describe how

cricket was very slow to accept or ‘to come to terms with’, the fact that society

was changing, it was becoming less divided by class.

John Major

‘Yes, it was, I mean, it was beginning to fade then, but only just beginning. And of course for

most of the 19th century and before, it was a very class-ridden game. Until well into the 20th

century, you found professionals and amateurs entering the pitch from different gates - it was

an absurdity³ - and not sharing the same dressing room. It was very slow in many ways to

come to terms with the real world.’ 

Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007

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bbclearningenglish.com

Amber: Did you catch it? John Major says cricket was ‘very slow in many ways to

come to terms with the real world.’ ‘The real world’ – the set of situations most

humans have to deal with in their lives, rather than what happens in stories,

films, and so on.

John Major

‘Yes, it was, I mean, it was beginning to fade then, but only just beginning. And of course for

most of the 19th century and before, it was a very class-ridden game. Until well into the 20th

century, you found professionals and amateurs entering the pitch from different gates - it was

an absurdity - and not sharing the same dressing room. It was very slow in many ways to

come to terms with the real world.’

Amber: In his book, John Major admits to feeling very sorry that, when he was Prime

Minister, many playing fields, especially school playing fields, were sold. This

prevented many people from playing cricket in a land where the modern

version of the game was born!

He says ‘in retrospect⁴’ – when he thinks about the past in the light of the

knowledge he has now – he thinks he should have made it harder for playing

fields to be sold. He should have put in place a ‘blanket-ban’. A blanket-ban is

an unlimited⁵ ban, affecting all cases. So, does he feel guilty?

John Major

‘I do. I mean, I did stop some of them and I did make it harder for them to be sold. I think in

retrospect it would have been better to have had a blanket-ban on the sales.’

Amber: And will John Major be publishing other books? And why does he write?

Listen.

John Major

‘I’ve always enjoyed writing. I still have drafts of bits of several novels, but I wrote all the

time. I write a lot of poetry, not for publication, but privately⁶. I find it very cathartic⁷ to pick

up a pen and to write – it’s particularly cathartic at moments of stress.’ 

Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007

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bbclearningenglish.com

Amber: Well, we don’t know if he’ll be publishing other books but he has written

‘drafts of bits of several novels’ – a draft is a first or rough version - and he

writes a lot of poetry, but this is private.

And he writes because he finds it ‘cathartic’, calming and purifying, especially

‘at moments of stress’, or difficulty.

John Major

‘I’ve always enjoyed writing. I still have drafts of bits of several novels, but I wrote all the

time. I write a lot of poetry, not for publication, but privately. I find it very cathartic to pick

up a pen and to write – it’s particularly cathartic at moments of stress.’

Amber: Now, here’s a list of the language we focussed on in today’s programme.

to be class-ridden – to follow the class divisions of society

to come to terms with something – to accept something you don’t like

 

 the real world – the set of situations most humans have to deal with in their

lives, rather than what happens in films, stories and so on

in retrospect – thinking about the past in the light of recent knowledge

a blanket-ban - an unlimited ban

cathartic - calming and purifying 

1 amber   

n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的

参考例句：

• Would you like an amber necklace for your birthday?你过生日想要一条琥珀项链吗？
• This is a piece of little amber stones.这是一块小小的琥珀化石。

2 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

3 absurdity   

n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论

参考例句：

• The proposal borders upon the absurdity.这提议近乎荒谬。
• The absurdity of the situation made everyone laugh.情况的荒谬可笑使每个人都笑了。

4 retrospect   

n.回顾，追溯；v.回顾，回想，追溯

参考例句：

• One's school life seems happier in retrospect than in reality.学校生活回忆起来显得比实际上要快乐。
• In retrospect,it's easy to see why we were wrong.回顾过去就很容易明白我们的错处了。

5 unlimited   

adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的

参考例句：

• They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
• There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris.在技术方面自以为是会很危险。

6 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

7 cathartic   

adj.宣泄情绪的；n.泻剂

参考例句：

• His laughter was cathartic,an animal yelp that brought tears to his eyes.他哈哈大笑以宣泄情绪，声音如野兽般尖厉，眼泪都笑出来了。
• The drug had a cathartic effect.这药有导泻的作用。