《英语流行话题阅读:语境识词3500》Unit95:NBA—篮球运动员的宫殿

　　Unit 95
NBA -- Palace for Basketball Players
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the major professional basketball league in the world, with teams from the United States and Canada. With the addition of the Toronto Raptors and the Vancouver Grizzlies¹, the NBA expanded to 29 teams competing in the Eastern and Western areas in four separate divisions. Each team conducts a training camp in October to determine its 12-player roster². Training camp allows each team to evaluate players, especially first year players, to see the team's strengths and weaknesses, and to prepare players for the upcoming season through a series of on-court drills. After a series of exhibition games, the NBA begins its 82-game regular season in the first week of November.
In the second week of February, the NBA interrupts its season to celebrate the annual NBA All-Star game, with the game's best players as selected by fans throughout the US and Canada. After the NBA season concludes in the third week in April, a total of 16 teams qualify for the playoffs. The playoff spots are awarded on the basis of win-loss records, regardless of division. The playoffs start with the teams with better records playing the teams with worse records in a best-of-five series, in which the winner is the first team to win three games. In subsequent rounds best-of-seven series are played, with the first team to earn four victories winning the round. The playoffs continue in this way until a champion is crowned. The champions from the Eastern and Western areas then meet in a best-of-seven series to determine the NBA champion.
Every June the league conducts its amateur draft, in which each team obtains the rights to the professional services of the best collegiate and international players. Any player who has graduated from high school and is at least 17 years old qualifies for the NBA draft. To determine the draft order the NBA uses a draft lottery³, introduced in 1985. Those teams that failed to qualify for the playoffs the previous season are qualified⁴ for the lottery. The lottery determines the first three teams to select in the draft. The remaining teams draft according to their win-loss records of the previous season, so that teams with poorer records draft higher than those with better records. The NBA draft consists of only two rounds, with a total of 58 players chosen. Those players not selected in the draft can be invited to try out for a team and are sometimes signed to playing contracts.

1 grizzlies   

北美洲灰熊( grizzly的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Suns beat the Memphis Grizzlies 127-113 earlier Tuesday night. 在周二晚上早些时候，太阳以127：113击败孟菲斯灰熊。
• Whatever you do, do not blink.They're like grizzlies. 无论你做什么，别眨眼。他们跟熊有点相象。

2 roster   

n.值勤表，花名册

参考例句：

• The teacher checked the roster to see whom he would teach this year.老师查看花名册，想了解今年要教的学生。
• The next day he put himself first on the new roster for domestic chores.第二天，他把自己排在了新的家务值日表的第一位。

3 lottery   

n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事

参考例句：

• He won no less than ￡5000 in the lottery.他居然中了5000英镑的奖券。
• They thought themselves lucky in the lottery of life.他们认为自己是变幻莫测的人生中的幸运者。

4 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。