神人！不会讲法语 却荣获法语拼字比赛冠军

 　　This man won the French-language Scrabble world championship recently, despite not being able to speak any French (well, he probably knows ‘bonjour’).

　　这个人最近刚赢得法语拼字比赛的冠军，但是他根本不会讲法语（好吧，他可能会说“你好”）。

　　Nigel Richards, who is from Christchurch in New Zealand, defeated a guy who actually speaks French at the final in Belgium on Monday.

　　这周一，在比利时的法语拼字比赛决赛上，来自新西兰基督城的奈杰尔·理查兹打败了明显会讲法语的对手。

　　While he doesn’t speak the language, Richards picked up a French dictionary eight weeks ago and just started cramming¹ all the words into his head.

　　然而理查兹根本不会讲法语，他八个星期前才开始看法语字典，他所做的也只是把那些单词死记硬背记在脑子里。

　　Liz Fagerlund, a good friend of Richards, said: ‘He doesn’t speak French at all, he just learnt the words.

　　理查兹的好友莉兹说：“他完全不会讲法语，他只是记下那些单词。”

　　神人！不会讲法语 却荣获法语拼字比赛冠军

　　‘He won’t know what they mean, he wouldn’t be able to carry out a conversation in French I wouldn’t think.’

　　“他不懂那些单词的意思，他也不可能把这些法语单词连成一段话。”

　　As any seasoned Scrabble player knows, the game has as much to do with tactics as it does with having a large vocabulary, but to not know the language you are victorious² in is pretty impressive.

　　只要是经验丰富的拼字选手就都知道，这种比赛需要参赛选手有庞大的词汇量，但如果你能赢了比赛却不懂这门语言，那你就让人非常佩服。

　　Something simple like dialect obviously can’t hold Richards back, and he has won five US National scrabble titles and the world Scrabble Championship three times.

　　像某些简单的方言显然无法拖理查兹的后腿，在此之前，他已经获得了5次全美拼字比赛的冠军和3次世界拼字比赛的冠军。

　　Despite being known as the finest Scrabble player alive, Ms Fagerlund, who is also the former president of the New Zealand Scrabble Association, said Richards’ win in Belgium was ‘quite remarkable’.

　　新西兰拼字协会的前任主席法格兰先生说，尽管理查兹此前已经是世界上最厉害的拼字选手了，但他这次在比利时的胜利是相当了不起的。

　　One of the contestants³ who Richards beat during the French tournament reportedly joked ‘are you an extra-terrestrial or something’ when witnessing his amazing ability.

　　据说，理查兹在这次比赛中打败的选手在目睹了他那不可思议的才能后开玩笑地说：“你真的不是外星人或者其他什么不明生物吗？”

1 cramming   

n.塞满，填鸭式的用功v.塞入( cram的现在分词 )；填塞；塞满；（为考试而）死记硬背功课

参考例句：

• Being hungry for the whole morning, I couldn't help cramming myself. 我饿了一上午，禁不住狼吞虎咽了起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She's cramming for her history exam. 她考历史之前临时抱佛脚。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 victorious   

adj.胜利的，得胜的

参考例句：

• We are certain to be victorious.我们定会胜利。
• The victorious army returned in triumph.获胜的部队凯旋而归。

3 contestants   

n.竞争者，参赛者( contestant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The competition attracted over 500 contestants representing 8 different countries. 这次比赛吸引了代表8个不同国家的500多名参赛者。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency. 两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。 来自《简明英汉词典》