VOA慢速英语2016 研究诠释为什么一些足球裁判员比同行优秀（在线收听）

Study Explains Why Some Soccer Referees are Better than Others 研究诠释为什么一些足球裁判员比同行优秀

Soccer fans around the world love to question the calls that the referees make during games. One common insult is to say the referee must not be able to see well.

全世界的足球球迷都喜欢质疑裁判在比赛中吹的哨。有一句广泛流传的话说得比较冒犯：裁判员一定眼神不好。

A new study says most referees can see just fine.Belgian and British researchers found thatthe best referees, however, are able to pay attention to the parts of a play where a foul is most likely to happen.

一项最新调查显示，大多数裁判员的视力尚可。但是比利时和英国研究人员发现，最好的裁判员能够注意到比赛中犯规行为最容易发生的地方。

These referees can ignore other less-important parts of a play.

这些裁判员能够忽视比赛中其他不太重要的地方。

Inexperienced referees, however, are not as precise, or exact.

但是，不太有经验的裁判员就不会这么精确。

The study was published in October in the journal “Cognitive Research.”Werner Helsen was a co-author of the study.He is a sports scientist and a professor at Belgium’s University of Leuven.He also helps train officials for FIFA and UEFA, the governing body of European soccer.

这项研究发表在《认知研究》十月刊上。维尔纳·赫尔森是研究的共同作者。他是一名运动科学专家，也是比利时卢汶大学教授。他也帮助国际足球联合会以及欧洲足球联合会（欧洲的足球主管部门）培训官员。

Helsen said there have been several studies done on soccer players.Researchers have studied how some of the best athletes see the games they play.Researchers ask the players to look at pictures or videos of a game.They follow the players’ eyes to see what they look at first and for how long.

赫尔森说，已经有好几项关于足球运动员的研究。研究人员已经研究了一些优秀运动员是如何看待自己参加的比赛的。究人员让运动员看比赛时的画面或录像。他们追踪运动员的眼睛，看他们最先看向哪里以及看多久。

Before the new study, researchers had not examined soccer referees in the same way.

在这项最新研究之前，研究人员没有用相同的方法测试过足球裁判员。

Referees who call games from top soccer leagues and lower soccer leagues took part in the study.Helsen and his team showed 40 referees videos of soccer games.The researchers used special technology to watch how their eyes moved.

为顶级和次级足球联赛鸣哨的裁判员参加了研究。赫尔森和他的团队给40名裁判员看了足球比赛的录像。研究人员使用了特殊的技术来观察裁判员的眼睛是如何动的。

Helsen said the best referees focused their eyes on the most important parts of plays.That means they did not pay attention to what Helsen called “irrelevant”—or unimportant—details.

赫尔森说，最好的裁判员关注比赛中最重要的部分。这意味着他们不会注意赫尔森所说“不相关”或者不重要的细节。

The best referees do not, in fact, have better vision than the others.But they do have more experience and they know what they should look for.

事实上，优秀的裁判员并不比别人拥有更好的视力。但是他们更有经验，也知道自己应该看哪里。

“It is the meaning your mind can give to something you are looking atthat makes the big difference and that makes the difference between being elite, or not elite.”

“有重要意义的是，你能够专心看哪里。这一点就是精英和非精英的区别。”

Helsen compares what the best referees see on the field to what an experienced doctor might see from an X-ray.A less-experienced doctor might take longer to look at an X-ray to find the problem.

赫尔森把优秀裁判员在球场上看到的东西比作有经验的医生在X光片里看到的东西。一个没有什么经验的医生看X光片寻找问题的时间可能要长一些。

Soccer organizations like FIFA and UEFA want to have the best referees at the biggest games.But there are not many chances for referees to practice calling foul plays.Helsen says referees need more chances to train and practice—just as soccer players do.

国际足球联合会以及欧洲足球联合会这样的足球组织想要在大型比赛中拥有优秀的裁判员。但是现在却没有那么多机会让裁判员们练习发现比赛中的犯规行为。赫尔森说，裁判员需要更多机会训练和实践——就和足球运动员一样。

“The refereeing is practice-poor.We need to find more tools to give them more experience outside the game.”

“裁判工作实践得太少了。我们需要找到更多方法，让他们在比赛之外获得更多经验。”

Helsen and other researchers are working on a website that can help train referees.It is called “Perception 4 Perfection.”

赫尔森和其他研究人员致力于开发一个能够帮助训练裁判员的网站。这个网站叫作“熟能生巧”。

Referees used the website before the 2016 European Championship tournament.They looked at 700 videos that showed how a soccer team can be offside.It is a difficult call to make because players are moving very fast.The referee needs to see three things at the same time: the ball, the offensive team’s player and the defensive team’s player.

2016年欧洲杯之前，裁判员们使用了这个网站。他们看了700个球队越位的视频。这很难判断，因为运动员移动得太快了。裁判员需要同时看三个东西：球、进攻方队员和防守方队员。

After watching the videos for less than 24 hours, the skill level of some of the referees increased by 30 percent.

看了不到24小时的视频，一些裁判员的能力水平提升了30%。

Helsen and his group are working on another project that could make referees’ jobs easier.They are studying whether slow-motion video replays should be used to review disputed calls.

赫尔森和他的团队正在研究另一个项目，这个项目能够让裁判员的工作简单一点。他们正在研究视频的慢镜头回放能不能用来重温一些有争议的判罚。

It is something already being used for sports like tennis, baseball and American football.

类似的技术已经应用于网球、棒球和橄榄球之类的比赛中。

Words in This Story

foul – n. an action that is against the rules and for which a player is given a penalty

call – n. a decision made by an official in a sports contest

precise – adj. very accurate and exact

irrelevant – adj. not important

cue – n. something that indicates the nature of what you are seeing, hearing, etc.

elite – adj. the best or most successful at a task

practice – n. the activity of doing something again and again in order to become better at it

offside – adj. in a position in a game (such as football or hockey) on the opponent's part of the field where you are not allowed to be; not onside

slow-motion – n. a way of showing action that has been filmed or photographed at a speed that is slower than the actual speed

replay – n. a recording of something (such as an action in a sports event) that is being shown again

referee – n. a person who makes sure that players act according to the rules of a game or sport