VOA标准英语2010年-Winning Team Hopes to Break Losing Str

Front Street in Woodburn, Oregon, is lined with taquerias, stores displaying Mexican-style cowboy boots and hats, signs in Spanish and a bus station that offers tickets to the heart of Mexico. Migrant farm-workers started coming to Woodburn about 50 years ago to work the harvest. So many ended up staying, the town became known as Little Mexico. But just a few blocks down from Front Street, at Woodburn High School, the scene is no different than any other American suburb. VOA - C. LehmanFront Street in Woodburn is lined with businesses which cater¹ to Hispanics. More than a dozen teenage boys practice soccer, preparing for what they hope will be a deep run into the playoffs. Senior Jaime Velas is trying not to be over-confident. "We're taking it step by step, game by game," says Velas. "We don't want to think too far because we don't want to get our hopes up, you know."Velas has good reason to temper his excitement. Despite making the state playoffs for an uninterrupted quarter of a century, Woodburn has never achieved its dream of winning the soccer championship. Author Wilson thinks their perseverance² is an apt metaphor³. "They had in one way an unparalleled level of success. They were getting to the playoffs every year. No other team was doing that. But they'd never won the state championship," he says. "And I was feeling like there was a parallel among the team's experience and the experience of Mexican-Americans in the United States."Long oddsLike many Mexican-Americans, the boys on the Woodburn team faced long odds⁴ including poverty, a language barrier and immigration issues. Wilson wondered if those challenges were keeping the Bulldogs from making it over the final hurdle⁵ of winning a state championship. VOA - C. LehmanSteve Wilson visits with Martin Maldonado-Cortez and Miguel 'Angel' Arellano, two of the players he profiled in the book, 'The Boys From Little Mexico.' After deciding to shadow the team for an entire season, WIlson got to know the players, coaches and supporters. His book, subtitled "A Season Chasing the American Dream," was the result. One of the players profiled in the book, Martin Maldonado-Cortez, says he and the other boys on the team were well aware that Woodburn had a rough reputation. The town of just 22,000 people still faces many big-city problems, such as gang violence and drugs. "We'd go to games and people started acting⁶ different, and we kind of noticed that as we were growing up. 'Hide your wallet, Woodburn's coming,'" says Maldonado-Cortez. VOA - C. LehmanWoodburn High School in Woodburn, OregonDon't mess up, his coaches told him. And not just on the field. Don't confirm anyone's preconceived notions about what being an Hispanic kid means.
"At first I didn't know what to think. And then you really think about it, and you still don't know what to think," says Maldonado-Cortez.
"You know, you can only do what you can do and hopefully people get to know you and see you in a different way."'Pocho'
Maldonado-Cortez was born in Los Angeles. His family moved to Woodburn when he was three. He found that the American suburbs weren't the only place he was treated like an outsider. He learned that lesson during a summer playing club soccer in Mexico. "They gave me a nickname. It was...called me Pocho. And I didn't know what it meant until I actually asked them," he says. He found out that Pocho is slang term used in Mexico for Mexican-Americans and refers to someone who has lost touch with his roots. Maldonado-Cortez found he wasn't fully⁷ accepted in the white towns or in the Mexican towns. "Yeah, it was pretty difficult. They really saw you differently. They saw you like if you were some rich kid that can just cross over the border like nothing."That Maldonado-Cortez sometimes blended in better with his American classmates than with Mexican kids comes as no surprise to Wilson. "Most of the stuff that's important to them and that they're going through - problems with their parents, trying to find girls, doing your homework, having their aspirations⁸ on the field, thinking about college - all of that stuff is the same regardless," says Wilson.
Still chasing the dreamMaldonado-Cortez was one of several seniors on the team during the season chronicled in "The Boys from Little Mexico." The Woodburn Bulldogs fell short once again at the state championship that year, but Maldonado-Cortez graduated and headed off to college. However, in another setback⁹, he had to quit when his parents lost their jobs. He now works at a local retirement¹⁰ home, but he's still chasing the American dream. He follows his old team closely, and coaches a youth soccer team: boys who may one day help the Bulldogs finally win the top prize.

1 cater   

vi.(for/to)满足，迎合；(for)提供饮食及服务

参考例句：

• I expect he will be able to cater for your particular needs.我预计他能满足你的特殊需要。
• Most schools cater for children of different abilities.大多数学校能够满足具有不同天资的儿童的需要。

2 perseverance   

n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠

参考例句：

• It may take some perseverance to find the right people.要找到合适的人也许需要有点锲而不舍的精神。
• Perseverance leads to success.有恒心就能胜利。

3 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

4 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

5 hurdle   

n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛

参考例句：

• The weather will be the biggest hurdle so I have to be ready.天气将会是最大的障碍，所以我必须要作好准备。
• She clocked 11.6 seconds for the 80 metre hurdle.八十米跳栏赛跑她跑了十一秒六。

6 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

7 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

8 aspirations   

强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音

参考例句：

• I didn't realize you had political aspirations. 我没有意识到你有政治上的抱负。
• The new treaty embodies the aspirations of most nonaligned countries. 新条约体现了大多数不结盟国家的愿望。

9 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

10 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。