VOA慢速英语2105 Major World Sports Championships Decided

AS IT IS 2015-11-04 Major World Sports Championships Decided¹

Two world championships were decided this weekend on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

In England, the Rugby World Cup was decided. In New York, the baseball season saw its final pitch.

More than 80,000 spectators³ watched New Zealand win the Rugby championship 34-17 over rival⁴ Australia. The match was held Saturday at the famous Twickenham Stadium near London.

It was the second-straight world title for New Zealand. Fans call the team All Blacks because of their black uniforms.

A day later, the baseball World Series came to a close with a win by the Kansas City Royals over the New York Mets. The game went into “extra innings,” similar to overtime⁵ in other sports.

In the World Series, the first team to win four games claims victory. The Royals won four of the first five games played with the Mets. Kansas City last won in 1985.

The Rugby World Cup opened September 18, when England defeated Fiji. Forty-eight matches and six weeks later, New Zealand won the title. Going into the tournament, the All Blacks were ranked No. 1 in the world.

The Associated Press news service called the two title runs by New Zealand “one of the most dominant⁷ eras⁹ in rugby history.”

Every tournament like this has a “favorite,” or the team expected to win. The tournament also has an “underdog,” or team less likely to win. But the underdog often becomes a sentimental¹⁰ favorite. It is a team to root for if you do not have another favorite.

This year in the Rugby World Cup, the “underdog” team was Japan.

Coming into the tournament, Japan was ranked 13th in the world.

But after an impressive¹¹ showing in the group stage of the tournament, Japan moved up three places to 10th.

Aside from the championship game itself, the match that created the most buzz¹² came when Japan defeated world No. 3 South Africa 34-32.

The Associated Press called it “the biggest shock in Rugby World Cup history.”

South Africa was a two-time World Cup champion. Japan had only ever won one match in the World Cup before that game.

Japan hoped to advance to the elimination¹³ stage of the tournament for the first time ever. But before the “Brave Blossoms” played their final game of the tournament, they were eliminated¹⁴ in a tie-breaker.

Rugby could become the hot sport in Japan. A record 25-million Japanese television viewers watched the team defeat Samoa on October 3.

In the baseball championships, the playoff tournament started with 10 teams in early October. Less than a month later, the Kansas City Royals were the winners.

The Royals were once one of baseball’s best teams. They made the playoffs seven times in 10 years, starting in 1976.

They won the World Series in 1985.

Ahead of the series, many experts expected the Mets pitchers¹⁵ to overpower the Royals hitters. But that was not the case.

Kansas City scored 27 runs in five games. Salvador Perez, the Royals’ Venezuelan catcher, was named most valuable player.

The Royals were trailing 2-0 for most of the decisive¹⁶ game. They scored twice in the top of the ninth inning to force extra innings.

Kansas City manager Ned Yost said he never had any doubt his team would find a way to win on Sunday night.

"And for us to go into the ninth inning down two, you know, it never entered my mind that we were gonna not going to score two, or three to take the lead at that point. For our guys to go out and find a way to score two at that point, we felt great. And we’ve said it all along: If we can tie the game late in the game, we love our bullpen. We feel like our bullpen is going to be able to hold the fort⁶ until we find a way to score. Again it’s just a team that never quits, never panics, they just find ways to win baseball games."

In an interesting scheduling quirk¹⁷, the Royals and Mets will play each other to start next season. They face off on Opening Day, April 4, 2016.

Words in This Story

buzz – n. excited talk about something

tie-breaker – n. something (such as an extra period of play or an extra question) that is used to decide a winner when a game, contest, etc., has ended with a tied score

era⁸ – n. a period of time that is associated with a particular quality, event, person, etc.

quirk – n. something strange that happens by chance

score – v. to get points, goals, runs, etc., in a game or contest

sentimental – adj. based on, showing, or resulting from feelings or emotions rather than reason or thought

trailing – v. to be behind in a race or competition

underdog – n. a person, team, etc., that is expected to lose a contest or battle

championship – n. an important competition that decides which player or team is the best in a particular sport, game, etc.

spectator² – n. a person who watches an event, show, game, activity, etc., often as part of an audience

tournament – n. a sports competition or series of contests that involves many players or teams and that usually continues for at least several days

elimination – n. the act or process of removing something or someone

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 spectator   

n.观众，目击者，旁观者

参考例句：

• A spectator threw the ball back to the players.一个观众把球掷回给球员。
• He was content to stand by as an impassive spectator.他满足于站在旁边做一个冷漠的旁观者。

3 spectators   

n.观众，旁观者( spectator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The spectators were wilting visibly in the hot sun. 看得出观众在炎热的阳光下快支撑不住了。
• The policemen asked the spectators to stand well back. 警察要求旁观者靠后站。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 rival   

n.竞争对手，敌手；vt.与…相匹敌，比得上

参考例句：

• None of us can rival him in strength.我们谁也没他劲大。
• She defeat all her rival for the job with nonchalant ease.她从容不迫地击败求职的所有竞争者。

5 overtime   

adj.超时的，加班的；adv.加班地

参考例句：

• They are working overtime to finish the work.为了完成任务他们正在加班加点地工作。
• He was paid for the overtime he worked.他领到了加班费。

6 fort   

n.要塞，堡垒，碉堡

参考例句：

• The fort can not be defended against an air attack.这座要塞遭到空袭时无法防御。
• No one can get into the fort without a pass.没有通行证，任何人不得进入要塞。

7 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。

8 era   

n.时代，年代，纪元，阶段

参考例句：

• We are living in the information era.我们生活在信息时代。
• We are living in a great historic era.我们正处在一个伟大的历史时代。

9 eras   

n.纪元，年代（era的复数形式）

参考例句：

• Stealing salt was considered a major crime during some eras of history. 在某些历史时期，曾把偷盐定为大罪。 来自辞典例句
• Usually, historical eras are defined by accomplishments analyzed with the benefit of contextua1 hindsight. 如何定义具有重在历史意义的时代呢？这取于这时代中所取得的成就对历史语境的事后影响。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

10 sentimental   

adj.多愁善感的，感伤的

参考例句：

• She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
• We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。

11 impressive   

adj.给人深刻印象的，感人的

参考例句：

• This cinema is so impressive that we can't help crying.这影片如此感人以至我们禁不住流下泪来。
• The suit made him look especially impressive.他穿上这套衣服真精神。

12 buzz   

v.充满了激动或活动的声音，发出低沉的声音

参考例句：

• My brain was in buzz.我的脑袋嗡嗡响。
• A buzz went through the crowded courtroom.拥挤的法庭里响起了一片乱哄哄的说话声。

13 elimination   

n.排除，消除，消灭

参考例句：

• Their elimination from the competition was a great surprise.他们在比赛中遭到淘汰是个很大的意外。
• I was eliminated from the 400 metres in the semi-finals.我在400米半决赛中被淘汰。

14 eliminated   

v.排除( eliminate的过去式和过去分词 )；消除；除掉；干掉

参考例句：

• He was eliminated in the first round of voting. 他在第一轮投票中被淘汰。
• Her misspelling of that word eliminated her from the contest. 因为她把那个单词写错了，所以不能参加比赛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 pitchers   

大水罐( pitcher的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Over the next five years, he became one of the greatest pitchers in baseball. 在接下来的5年时间里，他成为了最了不起的棒球投手之一。
• Why he probably won't: Pitchers on also-rans can win the award. 为什麽不是他得奖：投手在失败的球队可以赢得赛扬奖。

16 decisive   

adj.决定性的，坚定的，果断的，决断的

参考例句：

• A decisive person acts quickly and often succeeds.果断的人行动迅速，常常成功。
• Man is a decisive factor in doing everything.人是做每件事情的决定性因素。

17 quirk   

n.奇事，巧合；古怪的举动

参考例句：

• He had a strange quirk of addressing his wife as Mrs Smith.他很怪，把自己的妻子称作史密斯夫人。
• The most annoying quirk of his is wearing a cap all the time.他最令人感到厌恶的怪癖就是无论何时都戴著帽子。