VOA标准英语2011--WNBA is Woman's World, Guided by Men

WNBA is Woman's World, Guided by Men

"We Got Game."
That's what the Women's National Basketball Association - or WNBA - promised when the league was formed in 1996.
It set out to prove that women play an exciting, team-oriented game - albeit² with fewer egocentric chest thumps³ and high-flying dunks of the basketball than muscular male players deliver.
The WNBA has survived with little television exposure into its 15th summer, thanks to extensive financial help from the male professional league and solid attendance in a few of its markets.
Other cities have not embraced the women's game so well, however, and several WNBA franchises⁵ have folded over the years.
While the women's pro¹ game has been especially attractive to female fans - and an inspiration to female players who finally have a place to make a living at the sport - it has also drawn⁶ many male spectators, who say they appreciate unselfish play.
But an irritant for some in the league is that half of the 12 WNBA head coaches are men. Already this year, the Los Angeles Sparks franchise⁴ fired its woman head coach and replaced her with a man - the father of Kobe Bryant, the superstar guard of the L.A. Lakers men's basketball team.
Some of these coaches are former professional players who are using the women's league as an entrée to coaching. Others are retreads, having been fired from men's pro or college teams. They all say they love directing hard-working female players.
And what do women WNBA coaches think?
"There are a lot of great women's coaches who haven't gotten a chance," Anne Donovan told the Washington Times newspaper a few years ago when she coached the Seattle Storm. She was replaced by a man, moved to the New York Liberty team, left for a college job, and was succeeded by yet another male head coach.
League presidents, who have always been women, are appointed by the male National Basketball Association's commissioner⁷.
No woman has ever coached a men's NBA team or a top-level men's college team. So it's a sore point for some that a majority of the coaches of women who "got game" - and more than one-third of women's college teams - have deep voices, facial hair and, in quite a few cases, receding⁸ hairlines.

 

1 pro   

n.赞成，赞成的意见，赞成者

参考例句：

• The two debating teams argued the question pro and con.辩论的两组从赞成与反对两方面辩这一问题。
• Are you pro or con nuclear disarmament?你是赞成还是反对核裁军？

2 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

3 thumps   

n.猪肺病；砰的重击声( thump的名词复数 )v.重击， （指心脏）急速跳动( thump的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Normally the heart movements can be felt as distinct systolic and diastolic thumps. 正常时，能够感觉到心脏的运动是性质截然不同的收缩和舒张的撞击。 来自辞典例句
• These thumps are replaced by thrills when valvular insufficiencies or stenoses or congenital defects are present. 这些撞击在瓣膜闭锁不全或狭窄，或者有先天性缺损时被震颤所代替。 来自辞典例句

4 franchise   

n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权

参考例句：

• Catering in the schools is run on a franchise basis.学校餐饮服务以特许权经营。
• The United States granted the franchise to women in 1920.美国于1920年给妇女以参政权。

5 franchises   

n.（尤指选举议员的）选举权( franchise的名词复数 )；参政权；获特许权的商业机构（或服务）；（公司授予的）特许经销权v.给…以特许权，出售特许权( franchise的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• TV franchises will be auctioned to the highest bidder. 电视特许经营权将拍卖给出价最高的投标人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ford dealerships operated as independent franchises. 福特汽车公司的代销商都是独立的联营商。 来自辞典例句

6 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

7 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

8 receding   

v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题

参考例句：

• Desperately he struck out after the receding lights of the yacht. 游艇的灯光渐去渐远，他拼命划水追赶。 来自辞典例句
• Sounds produced by vehicles receding from us seem lower-pitched than usual. 渐渐远离我们的运载工具发出的声似乎比平常的音调低。 来自辞典例句