英语六级必读美文021：英国体育运动

　　The English are passionate lovers of competitive sports; and when they are neither playing nor watching games they like to talk about them, or when they cannot do that, to think about them.

　　英国人是竞技运动的爱好者,他们就会谈论和思考它们。当他们不打球和不看比赛的时候.

　　The game peculiarly associated with England is cricket. Nearly every village in England, has its own cricket club. A first-class match lasts for up to five days, with six hours play on each day

　　英国特有的运动是板球。在英格兰，几乎每个村子都有自己的板球俱乐部.一场一流的比赛要持续长达5天的时间，每天要打上6个小时。

　　However, for the majority of the British public the eight months of the football season are more important than the four months of cricket. Professional football is always a big business. The Cup Final, which is played in May each year in London, is the greatest event of the season and one ofthe most famous football matches in the world.

　　不过，对于多数英国人来说，前后长达8个月的足球季节要比4个月的板球更加重要。职业足球是一个大的体育项目。每年5月在伦敦举行的足总杯是足球赛季的头等大事，也是全世界最闻名的足球赛事之一。

　　Rugby football is played with an egg-shaped ball. It can be a dangerous game as players wear no protective clothing. This form of sport got its name because it originated from the famous Rugby Public School.The sport is favoured by the middle class and it is also the game played at the great majority of public schools .

　　英式橄榄球使用的是一个鸡蛋形的球，由于球手不穿防护外衣，使得该项运动成为一种很危险的运动。这种运动因发源于著名的拉格比公学而得名。该项运动深受中产阶层的喜爱，在很多著名的公学中都很流行。

　　Most secondary schools have playing fields, and boys usually play rugby or football in winter and cricket in summer as a normal school activity ; while schoolgirls play tennis and a sort of baseball in summer and netball and hockey in winter. Mens basketball is almost unknown.

　　多数中学中都设有动场地，男生们通常在冬季打橄榄球或足球，在夏季一般打板球。女生们在夏天打网球和一种垒球，在冬天则是打无挡板篮球和曲棍球。至于男式篮球，基本上可以说是无人问津的。

　　The more social adult games of golf and tennis are played by great numbers of people. Golf courses are also meeting places of the business community. It is, for example, very desirable for bank managers to play golf. Moreover, there are plenty of tennis clubs. Every town provides numerous tennis courts in public parks, and anyone can play tennis cheaply.

　　比较社会化的成人运动是高尔夫球和网球，打这两种球的人很多。高尔夫球场还是很重要的商业交往中心，像银行经理这样的人就很喜欢打高尔夫。此外，网球俱乐部也随处可见，每个镇上的公园里都有网球场，人们不用花太多钱就能打场网球。

　　Next to Association Football, the chief spectator sport in English life is horse racing. Their horse racing mainly takes place on working days and during working hours. The whole atmosphere of a race meeting still belongs in some ways to the eighteenth century with old divisions between upper and lower people. Every day people all over the country bet on the days races.

　　除了英式足球以外，英国生活中一项重要的观看运动便是赛马。 大多数的赛马比赛都在工作日和工作时间举行。而且，在很大程度上，赛马场上的气氛仍像18世纪那样，上流社会和普通平民是分开的。每天，全国各地都有人在当天的赛马比赛上赌上一把。

　　Although the British are so fond of watching horses racing, they are not very interested in being spectators at occasions when human beings race together. Remarkably few people are interested in bicycle racing. On the other hand, rowing, in fours or eights, occupies a leading place in the sporting life of schools and universities which have suitable water near by. It is watched from the river banks by vast crowds of spectators.

　　虽然英国人那么热衷于观看赛马，但他们对人类的赛跑却不感兴趣。喜欢自行车赛的人更是罕见。但另一方面，4人或8人的划船比赛却在邻近水域的学校和大学里占有很重要的地位，比赛时，河两岸会有大群的观众观看助阵。

　　When English people use the word hunting they usually mean foxlumting, a sport which is popular among a small but important nunority . There are many people who would like to see fox-hunting forbidden by law on the ground that it is crueL but there is little possibility that this will be done.

　　英国人提到 打猎 时，他们通常指的是猎狐。喜爱这种运动的人很少，但他们都是英国社会中举足轻重的人。今天虽然有很多人认为猎狐残酷而违背人性并主张立法禁捕，不过，这一主张实现的可能性却很小。

　　The moorlands of the north and of Scotland are rich in grouse and partridge. And to go shooting on the moors is perhaps the most distinctive of upper-class activities. The opening of shooting season on August 12th attracts many top people to the moors. They pay enormous amounts for their pleasure. Being afraid of losing votes, modem leaders do not shoot, or ifthey do they try their best to avoid the photographers.

　　英国北部和苏格兰的沼泽地区有很多山鸡和山鹑，在沼泽地里打鸟也许是最典型的上流运动。每年月12日打猎季节开始后，便有很多上流人士云集此地，不惜千金来追求此项享受。现代领导人由于害怕失去选票一般不再打猎，如果打，他们也尽量避开照相机的镜头。