听播客学英语 110 咬指甲

 　　Do you bite your finger nails? No – don’t answer that question. I don’t really want to know. Biting your nails is a bad habit which will lead to premature¹ baldness and make you unattractive to the opposite sex. Instead, we are going to talk football in this podcast, and football has nothing to do with biting your nails, has it?

　　I want you to imagine that you are a life-long supporter of Birmingham City Football Club. Every week during the football season, you go to watch the team play. You wear a blue shirt, and a blue and white scarf and a blue and white hat. (Yes, you probably guessed that blue is the Birmingham City colour). If you can’t go to a match, you stay at home or go to the pub to watch it on television. And you wear your blue and white football kit² even when you watch a match on TV. This is strange behaviour, but Blues³ fans are dedicated⁴ people.

　　You live in Birmingham, and many of your friends are Blues supporters like you. But Birmingham is a divided city, because another tribe⁵ of people live here too. They are the supporters of Birmingham’s other big football club, Aston Villa⁶. Both Birmingham City and Aston Villa play in the Premier⁷ League, or the Premiership, which is the top division in English football, made up of the 20 top clubs in the country.

　　And I need to mention too that there is a third football club. It isn’t actually in Birmingham, because its football ground is just over the border in the town of Sandwell. This third club is West Bromwich Albion, though everyone calls them the Baggies. (No, I don’t know why they are called the Baggies.) When West Brom score a goal, their supporters celebrate by jumping up and down and shouting “Boing Boing”; and I don’t know why they do that either. Unlike Birmingham City and Aston Villa, the Baggies play in the Championship, which is the division below the Premier League.

　　It is getting towards the end of the English football season. Since the beginning of the season, at the end of last August, most clubs in the Premiership have played 34 games. They each have only have four more games to go. Aston Villa are 7th from the top of the Premiership. They are not going to win the Premiership, but they will definitely still play in the Premiership next year. And the Baggies are at present top of the Championship, so it is very likely that they will be promoted at the end of the season, and will play in the Premiership next year along with Aston Villa.

　　And Birmingham City? Well, poor old Birmingham are fourth from the bottom of the Premiership. They could still win sufficient matches to stay in the Premiership next year; but equally they could be relegated⁸ at the end of the season. And how would that make you feel, Birmingham City supporter? You would feel awful. You would be depressed⁹. You might even be suicidal. You can imagine the smirks¹⁰ on the faces of the Villa and Baggies fans.

　　On Sunday, the Blues and their blue and white supporters will travel across Birmingham to play Aston Villa. The Blues really need to win this game if they are to be sure of staying in the Premiership. If you were a Birmingham City supporter, what words could you use to describe the atmosphere before the match – nervous, perhaps; or tense; or even “nail-biting”. If something is “nail-biting” , we mean that it is very tense and exciting, and all we can do is to wait for it to finish, and bite our nails while we are waiting. So, we can talk about a “nail-biting” atmosphere; or we can say that the last 15 minutes of the match was “nail-biting”; or that you had a “nail-biting” wait for the results of your exam.

　　Finally, can I remind you of two vital football phrases. If Birmingham win on Sunday, you will be “over the moon”. And if they lose, you will be “sick as a parrot”. I will tell you in the next podcast which you are.

1 premature   

adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的

参考例句：

• It is yet premature to predict the possible outcome of the dialogue.预言这次对话可能有什么结果为时尚早。
• The premature baby is doing well.那个早产的婴儿很健康。

2 kit   

n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物

参考例句：

• The kit consisted of about twenty cosmetic items.整套工具包括大约20种化妆用品。
• The captain wants to inspect your kit.船长想检查你的行装。

3 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

4 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

5 tribe   

n.部落，种族，一伙人

参考例句：

• This is a subject tribe.这是个受他人统治的部落。
• Many of the tribe's customs and rituals are as old as the hills.这部落的许多风俗、仪式都极其古老。

6 villa   

n.别墅，城郊小屋

参考例句：

• We rented a villa in France for the summer holidays.我们在法国租了一幢别墅消夏。
• We are quartered in a beautiful villa.我们住在一栋漂亮的别墅里。

7 premier   

adj.首要的；n.总理，首相

参考例句：

• The Irish Premier is paying an official visit to Britain.爱尔兰总理正在对英国进行正式访问。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

8 relegated   

v.使降级( relegate的过去式和过去分词 )；使降职；转移；把…归类

参考例句：

• She was then relegated to the role of assistant. 随后她被降级做助手了。
• I think that should be relegated to the garbage can of history. 我认为应该把它扔进历史的垃圾箱。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

10 smirks   

n.傻笑，得意的笑( smirk的名词复数 )v.傻笑( smirk的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Eighteenth-century wigs are still worn by the judiciary and nobody smirks. 法官至今还戴18世纪的假发套而没有人嘲笑。 来自互联网
• Once a league laughingstock, nobody even much as smirks at the Hornets anymore. 曾经联盟的笑柄，没人再去嘲笑蜜蜂了。 来自互联网