听播客学英语 164 足球

 　　Today’s podcast is by Mark. He is a football coach in New Zealand.

　　Hello everyone.

　　A few years ago, I moved from England to New Zealand to coach football to children in Auckland¹, the biggest city in New Zealand. I’d like to tell you about the differences between football in England and football in New Zealand.

　　I grew up in London in England and spent many hours as a child playing football with my friends in the park. We used to play football after school and at the weekend, and often all day long in the school holidays. One of the first things I noticed when I moved to New Zealand was that very few children play football after school or at the weekends. Even on a sunny day in New Zealand, many of the parks will be completely² empty! In cities in England, children will arrange³ to meet their friends for a game in the park, but in New Zealand the children only ever play football when it’s organised for them by their parents or by their team coach.

　　If you’ve ever played football, you will know that it takes many hours of practice to get skilful⁴ and make the ball do anything you want it to. Sometimes it can take lots and lots of mistakes before a child gets it right! In New Zealand, children don’t spend a lot of time playing football on their own so they don’t try new things and make mistakes. Instead they spend an hour or two a week being told what to do by a parent or a coach. This means⁵ they don’t get to make their own mistakes and learn things for themselves. Imagine learning⁶ English and never being allowed to make a mistake? It would be very difficult, and not much fun either!

　　The best two football countries in the world are currently⁷ Italy and Argentina. England is eighth best, and New Zealand are at 132. In New Zealand, football in called soccer and although it is played by lots of children, most people prefer to watch rugby. New Zealand has a national rugby team called the All Blacks, and they will almost certainly win the rugby World Cup in France later this year. In New Zealand all the children want to grow up to be an All Black, and all their heroes and role-models are rugby players.

　　For those of you who haven’t seen a rugby game, let me explain how it works⁸. The ball they use in rugby is not a round ball like in football, but is oval⁹ shaped – like an egg. Each team has 15 players, and the aim is to get the ball to the other end of the field. The players can do this by running with the ball in their hands, or by kicking it up the field. They can also throw the ball to each other but only if it goes backwards¹⁰. It is very common in a rugby game to see huge kicks up the field so the team can advance together and get closer to scoring some points. As I said, New Zealand are very good at rugby and everyone in the country loves to see the All Blacks play.

　　I have coached football in New Zealand for three years now, and I think New Zealand’s love of rugby affects the way they play football, or soccer as they call it. Let me explain what I mean. In Italy or Argentina or England the most important thing in football is for the players to pass the ball to someone else on their team. If you are lucky enough to watch Italy play Argentina, you will see the players often pass the ball backwards or sideways to a team-mate. However, in New Zealand it is very common to see soccer players kick the ball up the field as far as they can and then chase¹¹ after it, just like they do in rugby! And when a soccer child in New Zealand does a big kick up the field, it is very common for the parents watching the game to clap loudly and say ‘Well done! Nice kick!’ They don’t care where the ball goes, as long as it goes a long way!

1 Auckland   

n.奥克兰(新西兰港市)

参考例句：

• Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand.奥克兰是新西兰最大的城市。
• Return to auckland by bus in afternoon.下午乘车返回奥克兰。

2 completely   

adv.完全地，十分地，全然

参考例句：

• She never completely gave up hope.她从不完全放弃希望。
• I feel completely in the dark on this question.这件事使我感到茫然。

3 arrange   

vt.安排，整理，计划，改编(乐曲)；vi.协商，计划

参考例句：

• He began to arrange the flowers in the vase.他开始把花瓶内的花摆好。
• We must arrange about that.这事我们得安排一下。

4 skilful   

(=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的

参考例句：

• The more you practise,the more skilful you'll become.练习的次数越多，熟练的程度越高。
• He's not very skilful with his chopsticks.他用筷子不大熟练。

5 means   

n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富

参考例句：

• That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
• We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。

6 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

7 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。

8 works   

n.作品，著作；工厂，活动部件，机件

参考例句：

• We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。

9 oval   

n. 椭圆，椭圆形跑道；adj. 卵形的，椭圆形的

参考例句：

• She has a lovely oval face.她长着一张可爱的椭圆脸。
• The shape of the earth is an oval.地球的形状是个椭圆形。

10 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

11 chase   

vt.追逐，追赶，追求；n.追赶

参考例句：

• The police grabbed the robbers after a long chase.警察经过长距离追赶后逮住了抢劫犯。
• Would you chase me if I did?如果我逃开了，你会来追吗？