英语专业晨读美文-人物篇 15 The Most Adored Athlete

[00:00.84]The Most Adored Athlete—Muhammad Ali
[00:07.56]Though Ali won the gold medal at the Rome Olympics in 1960,
[00:13.56]at the time the experts didn't think much of his boxing skills.
[00:17.32]His head, eyes wide, seemed to float above the action.
[00:21.24]Rather than slip a punch, the traditional defensive¹ move,
[00:25.02]it was his habit to sway back, bending at the waist—
[00:28.56]a tactic² that appalled³ the experts. Lunacy.
[00:32.27]Nor did they approve of his personal behavior:
[00:35.02]the self-promotions, his affiliation⁴ with
[00:38.43]the Muslims and giving up his “slave name” for Muhammad Ali.
[00:42.51]At the press conferences, the reporters were sullen⁵.
[00:46.10]Ali would turn on them. “Why aren't you taking notice?”
[00:49.58]or “Why aren't you laughing?”
[00:51.92]The public as well had a hard time accepting him.
[00:55.58]Then, three years after Ali defended the championship,
[00:59.19]there came the public vilification⁶ for his refusal to
[01:02.74]join the army during the Vietnam War.
[01:04.89]The government prosecuted⁷ him for draft dodging⁸,
[01:07.95]and the boxing commissions took away his license⁹.
[01:11.14]He was idle for 3.5 years at the peak of his career.
[01:15.09]In 1971 the Supreme¹⁰ Court ruled
[01:18.42]that the government had acted improperly¹¹.
[01:20.73]But Ali bore the commissions no ill will.
[01:23.65]There were no lawsuits¹² to get his title back
[01:26.83]through the courts. No need, he said,
[01:29.37]to punish them for doing what they thought was right.
[01:31.80]Quite properly, in his mind,
[01:34.19]he won back the title in the ring,
[01:36.32]knocking out George Foreman in the eighth round
[01:39.31]of their fight in Zaire—“The Rumble¹³ in the Jungle”.
[01:42.53]Ali was asked on a television show
[01:45.18]what he would have done with his life,
[01:47.17]given a choice. After an awkward pause—a rare thing,
[01:51.67]indeed—he admitted he couldn't think of anything
[01:54.34]other than boxing. That is all he had ever wanted or wished for.
[01:58.36]He couldn't imagine anything else.
[02:00.91]He defended boxing as a sport:
[02:03.37]“You don't have to be hit in boxing.
[02:06.14]People don't understand that.”
[02:08.05]Oscar Wilde once suggested that you kill the thing you love.
[02:11.93]In Ali's case, it was the reverse:
[02:14.69]what he loved, in a sense, killed him.
[02:17.70]The man who was the most loquacious¹⁴ of athletes
[02:20.77]now says almost nothing: he moves slowly through the crowds
[02:25.20]and signs autographs. He has probably signed more autographs
[02:29.11]than any other athletes ever, living or dead.
[02:31.94]It is his principal activity at home,
[02:34.35]working at his desk. He was once denied an autograph by his idol¹⁵,
[02:39.67]Sugar Ray Robinson, and vowed¹⁶ he would never turn anyone down.
[02:43.79]The ceremonial leave—taking of great athletes
[02:47.68]can impart indelible memories, even if one remembers
[02:51.37]them from the scratchy newsreels of time—
[02:53.76]Babe Ruth with the doffed¹⁷ cap at home plate,
[02:56.91]Lou Gehrig's voice echoing in the vast hollows
[03:00.05]of Yankee Stadium. Muhammad Ali's was not
[03:02.93]exactly a leave-taking, but it may have seemed so
[03:06.17]to the estimated 3 billion or so television viewers
[03:09.41]who saw him open the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
[03:13.35]Outfitted in a white gym suit
[03:15.97]that eerily¹⁸ made him seem to glisten¹⁹
[03:18.11]against a dark night sky,
[03:19.60]he approached the unlit saucer with his flaming torch,
[03:22.84]his free arm trembling visibly from
[03:25.09]the effects of Parkinson's disease.
[03:27.35]It was a kind of epiphany that those
[03:29.88]who watched realized how much they missed him
[03:32.33]and how much he had contributed to the world of sport.
[03:35.65]Students of boxing will pore over
[03:37.90]the trio of Ali-Frazier fights,
[03:39.98]which rank among the greatest in fistic history,
[03:43.37]as one might read three acts of a great drama.
[03:46.50]They would remember the Ali Shuffle²⁰, the Rope-a-Dope,
[03:50.11]the fact that Ali had brought beauty and grace
[03:52.87]to the most uncompromising of sports.
[03:55.03]And they would marvel²¹ that through
[03:56.96]the wonderful excesses of skill and character,
[04:00.12]he had become the most famous athlete, indeed,
[04:03.16]the best-known personage in the world.
 

1 defensive   

adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的

参考例句：

• Their questions about the money put her on the defensive.他们问到钱的问题，使她警觉起来。
• The Government hastily organized defensive measures against the raids.政府急忙布置了防卫措施抵御空袭。

2 tactic   

n.战略，策略；adj.战术的，有策略的

参考例句：

• Reducing prices is a common sales tactic.降价是常用的销售策略。
• She had often used the tactic of threatening to resign.她惯用以辞职相威胁的手法。

3 appalled   

v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• They were appalled by the reports of the nuclear war. 他们被核战争的报道吓坏了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 affiliation   

n.联系，联合

参考例句：

• There is no affiliation between our organization and theirs,even though our names are similar.尽管两个组织的名称相似，但我们之间并没有关系。
• The kidnappers had no affiliation with any militant group.这些绑架者与任何军事组织都没有紧密联系。

5 sullen   

adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的

参考例句：

• He looked up at the sullen sky.他抬头看了一眼阴沉的天空。
• Susan was sullen in the morning because she hadn't slept well.苏珊今天早上郁闷不乐，因为昨晚没睡好。

6 vilification   

n.污蔑，中伤，诽谤

参考例句：

• They pelted him with ridicule and vilification. 他们用嘲笑和丑化对他进行猛烈的攻击。 来自互联网
• Bishop's letter was the signal for a campaign of vilification and intimidation unequaled in American history. 主教的信是发动一场在美国历史上没有前例的诬蔑和恐吓运动的信号。 来自互联网

7 prosecuted   

a.被起诉的

参考例句：

• The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。

8 dodging   

n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避

参考例句：

• He ran across the road, dodging the traffic. 他躲开来往的车辆跑过马路。
• I crossed the highway, dodging the traffic. 我避开车流穿过了公路。 来自辞典例句

9 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

10 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

11 improperly   

不正确地，不适当地

参考例句：

• Of course it was acting improperly. 这样做就是不对嘛！
• He is trying to improperly influence a witness. 他在试图误导证人。

12 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

13 rumble   

n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说

参考例句：

• I hear the rumble of thunder in the distance.我听到远处雷声隆隆。
• We could tell from the rumble of the thunder that rain was coming.我们根据雷的轰隆声可断定，天要下雨了。

14 loquacious   

adj.多嘴的，饶舌的

参考例句：

• The normally loquacious Mr O'Reilly has said little.平常话多的奥赖利先生几乎没说什么。
• Kennedy had become almost as loquacious as Joe.肯尼迪变得和乔一样唠叨了。

15 idol   

n.偶像，红人，宠儿

参考例句：

• As an only child he was the idol of his parents.作为独子，他是父母的宠儿。
• Blind worship of this idol must be ended.对这个偶像的盲目崇拜应该结束了。

16 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

17 doffed   

v.脱去，（尤指）脱帽( doff的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He doffed his hat. 他脱掉帽子。 来自互联网
• The teacher is forced to help her pull next pulling again mouth, unlock button, doffed jacket. 老师只好再帮她拉下拉口，解开扣子，将外套脱了下来。 来自互联网

18 eerily   

adv.引起神秘感或害怕地

参考例句：

• It was nearly mid-night and eerily dark all around her. 夜深了，到处是一片黑黝黝的怪影。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译
• The vast volcanic slope was eerily reminiscent of a lunar landscape. 开阔的火山坡让人心生怪异地联想起月球的地貌。 来自辞典例句

19 glisten   

vi.（光洁或湿润表面等）闪闪发光，闪闪发亮

参考例句：

• Dewdrops glisten in the morning sun.露珠在晨光下闪闪发光。
• His sunken eyes glistened with delight.他凹陷的眼睛闪现出喜悦的光芒。

20 shuffle   

n.拖著脚走，洗纸牌；v.拖曳，慢吞吞地走

参考例句：

• I wish you'd remember to shuffle before you deal.我希望在你发牌前记得洗牌。
• Don't shuffle your feet along.别拖着脚步走。

21 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。