VOA慢速英语2016 印度裔孩子获拼字比赛冠军

AS IT IS 2016-05-28 Children of Indian Immigrants¹ Win Spelling Bee 印度裔孩子获拼字比赛冠军

This is What’s Trending Today:

以下是今日新鲜事。

For the third time in three years, two students shared the Scripps National Spelling Bee championship Thursday night.

周四晚上，两名学生共同获得了全美拼字比赛冠军，这已经是三年来第三次出现这种情况了。

It was an exciting finish to the three-day event.The hashtag #spellingbee was one of the top trending topics on Twitter overnight².

对于为期3天的活动而言，这是非常激动人心的结果。前晚，“拼字比赛”成了推特网的热门话题之一。

The winners were 11-year-old Nihar Janga of Texas, and Jairam Hathwar, a 13-year-old from New York State.

获胜者是来自德克萨斯州11岁的Nihar Janga，以及来自纽约州13岁的Jairam Hathwar。

Both boys’ parents are from southern India.

两个男孩的父母都来自印度南部。

Two years ago, Jairam’s brother Sriram also shared the spelling bee championship.

两年前，Jairam的哥哥Sriram也与他人共同获得了拼字大赛的冠军。

This year’s championship was unique because of Akash Vukoti, the youngest person ever to compete in the event.He is just six years old!Lots of people said they loved him because, as some of them said, he was “so darn cute!”

今年的冠军赛非常特别，因为Akash Vukoti是有史以来年龄最小的参赛成员。他只有6岁！很多人都非常喜欢他，正如有些人所说，“他实在太可爱了！”

In a Spelling Bee, a moderator asks competitors to spell a series of words.Some of the words are fairly common in the English language, but others are not.If the students spell the word correctly, he or she keeps competing.Eventually only two spellers remain.The last one to spell a word is the champion.

进行拼字大赛时，主持人要求参赛者拼读一系列单词。其中有些单词非常常见，有些则不是。如果学生拼对单词，那么他/她能继续参赛。最后，只留下两名参赛者。拼出单词的最后一个选手为冠军。

Nihar and Jairam each missed words in the final round.But the two boys spelled their last words correctly, so the championship ended in a tie.

Nihar 和Jairam在最后一轮中，都有未拼出的单词。但两个男孩都正确拼出了最后一个单词，因此冠军赛打成了平局。

The final words were Feldenkrais and gesellschaft.Feldenkrais is a kind of physical education named after a Ukrainian-born Israeli physicist³.Gesellschaft is the name of a social relationship created by a German sociologist⁴.

最后的单词是费登奎斯（Feldenkrais）和法理协会（gesellschaft）。费登奎斯是以出生于乌克兰的以色列物理学家命名的身心教育用语。法理协会是由德国社会学家提出的一种社会关系。

This year the spelling bee was more difficult than ever.Instead of only using words with Greek and Latin⁵ roots, organizers also chose words with origins in Afrikaans, Danish, Irish Gaelic, Maori and Mayan.

今年的拼写比赛比以往都要难。除了那些源于希腊语或者拉丁语的单词之外，组织者还选了很多源自南非荷兰语、丹麦语、爱尔兰盖尔语、毛利语以及玛雅语的单词。

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a large event.It started with more than 280 students who had won in local spelling competitions.Those winners move on to the national event, just outside Washington, D.C.

全美拼字比赛是一项大型活动。比赛开始时，参赛选手是280多名在当地拼字比赛中胜出的学生。 这些获胜者走出华盛顿特区，转向全国性的活动。

Lots of people were talking about the Spelling Bee on social media.

很多人都在社交媒体上讨论此次的拼字比赛。

One Twitter user⁶ said she felt like the Bee was going into “six overtimes.”

一名推特用户表示，她觉得此次拼字大赛将要进行第六轮加时赛。

Other people enjoyed seeing children do a dance move called “the dab” after they spelled words correctly.

其他人表示喜欢看孩子们拼对单词后跳的舞步。

One baseball player added he was “amazed by how good” the children were.

一名棒球运动员表示，孩子们这么优秀，让他非常震惊。

Words in This Story

unique – adj. used to say that something or someone is unlike anything or anyone else

cute – adj. having a pleasing or youthful⁷ experience

origins – n. roots; the point or place where something begins or is created

1 immigrants   

n.移民( immigrant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Illegal immigrants were given the opportunity to regularize their position. 非法移民得到了使其身份合法化的机会。
• Immigrants from all over the world populate this city. 这个城市里生活着来自世界各地的移民。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 overnight   

ad.前一天晚上，一夜间 a.前一天晚上的

参考例句：

• She stayed overnight in the hotel. 她在旅馆过了一夜。
• Our success is not won overnight. 我们的成功不是一夜之间得来的。

3 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

4 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。

5 Latin   

adj.拉丁的，拉丁语的，拉丁人的；n.拉丁语

参考例句：

• She learned Latin without a master.她无师自通学会了拉丁语。
• Please use only Latin characters.请仅使用拉丁文字符。

6 user   

n.用户，使用者

参考例句：

• The company is the biggest user of oil.该公司是最大的石油用户。
• The umbrella keeps the rains off the user.雨伞使撑伞人免受雨淋。

7 youthful   

adj.年轻的，有青春活力的

参考例句：

• Exercise will keep you youthful.体育锻练会使你充满活力。
• The boy looked very youthful.这孩子看起来岁数很小。