Women and football

BBC Learning EnglishPeople and PlacesWomen and footballJackie: Hello, welcome to People & Places frombbclearningenglish.com. Today:
　　women's football – is there any hope for it? Majorcompetitions for women, such as the World Cup, tend to gobarely noticed, whereas the whole world seems to stop whenthe men's matches are on. We're going to hear from someonewho's trying to change that. Morag Taylor is from theEnglish Football Association. She's involved in somethingcalled Girls United which is a campaign. A campaign is aplanned series of activities to achieve a particular aim.
　　So, what's the aim of the Girls United campaign?
　　MoragWhat we're really trying to do is spread the word about howfar the women's game has come.
　　Jackie: 'To spread the word' is an expression meaning tomake more people aware of something. Listen to someexamples.
　　ExamplesCould you spread the word about the party on Friday? Anyonecan come.
　　We must spread the word about this new invention – itcould help so many people!
　　Jackie: Morag wants to spread the word about 'how farwomen's football has come', which means how much women'sfootball has progressed. Listen to more examples which usethe word 'come' to describe progress.
　　ExamplesAt first I thought you were useless at this job, but you'vecome a really long way - I'm really pleased with you.
　　How's your English coming along?
　　Jackie: So let's hear Morag again and listen out for thosetwo expressions 'to spread the word' and 'to come a longway'.
　　MoragWhat we're really trying to do is spread the word about howfar the women's game has come.
　　Jackie: The campaign is targeting a particular age group,which means it's directed towards that age group. We oftenhear the verb 'to target' in the context of advertising¹.
　　ExamplesThat tobacco company got into trouble for targetingchildren with its posters. Our target market is the young,well-paid professionals.
　　Jackie: What’s the target market for the Girls Unitedcampaign?
　　MoragSpecifically, the Girls United campaign is targeting nineto eleven year old girls, which we identified as a key agegroup. Surprisingly, we found that a lot of girls that agefelt that either they couldn't play football or they didn'tknow how to get involved.
　　Jackie: Did you get the answer? Its target is nine toeleven year old girls. Morag describes them as a 'key' agegroup, which means an important age group. Many people inwomen's football complain it doesn't get enough 'mediacoverage', which means it's not shown or reported enough innewspapers andon television and radio and so on. As well as 'mediacoverage', you could also just the term 'coverage²' on itsown:
　　ExamplesThere's been a lot of media coverage of the crash. There'sbeen a lot of coverage of the crash.
　　Jackie: Jacqui Oatley is a sports reporter for the BBC andhas been following women's football for a while…'following' in this context means watching closely. Doesshe think there's more coverage of women's football nowthan there used to be?
　　JacquiIt’s probably getting more media coverage than it’s everhad before in terms of the England side. I mean, I've beenfollowing them for two and a half years now and I've playedfootball for many years and there really wasn't very muchcoverage on television or in the newspapers at all at thetime.
　　Jackie: Jacqui thinks women's football is getting morecoverage than it used to. But as she's about to tell us,she also thinks women's football shouldn't be covered justfor the sake of it. What reason does she give?
　　JacquiI think it's come a long way, but it also has to be judgedon merit. It's not our job in the media to promotesomething just for the sake of it. We only actually coverany kind of sport if we think it merits it.
　　Jackie: Jacqui says it has to be judged on merit – themedia should only cover a sport if it's good enough andinteresting enough to deserve coverage. Another challengefemale footballers face is pay. For example, most femalefootballers who play in clubs in England, still have tofind other ways toearn money.  Morag says it can be 'a juggling³ act' forwomen – they have to cope with doing lots different thingsat once. Listen for that expression now,'a juggling act'.
　　MoragThey're full time mums, they're teachers, they're fitnesstrainers, they're coaches and then fitting in theirfootball training early mornings, late evenings. So it's abig juggling act for the girls.
　　Jackie: For this reason, Morag says, female footballersshould really be admired.
　　They're good role models for younger girls. A 'role model'
　　is someone whose attitudes and behaviour people might copybecause they admire them. Listen to her use this phrasenow.
　　MoragI think they're fantastic role models for young girlsgrowing up because they can see that, you know, these girlsare committed and passionate⁴ about playing football, aswell as having to juggle⁵ careers and families at the sametime.
　　Jackie: To end, a recap of some of today's phrases:
　　a campaignto spread the word to come a long way to targeta key age group media coverage to judge on merit a jugglingacta role model

1 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

2 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

3 juggling   

n. 欺骗, 杂耍(=jugglery) adj. 欺骗的, 欺诈的 动词juggle的现在分词

参考例句：

• He was charged with some dishonest juggling with the accounts. 他被指控用欺骗手段窜改账目。
• The accountant went to prison for juggling his firm's accounts. 会计因涂改公司的帐目而入狱。

4 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

5 juggle   

v.变戏法，纂改，欺骗，同时做；n.玩杂耍，纂改，花招

参考例句：

• If you juggle with your accounts,you'll get into trouble.你要是在帐目上做手脚，你可要遇到麻烦了。
• She had to juggle her job and her children.她得同时兼顾工作和孩子。