英语听力精选进阶版 6184

Stumps¹, Stones and Ashes 三根柱，石头和灰烬杯

When you hear the word ‘cricket’, what do you think of first?

A small, chirping² insect? Or a summer sport between players in white trousers and woollen jerseys³ who stop for a 20-minute tea break in the afternoon?

The chances are, if you’re in England, India or Australia, you’ll be thinking of the latter, where the sport is watched, played and adored by millions.

English cricket fans are currently rejoicing in their national side’s victory over Australia in a fiercely-contested competition called The Ashes last week.

But in many other parts of the world the sport is virtually unknown. Many outsiders are put off by its complicated laws, unintelligible⁴ terms (any idea what a googly or a grubber is?), and mind-boggling statistics.

With games that last for days or even weeks and scores that look more like share prices than sports results, how do we begin to understand this game?

Well in its most basic form cricket is a bat and ball game, not unlike baseball in that it involves two teams of players: one batting and the other bowling⁵ and fielding. Like football, both teams have 11 players.

When bowling, the aim is to hit the wicket, while the batsman tries to defend it and hit the ball far away to win ‘runs’. If the bowler⁶ hits the wicket then the batsman is ‘out’, and the next one from the 11 in the batting team takes his place.

When they are ‘all out’ the batting side’s total runs are added up and the teams swap⁷ sides until the second side is also ‘all out’. Whoever has the most runs at the end wins.

Simple? Well, that’s just a taster. If you’re interested there’s a whole world of cricket out there, with its leg-before-wickets, silly mid-ons and doosras.

And if learning the finer points of cricket sounds like hungry work, you can always take comfort from the fact it’s the only sport where lunch and tea are formally included in the order of play.

GLOSSARY 词汇表

chirping insect 喳喳叫的小虫子（蟋蟀）

woollen jerseys 毛衣 

tea break 午茶休息 

the chances are 十有八九 

latter 后者 

rejoicing 欢庆 

fiercely-contested 激烈竞赛的 

virtually unknown 几乎没人知道的 

put off 扫兴 

unintelligible 难懂的/令人困扰的 

mind-boggling statistics 令人惊讶不解的数字 

share prices 股价 

bowling 投球 

fielding 接球 

wicket 三柱门 

runs 防止攻方得分 

added up 累计 

taster 入门小知识 

finer points 细节 

take comfort 令人欣慰

1 stumps   

（被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分

参考例句：

• Rocks and stumps supplied the place of chairs at the picnic. 野餐时石头和树桩都充当了椅子。
• If you don't stir your stumps, Tom, you'll be late for school again. 汤姆，如果你不快走，上学又要迟到了。

2 chirping   

鸟叫，虫鸣( chirp的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The birds,chirping relentlessly,woke us up at daybreak. 破晓时鸟儿不断吱吱地叫，把我们吵醒了。
• The birds are chirping merrily. 鸟儿在欢快地鸣叫着。

3 jerseys   

n.运动衫( jersey的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The maximum quantity of cotton jerseys this year is about DM25,000. 平方米的羊毛地毯超过了以往的订货。 来自口语例句
• The NBA is mulling the prospect of stitching advertising logos onto jerseys. 大意：NBA官方正在酝酿一个大煞风景的计划——把广告标志绣上球服！ 来自互联网

4 unintelligible   

adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的

参考例句：

• If a computer is given unintelligible data, it returns unintelligible results.如果计算机得到的是难以理解的数据，它给出的也将是难以理解的结果。
• The terms were unintelligible to ordinary folk.这些术语一般人是不懂的。

5 bowling   

n.保龄球运动

参考例句：

• Bowling is a popular sport with young and old.保龄球是老少都爱的运动。
• Which sport do you 1ike most,golf or bowling?你最喜欢什么运动，高尔夫还是保龄球？

6 bowler   

n.打保龄球的人，（板球的）投（球）手

参考例句：

• The bowler judged it well,timing the ball to perfection.投球手判断准确，对球速的掌握恰到好处。
• The captain decided to take Snow off and try a slower bowler.队长决定把斯诺撤下，换一个动作慢一点的投球手试一试。

7 swap   

n.交换；vt.交换，用...作交易

参考例句：

• I will swap you my bicycle for your radio.我想拿我的自行车换你的收音机。
• This comic was a swap that I got from Nick.这本漫画书是我从尼克那里换来的。