英语听力精选进阶版 14468

Germany wins the World Cup

Summary

14 July 2014

Germany is celebrating victory in the World Cup final after a 1-0 win over Argentina in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday night. The match was level at 0-0 after 90 minutes, but Germany took the lead in the second period of extra time and held on to claim a fourth World Cup title.

Reporter:

Matthew Kenyon

Report

Germany's triumph - its first as a unified¹ country to add to West Germany's three World Cups - is the culmination² of more than a decade of planning, but far from Mario Gotze's fabulous³ winning goal at the Maracana being the end of the process, their hope is that this is the start of a period of sustained success. It isn't the end of the road for this wonderful team who were the most consistent, attacking, enterprising squad⁴ of Brazil 2014. They have deservedly become the first European side to win the World Cup in South America.

For Argentina, the final was a distillation⁵ of their whole tournament. They'll look back in particular at Gonzalo Higuain's horrible miss in the first half and wonder what might have been, but they have showed only sporadically⁶ their undoubted talent, and whilst Lionel Messi was named the player of the tournament, he has yet to fulfil his destiny as the supposed heir to Maradona.

Such is Brazil's rivalry⁷ with Argentina, the host nation's fans who were at the final were cheering loudly for Germany, the team who'd humiliated⁸ them in the semi-finals. Now the rest of the world can join in.

1 unified   

(unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的

参考例句：

• The teacher unified the answer of her pupil with hers. 老师核对了学生的答案。
• The First Emperor of Qin unified China in 221 B.C. 秦始皇于公元前221年统一中国。

2 culmination   

n.顶点；最高潮

参考例句：

• The space race reached its culmination in the first moon walk.太空竞争以第一次在月球行走而达到顶峰。
• It may truly be regarded as the culmination of classical Greek geometry.这确实可以看成是古典希腊几何的登峰造级之作。

3 fabulous   

adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的

参考例句：

• We had a fabulous time at the party.我们在晚会上玩得很痛快。
• This is a fabulous sum of money.这是一笔巨款。

4 squad   

n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组

参考例句：

• The squad leader ordered the men to mark time.班长命令战士们原地踏步。
• A squad is the smallest unit in an army.班是军队的最小构成单位。

5 distillation   

n.蒸馏，蒸馏法

参考例句：

• The discovery of distillation is usually accredited to the Arabs of the 11th century.通常认为，蒸馏法是阿拉伯人在11世纪发明的。
• The oil is distilled from the berries of this small tree.油是从这种小树的浆果中提炼出来的。

6 sporadically   

adv.偶发地，零星地

参考例句：

• There are some trees sporadically around his house. 他的房子周围零星地有点树木。 来自辞典例句
• As for other aspects, we will sporadically hand out questionnaires. 在其他方面，我们会偶尔发送调查问卷。 来自互联网

7 rivalry   

n.竞争，竞赛，对抗

参考例句：

• The quarrel originated in rivalry between the two families.这次争吵是两家不和引起的。
• He had a lot of rivalry with his brothers and sisters.他和兄弟姐妹间经常较劲。

8 humiliated   

感到羞愧的

参考例句：

• Parents are humiliated if their children behave badly when guests are present. 子女在客人面前举止失当，父母也失体面。
• He was ashamed and bitterly humiliated. 他感到羞耻，丢尽了面子。