VOA慢速英语2017 游戏粉丝投票选择将顶针移除《地产大亨》（在线收听）

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Toy maker Hasbro announced on Thursday that it was removing an iconic piece of its famous board game, Monopoly.

玩具制造商孩之宝公司周四宣布，其计划移除著名棋盘游戏《地产大亨》中一个标志性的棋子。

Fans of the game voted to do away with the "thimble" playing piece.

该游戏的粉丝投票，选择将棋子“顶针”移除。

The Associated Press news service reports that Hasbro is trying to make the game more meaningful to a younger audience.

美联社表示，孩之宝公司想要给年少的目标群体呈现出更有意义的游戏。

A thimble is used in sewing.The metal device covers the top of a finger to protect it from the sewing needle.Proposed new game pieces include representations of an emoji, hashtag and rubber duck.

顶针一般用来缝纫。该金属配件套在手指上，保护手指以免被针扎到。提出的新游戏棋子包括emoji表情符号，热门标签以及橡皮鸭。

The thimble had been in the game for over 80 years.But people went to a Hasbro website and voted to end its use.

顶针作为游戏的一个棋子，已经有80年了。但人们在孩之宝网站上投票决定停止它在游戏中的使用。

The thimble is not the first classic piece to be removed from the game.In 2013, a vote carried out on Facebook resulted in a representation of a cat replacing the iron playing piece.

顶针不是第一个被移除游戏的标志性棋子。2013年，Facebook上的类似投票，使得猫的模型取代了熨斗作为棋子。

In the recent vote, fans of the game were asked to choose their eight favorite game pieces from a group that included the current eight, along with 56 possible new pieces.

在最近的投票中，该游戏的粉丝被要求在一组游戏配件中，选择最喜爱的8个棋子形象，包括现有的8个棋子，以及56个可能出现在游戏中的新棋子。

Those new pieces include a stopwatch, a fish, a television, a truck, a rabbit, a trumpet and a dinosaur.

这些新棋子包括秒表、鱼、电视、卡车、兔子、喇叭和恐龙。

Hasbro will announce the eight winning game pieces in March.Those pieces will be available starting in August.

孩之宝公司会在三月宣布胜出的8个游戏棋子。这些棋子有可能在8月投入使用。

Jonathan Berkowitz is senior vice president of marketing for Hasbro.He told CNN that "there is a possibility other classic pieces were also voted out."

乔纳森·伯科威茨是孩之宝公司市场部的高级副总裁。他告诉CNN，“有可能其他的经典棋子也被投票淘汰。”

People are already posting their comments about the news on Twitter.

人们在推特上发表了对该事件的看法。

One user tweeted: "This is a huge mistake ..."

一名用户说道：“这是一个巨大的错误。”

Another compared the news to the day space scientists decided Pluto was not a planet.

还有人将该事件与宇宙科学家决定冥王星不再是九大行星这一事件相提并论。

Someone else wondered if the move was a just a marketing effort.

还有人猜想这是否只是市场策略。

Joey Healy wrote: "They’ll remove it, and then come out with a special edition that has it back."

乔伊.希里写道：“他们有可能会去掉顶针，然后将其设定为特别版，再次回归游戏。”

Words in This Story

iconic– adj. used to describe something that has become widely known

relevant – adj. relating to a subject in an appropriate way

emoji – n. a picture that can be used for communication in text messaging

hashtag – n. a word or phrase that starts with the symbol # and that briefly indicates what a message (such as a tweet) is about

classic – adj. used to describe something that has been popular for a long time

edition – n. a particular version of a product