VOA慢速英语 2007 0611b

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. We turn our attention this week to the NBA, the National Basketball Association, and its growing international reach.

(SOUND)

VOICE ONE:

 
San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili (center) of Argentina in game one of the 2007 NBA Finals
The regular season ended in April. Weeks of playoffs followed. The San Antonio Spurs won the western conference championship for the third time in five years. The Cleveland Cavaliers won the eastern conference championship for the first time.

Now, the Cavs and the Spurs are playing in the finals for the NBA championship. It could be decided² as early as this Thursday in game four of their best-of-seven series.

Last year's NBA champions, the Miami Heat, lost early in the playoffs this year.

VOICE TWO:

Americans are not the only ones watching, or playing. Today about one NBA player in five was born outside the United States. The season opened with eighty-three international players, a record.

They include stars like Yao Ming from China on the Houston Rockets and German-born Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks⁴. He just became the first European-born player to win the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award.

And Argentine-born Manu Ginobili helped the Spurs to this year's finals with their victory in the West over the Utah Jazz.

VOICE ONE:                                         

 
Chicago Bulls player Luol Deng of Sudan protects the ball in a 2007 playoff game against the Detroit Pistons⁵
NBA players from Africa include Sudanese-born Luol Deng of the Chicago Bulls and Dikembe Mutombo. Mutombo, most recently with the Houston Rockets, was born in Kinshasa and is known for his charity work in Africa. He was considering retirement⁶ but has said he will play again next year. He will be forty-one years old on June twenty-fifth.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen forty-nine, two leagues came together to form the NBA: the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League. In nineteen ninety-six the NBA created the WNBA, the Women’s National Basketball Association. And in two thousand one the NBA created a development league to help train future players.

The NBA currently has thirty teams. It is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States. The others are the National Football League, the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball.

VOICE ONE:

Nineteen fifty is remembered as the year that the NBA became integrated with black players. Today the large majority of players are African-American. But a Japanese-American broke the barrier in major professional basketball three years earlier.

Wataru Misaka was born in the state of Utah. He was a guard standing⁷ one meter seventy centimeters. He helped lead his college team to two national championship competitions. The New York Knicks, or Knickerbockers, chose him in the nineteen forty-seven Basketball Association of America draft. He played in three games and scored seven points before he was cut from the team.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen ninety-two, the United States Olympic men's basketball team was called the "Dream Team." For the first time there were players from the NBA. Among them were Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. The Americans brought home the gold medal that year from Barcelona.

It was during the nineteen nineties that a growing number of top NBA players began to come from outside the United States. In two thousand two, Yao Ming was the first choice in the NBA draft. He was picked by the Houston Rockets.

Yao became the first international player without college experience in the United States to be chosen first overall. He also became the third Chinese national ever to play in the NBA.

The first was Wang Zhi-zhi. He joined the Dallas Mavericks in two thousand one. The second was Mengke Bateer. He made his first NBA appearance with the Denver Nuggets early in two thousand two.

VOICE ONE:

Yao Ming is currently the NBA's tallest player, at two meters twenty-six centimeters. He was already a famous player in China before he arrived in the United States. He no longer speaks through an English interpreter. During his first season with the NBA, he spoke⁸ with the help of his friend Colin Pine.

In two thousand three, during the NBA off-season, Yao helped raise money and educate people in China about SARS. That was when the lung disease known as SARS broke out in southern China and spread around the world.

And Yao said last year that he would stop eating shark fin¹ soup, a popular Chinese meal, because of concern for shark populations.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Another popular international player in the NBA is Luol Deng of the Chicago Bulls. He is two meters three centimeters tall. He was born in southern Sudan as a member of the Dinka tribe. It produces some of the world's tallest people.

In nineteen eighty-eight, when he was a young boy, his family fled to Egypt because of the civil war in southern Sudan. His father had been a Sudanese government minister. In Egypt, they met former NBA player Manute Bol. Bol, also a Dinka, became an important influence in his life.

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen ninety-three Deng's family received political asylum⁹ in Britain. But he went to high school in the United States, in New Jersey¹⁰. By his senior year he was one of the best high school basketball players in America. He attended Duke University for one year before he entered the NBA in the two thousand four draft.

Luol Deng is known as a hard worker. And this May he won the NBA Sportsmanship Award for the season, as voted by other players. This award honors ethical¹¹ behavior, fair play and other ideals of sportsmanship on the court.

He is also active in charities including Nothing But Nets, a campaign to fight malaria¹² in Africa with insecticide-treated bed nets.

Luol Deng received British citizenship¹³ last year. He wants to play for the British national team in the two thousand twelve London Olympics. He grew up in London and his family lives there. He was recently named British captain for the qualifying series for the European championship.

VOICE TWO:

Dirk Nowitzki is the first Dallas Maverick³ to win the NBA Most Valuable Player Award. He is also the first winner who did not attend high school or college in the United States. He was born in Wurzburg, in the former West Germany.

He, too, learned the game with the help of an older mentor¹⁴. Former German national team player Holger Geschwindner first saw him play when Nowitzki was sixteen. He thought the teenager had the talent to be a professional. For one thing, Nowitzki is ambidextrous¹⁵. He has equal ability with either hand.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

NBA games are broadcast around the world in more than forty languages. In China, games are being shown on more than fifty television stations, up from thirty-two last year.                                            

One way to show support for a favorite player is, of course, to wear the team jersey with that player's number. The NBA reported in March that Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers had the top-selling NBA jersey in China this season. Last year his jersey was the fourth most popular. He also has the top selling jersey in the United States.

Allen Iverson of Denver and Tracy McGrady of Houston were second and third this season in China. Next came Dwyane Wade¹⁶ of Miami and Cleveland's LeBron James.

Yao Ming was third in jersey sales at stores in China last season. This year he was sixth.

VOICE TWO:

The NBA may be the world's most famous basketball league. But the two thousand four Summer Olympics in Athens provided an example of how the game is improving internationally.

Argentina defeated the United States men's basketball team in the semifinals, then claimed the gold medal over Italy. It was the first medal ever for Argentina in Olympic basketball. It was also the first loss for the American team since nineteen eighty-eight in Seoul.

In fact, between nineteen thirty-six and two thousand, there was only one other time when the United States did not win. That was at the nineteen seventy-two Munich Games. Both times the Soviet¹⁷ Union took home the gold.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Brianna Blake and produced by Caty Weaver¹⁸. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. You can learn more about American life at voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

1 fin   

n.鳍；(飞机的)安定翼

参考例句：

• They swim using a small fin on their back.它们用背上的小鳍游动。
• The aircraft has a long tail fin.那架飞机有一个长长的尾翼。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 maverick   

adj.特立独行的；不遵守传统的；n.持异议者，自行其是者

参考例句：

• He's a maverick.He has his own way of thinking about things.他是个特异独行的人。对事情有自己的看法。
• You're a maverick and you'll try anything.你是个爱自行其是的人，样样事情都要尝试一下。

4 mavericks   

未烙印的牲畜( maverick的名词复数 )； 标新立异的人，不合常规的人

参考例句：

• And what about the Dallas Mavericks and Dirk Nowitzki? 那达拉斯小牛队和诺维斯基呢？
• And we see it with bringing Jason Kidd to the Dallas Mavericks. 而且我们看到它同实现基德向达拉斯小牛队。

5 pistons   

活塞( piston的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Some pistons have seating rings of metal or leather. 有些活塞上有金属或皮革的密封环。
• A pump uses valves and pistons. 泵使用阀和活塞。

6 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

10 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

11 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。

12 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

13 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

14 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

15 ambidextrous   

adj.双手很灵巧的，熟练的，两面派的

参考例句：

• I'm neither left-handed nor right-handed;I'm ambidextrous.我不是只用左手或右手，我是双手并用。
• Jack is an ambidextrous hitter;he can bat right-handed or left-handed.杰克是一位双手都很灵巧的打击手，他可以用右手或左手打击。

16 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

17 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

18 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。