VOA标准英语2008年-Eva Lee has Rare Triple Opportunity for US in O

By David Byrd
Washington
29 May 2008

For most Americans, badminton is a backyard game played at parties and barbecues. But for Eva Lee, it is very serious - she is one of five members of the U.S. Badminton team that will be competing for gold at the Beijing Olympics in August. VOA's David Byrd has this look at Eva Lee and her quest to become the first American woman to win Olympic gold in badminton.

Eva Lee started playing badminton when she was a child - her parents gave her a racket and told her to go hit in order to keep her out of trouble. Her family thought the sport would keep Eva and her childhood playmates busy, but they probably never dreamed what they meant as a distraction¹ for a fidgety child would turn into a quest for Olympic gold.

This year, Lee's family will be watching as she competes for three medals in Beijing - in women's singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles.

Eva Lee told VOA Sports that the fast pace of badminton requires several different kinds of training, including strength, agility², and reaction training.

"We do long-distance running, sprints³, weight training - light weights and heavy weights," she said. "And then we also have to do agility, and then sometimes we do cross-training, like playing soccer with our teammates or basketball and all sorts of things."

The arduous⁴ training is needed. In a single game of badminton at the elite⁵ level, athletes can run as many as two miles and have to respond in a split second to the flight of the shuttlecock.

Eva Lee says that the grueling pace takes its toll⁶, even on the best players.

"There was once I came off a mixed [doubles] match, and the mixed match lasted about an hour," she said. "And after I came off the match, both my legs just collapsed⁷, I could not stand any more."

Eva Lee's endurance will be tested in Beijing - she has qualified⁸ in three disciplines and will have to face top opponents from host country China and perennial⁹ power Indonesia to win gold.

She has faced many of her Olympic opponents on the world circuit before, including a loss to world number one Xie Xingfang of China at the Uber Cup earlier this year. China shut out the Americans, 5-0, in group play at the Uber Cup in Jakarta. Hong Kong later shut out the Americans in the knockout stage (3-0).

Eva Lee says that she knows the road to Olympic gold will not be easy, but she expects her opponents will have added pressure to perform, especially the Chinese team.

"Actually I do not think they will have any advantage," she said. "If anything, they will be at a disadvantage because the Chinese badminton fans have very high hopes for their players. And so I think there is a lot of pressure on their players."

Eva Lee is used to pressure - she has been with Team USA at the Thomas and Uber Cup, the Sudirman Cup mixed team championship and the China Open. She also captured three gold medals at last year's Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Lee won in women's singles, women's doubles with partner Mesinee "May" Mangkalakiri and in mixed doubles with Howard Bach.

In Beijing, Bach will team with partner Khan "Bob" Malaythong in men's doubles and with Eva Lee in mixed doubles. U.S. Badminton Coach Cai Min Zi says that Eva Lee and May Mangkalakiri have some factors in their favor, but will have to be on their best game to win.

"Strong points: they have good skills and more experience," said Cai. "But weak points are their power - one of them has no smash power and we will try to get more improvement in their power."

The United States has never won an Olympic medal since badminton was made a medal sport in Barcelona in 1992. This year, Eva Lee and her teammates hope that they can find the right combination of speed, power, and good teamwork to bring home a medal from Beijing.

1 distraction   

n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐

参考例句：

• Total concentration is required with no distractions.要全神贯注，不能有丝毫分神。
• Their national distraction is going to the disco.他们的全民消遣就是去蹦迪。

2 agility   

n.敏捷，活泼

参考例句：

• The boy came upstairs with agility.那男孩敏捷地走上楼来。
• His intellect and mental agility have never been in doubt.他的才智和机敏从未受到怀疑。

3 sprints   

n.短距离的全速奔跑( sprint的名词复数 )v.短距离疾跑( sprint的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• You can run sprints only so long before you're out of breath. 你死命地跑，只能跑那么一段时间，到了喘不上气的时候，只好停下来。 来自辞典例句
• The cheetah finds the open grasslands ideal footing for its lightning-quick sprints. 非洲猎豹把开阔的草原作为它们闪电猎食的理想处所。 来自互联网

4 arduous   

adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的

参考例句：

• We must have patience in doing arduous work.我们做艰苦的工作要有耐性。
• The task was more arduous than he had calculated.这项任务比他所估计的要艰巨得多。

5 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

6 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

7 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

8 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

9 perennial   

adj.终年的；长久的

参考例句：

• I wonder at her perennial youthfulness.我对她青春常驻感到惊讶。
• There's a perennial shortage of teachers with science qualifications.有理科教学资格的老师一直都很短缺。