VOA标准英语2008年-Senegal Dominates French Scrabble Championships

Competitors from across the globe are in Senegal's capital, Dakar, for the Francophone World Scrabble Championships. Naomi Schwarz reports from the tournament that Senegal boasts some of the world's best players, despite a population with a 40 percent literacy rate where people mostly grow up speaking local African languages.

Hundreds of players, sitting in rows at long tables, listen intently as letters are called. One even brought a small lion doll as a lucky charm.

But these players are competing in the elite¹ round of the Francophone World Scrabble Championships. They come from more than 20 French-speaking countries across five continents.

But the home team, from Senegal, is the one to beat.

Scrabble is a classic board game in which players compete by forming words from letter tiles.

At last year's world championship, Senegal won three out of the four top prizes.

This year, the Senegalese team is already off to a good start. Fifteen-year-old Mamadou Yauck has already clinched² the juniors title for the "blitz" category, where players only have one minute to find their word.

He says he got off to a bad start, but was able to catch up in the later rounds.

Senegal, a small, impoverished³ country in West Africa, has won few world championships in other sports. That may be why the government has given so much support to Scrabble.

But a French official for the International Scrabble Federation⁴, Hervé Bohbot, says that support may also be the reason Senegal is so good.

He says Senegal is one of the rare countries that really values Scrabble. He says the players are able to hone their skills at organized national tournaments and train with the government-sponsored Scrabble federation.

He says there are excellent players in other African countries, for instance, who never make it to international tournaments.

That is why another West African team, from Benin, says they are glad the tournament is in Africa this year. To save money, they traveled five days by bus to get here.

To welcome them and the other teams, popular Senegalese musician Pape Diouf performed a special Scrabble song.

The lyrics⁵, in French and a local language, welcome them to the country of "teranga," a term that means good hospitality.

This is the second time the Francophone world championships are being held in Dakar. Morocco is the only other African nation to have hosted the tournament.

 

 

1 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。

2 clinched   

v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的过去式和过去分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议）

参考例句：

• The two businessmen clinched the deal quickly. 两位生意人很快达成了协议。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Evidently this information clinched the matter. 显然，这一消息使问题得以最终解决。 来自辞典例句

3 impoverished   

adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化

参考例句：

• the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
• They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。

5 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。