VOA标准英语2008年-Cuba Defeats US in Olympic Baseball, Heads into

Cuba defeated the United States Olympic baseball team Friday night, 10-2, to reach the gold medal match at the Beijing Summer Games. VOA Sports Editor Parke Brewer¹ was at the contest at the Wukesong Sports Center and has a report.

For the Chinese fans in the crowd who don't read or understand English -- much less understand the American game of baseball -- it must have been a bit frustrating² to completely follow the action.

Unlike other sports at the Beijing Olympics where the scoreboards and big screen videos display both English and Chinese, and the public address announcers say everything in English and Chinese at the baseball stadium everything was only in English.

And only a small number of fans knew to stand up and sing along to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the traditional seventh inning stretch.

And during that seventh inning, the semifinal baseball game between the United States and defending Olympic champion Cuba was still close, with Cuba holding a 4-2 lead.
　
Cuba's catcher Ariel Pestano (r) shows the ball to home plate umpire Juan Rodriguez Diaz at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, 22 Aug 2008

But it all changed in the bottom of the eighth inning, as Cuba got three-run home runs from right fielder Alexei Bell and catcher Ariel Pestano to put the game out of reach at 10-2. And that's the way it ended.

Second baseman Hector Olivera, whose triple³ in the third inning drove in Cuba's first run of the game, said, through an interpreter, that the offense⁴ came through when it needed to.

"We weren't expecting such a large margin⁵ tonight," he said. "As you all know USA is a very strong team, but after we scored, we did not relax and we kept going on so we widened the gap. Of course, in such important games, both teams have pressures, but we managed to handle that pressure and won by such a large margin."

The victory puts Cuba into the Olympic gold medal game on Saturday against South Korea, who the Cubans lost to in round-robin play.

The United States will play Japan for the bronze medal.

U.S. coach Davey Johnson acknowledged⁶ that without Major League Baseball players competing at the Olympics, the Americans are at a disadvantage, but can still be competitive⁷.

"It's very difficult for us because Major League Baseball is a very big business and a lot of players who have potential to play in the big leagues, they're either called up [to the majors from the minor⁸ leagues] or they are not allowed to come here," he said. "But I think that definitely the players that we do get should be represented, and we can compete on the world stage at any time."

It won't be an issue at the next Olympics, because baseball has been dropped from the sports schedule for the London Summer Games in 2012.

 

1 brewer   

n. 啤酒制造者

参考例句：

• Brewer is a very interesting man. 布鲁尔是一个很有趣的人。
• I decided to quit my job to become a brewer. 我决定辞职，做一名酿酒人。

2 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 triple   

n.三倍之数，三个一组；adj.三倍的

参考例句：

• Twelve is the triple of four.十二是四的三倍数。
• He received triple wages for all his extra work.由于额外的工作他领取了三倍的工资。

4 offense   

n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪

参考例句：

• I hope you will not take any offense at my words. 对我讲的话请别见怪。
• His words gave great offense to everybody present.他的发言冲犯了在场的所有人。

5 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

6 acknowledged   

adj.公认的v.承认( acknowledge的过去式和过去分词 )；鸣谢；对…打招呼；告知已收到

参考例句：

• He acknowledged publicly that he might have made a mistake. 他当众承认自己可能犯了个错误。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The police acknowledged that three police vehicles were damaged. 警方承认有三辆警车被毁。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 competitive   

adj.竞争的，比赛的，好竞争的，有竞争力的

参考例句：

• Some kinds of business are competitive.有些商业是要竞争的。
• These businessmen are both competitive and honourable.这些商人既有竞争性又很诚实。

8 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。