新视野大学英语（第二版）·泛读教程2
Unit 2
PASSAGE A
Is Education Still an Important Part of Youth Athletics?
Education is an important part of youth athletics in the US. Young kids, cooped up in class, long for the relative freedom of the football field, the basketball court, the baseball diamond. They long to kick and throw things, and the fields of organized play offer a place in which to act out these impulses. Kids are basically encouraged, after all, to beat each other up on the football field. Yet for all the chaos, adult guidance and supervision are never far off, and time spent on the athletic fields is meant to be productive. Coaches seek to give lessons in teamwork, self-sacrifice, competition, winning, and losing. Teachers at least want their pupils worn out so that they’ll sit still in reading class.
教育是美国青少年体育的一个重要部分。被局 限于教室内的孩子们，是很向往自由空间的，像足球场，篮球场，和棒球场。他们渴望踢和扔，而这些空旷 的场地正好为他们提供了一种宣 泄和表 演的平台。孩子们基本上是被鼓励在足球场上打败对方的。然而对于所有的混乱，成年人的指导和监 督是不会离开半步得到，花在运动常识的时间目的在于 让训练去的成效。教练设法给队员们上课，教会他们什么是自我牺牲，竞 争，胜利和失败。老师们则希望他们的学生疲 惫不堪，这样的话学生们就会好好地坐在课室里看书了。
By the time children start competing for spots on junior high soccer or tennis teams, the kids’ gloves have come off to some extent. The athletic fields become less a place to learn about soft values like teamwork than about hard self-discipline and competition. Competitiveness, after all, is prized highly by Americans, perhaps more so than by other peoples. For a child, being cut from the baseball team or denied a spot on the swimming is a disappointment –and perhaps an opportunity for spiritual growth.
当孩子们开始竞 争初中足球队或网球队的职 位时，在某种程度上他们都已经做好了战 斗准备。运动场变成了一个更像学习自我约束和竞争多过于学习团 队合 作这种内在品质的地方。毕竟竞 争力是受到美国人民高 度重 视的，至少相比其他民族的人要重视。当一个孩子被从棒球队或游泳对剔 除是很失 望的——但也许这是一次心灵成长的机会。
High school basketball or football teams are places where the ethos of competition is given still stronger emphases. Although high school coaches still consider themselves educators, the sports are not simple extensions of the classroom. They are important social institutions, for football games bring people together. In much of the US they are events there young people and their elders mingle and see how the community is developing. 高中篮球或足球队是个竞争意识很强的地方。尽管高中的体育教练会把自己当成教育者，但体育已经不仅仅是课堂的简单延伸了。他们已经成了社会的一个重要机构，因为体 育加强了人们的联系。在美国的大多数地方，体育是一件能使年轻人和长辈加强沟 通联系并且从中看到社会进步历程的重要 事 项。
For the best players, the progression from little league to junior high to high school leads to a business or organization paying the costs of attending a big-name college. College athletes are apparently student-athletes, an ideal that suggests a balance between the intellectual rigors of the university and the physical rigors of the playing field. The reality is skewed heavily in favor of athletics. One would be hard-pressed to show that major US college sports are about education. Coaches require far too much of players’ time to be truly concerned with any thing other than performance in sports. Too often, the players they recruit seem to care little about school
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新视野大学英语（第二版）·泛读教程2
themselves.
对于一个最优秀的运动员来说，从一个小联盟到初中到高中的进展会与一个企业或组织是够愿 意为他们进入名牌大学的费 用买 单紧密挂钩。大学运动员显然就是学生运动员，有一个观点提出了要在学校智 力教育和运动场上的体质教育之间找到平 衡点。但事实却似乎更倾向于体育。很难去说明美国的重点大学体 育是关于文化教育的。教练们要求运动员花大量的时间在运动方面的表现上远远多过于其他的事情。而大多数情况下，他们所招 募的运动员似乎也极少关心学校的名气。
This was not always the case. Universities –Princeton, Harvard, Rutgers, and Yale --were the birthplaces of American football and baseball; education –the formation of “character” –was an important part of what those coaches and players thought they were achieving. In 1913, when football was almost declared illegal in the US, the game’s most famous figures traveled to Washington and argued successfully that football was an essential part of the campus experiences and that the nation would be robbed of its bravest young men, its best potential leaders, if the game were banned.
但也并非总是如此。像普林斯顿，哈佛，罗格斯和耶鲁，是美国足球和棒球的发源地；而它们的教育---性格的塑造，也是那些教练和运动员们引以为豪的取到的重要成就。在1913年，当足球被美国 政 府宣布是不合法的时候，一个体育界著名人物游 经华盛顿，他成功地诠释了足球是大学生涯的一个重要的组成部分，如果国家禁止了它，那么也同时将失去它最勇敢的年青人 和潜在的领 导人。
The idea that competitive sports build character, a Western tradition that has lasted since ancient Greece, has obviously fallen out of fashion in today’s US. Educators, now tending to see the kind of character shaped by football and basketball in a dark light, have challenged the notion that college sports produce interesting people. Famous athletes, such as boxer Muhammad Ali and basketball star Charles Barkley, distanced themselves from the earlier ideal of the athlete as a model figure. Today’s US athlete is thus content to be an entertainer. Trying to do something good and helpful for the society, like being a role model, will make you seem over earnest and probably hurt your street credibility. 西方的传统观念“竞技体育塑造人格”从古希腊便一直流传下来，但在今日的美国明显失去了主流地位。当下的教育者更相信衰落时期的足球 和篮球时代塑造了一种人格，这挑战了大学体育创造奇 才的观点 。一些像拳击手穆 罕默德·阿里和篮球明星查尔斯·巴克 利的运动员，已经 背离了他们要作为运动员模范 的初衷，现在的美国运 动员更像是艺人。努力地去做好一番事 业和回报社会，当一名社会模范，有时会使你看起来过于认真（像炒 作一般）或许会因此被人认为是在标新立异而有 损你的社会荣 誉。
When I was a kid, my heroes played on Saturdays. They were high school players and college athletes. Professional football games, broadcast on Sunday afternoons, were dull by comparison. After all, why would God schedule anything important for Sunday? You’ve got school the next day. 当我还是个孩子的时候，我的偶像是在周六比赛的。他们是高中和大学的运动员。而周日下午播出的专业足球赛与之相比起来就显得单调 了些。毕竟，上帝之所以会将重要的事情放在周日，是因为第二天你得上学。
Although I certainly couldn’t have expressed it at the time, I think I must already have sensed that throwing a ball or catching passes was a fairly meaningless thing to be good at. In the grand scheme, it was a silly preparation for a job. Yet playing sports was not pointless; the point, however, was that you were learning something –a disposition, a certain virtue, a capacity for
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新视野大学英语（第二版）·泛读教程2
hardship in life –that might be of value when you later started a productive career as a doctor or a
schoolteacher or a businessman. The optimism of those Saturday afternoons was contagious. I still feel it today.
尽管我无法很准确地表达出来，但我想我肯定已经感觉到扔一个球或接一个球是一件真正毫无意义的事情，甚至连擅长它都显得无意义。在 一个宏伟的 计划里，它只不过是事情的一个很简单的准备工作。然而运动并不是毫无意义的，重点是你会从中学到某些东西——一种性格，一种美德，一种生活的能力，这些都是 你以后的职 业生涯中宝贵的财 富，不论你是一名医生，教师或者商人。记忆中那些个周六午后的乐观情绪一直在延续，而我至今仍然可以感受得到。
PASSAGE B
A Perfect Skate
She staggered off the practice ice supported by some of her skating-team friends. I hurried over to give Heidi her jacket and to support her until we could find a seat. At fifteen she had been living with cancer for a year. We’d learned the news just after returning from Chicago, where she’d won her first gold medal in an international competition.
在她的溜冰队友的支持帮助下她蹒 跚地从训练冰场爬起来。我赶紧给海蒂 递过夹克，并且在我们帮她找到作为之前不断地鼓励她。在15岁的时候她已经得癌一年了，我们刚从芝加哥回来时得知了这个坏消息，而她就是在芝加哥获得了她的第一枚国际金 牌。
Then came the tests, the frequent visits to the doctor, and the surgery. Through it all, what mattered to her most was that she kept her ability to skate. Fortunately, her doctor agreed to let her skate as much as she was able.
然后随之而来的是频繁的身体检查，频繁地看医生和手术。经过这一切，对于她最重要的是她的溜冰能力。庆幸的是，她的医生同意让她尽她所能地溜冰。
Heidi’s friend Greg helped me take off her skates. All of the children were initially frightened by Heidi’s plight, but pitched in to help keep her safe. 海 蒂的朋友格雷戈协助我帮她脱掉溜冰鞋。所有的孩子刚开始对海蒂的困境感到畏惧，但很快便尽自己所能地帮忙保护海蒂安全。 “Is she all right?” Greg asked. “Yes, she just needs a nice nap before we can get her to the car,” I explained.
Happy children turned around me as Heidi slept away. They all tried to be quiet, but their excitement for the Keystone State Games was obvious. How I wished those days would return for Heidi. “她还好吗？”格雷戈问。
“嗯，在我们把她送上车前她需要好好地小睡一下。”我回答。 快乐的孩子们趁海蒂睡着了转过身去。他们都很努力地保持安静，然而他们因为重点州级赛的兴奋是难以压抑的。我多么希望海蒂能够回到曾 经的那些快乐日子。
Heidi had been working hard on her programs and was determined to compete, but now the deadline had passed. I woke her up and we began our journey to the car. “Mom, Coach Barb says I am skating my program well. I want to go to the State Games.”
海蒂一直很努力地在奋斗，她下决心想要参赛，然而报名截止日期已经过去了。我把她叫醒然后开始往我们的车移动。“妈妈，教练巴布 说我的滑冰恢复得很好，我想要参加州级 赛。”
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新视野大学英语（第二版）·泛读教程2
Pain shot through my heart. When I told her the registration deadline had passed, she said her
coach could probably still get her in. “Mom,” she begged, “I don’t expect a medal. I just want to go there and be normal for a couple of days. Is that so bad?” A sob escaped her. 疼痛侵蚀了我的心。当我告诉海蒂报名时间已经过去时，她说她的教练也许能帮她进入比赛。“妈妈，”她请求道，“我不指望能得奖， 我只是想要到那儿去过几天正常的生活，这难道很糟糕么？”她抽泣了起来。
“Let’s ask the doctor.” I said, uncertain.
The next day at her medical examination she filled the doctor in on all the details of the State Games.
“I’ll tell you what,” he responded. “It’s okay with me if it is okay with your mom, but you’ll have to get permission to miss your treatments.”
I added something else to the list. “You have to eat right, sleep right, and take good care of yourself.”
“I will, I promise!” she replied. “咱们去问问医生吧。”我不确定地说。
第二天做医疗的时候她把州级赛的事 宜都告诉了医生，包括她的想法。 “我告诉你吧，”医生说，“如果你妈妈同意的话我也是没问题的，但是你不能耽误你的治疗。” 我在清单中又加了一些东西。“你必须吃好，睡好，照顾好你自己。” “我保证，我会的！”她回答。
After getting permission from the doctor and sending in a last-minute registration from, Heidi was set to go to the State Games. Now it was the big night and Heidi was about to step down on the ice for her freestyle skate. I prayed.
在得到医生的许可后，海蒂在截止时间的最后一分钟报了名，海蒂为州级赛做着准备。这是一个重要的夜晚，海蒂打算到冰场上去展示她的自由滑了。我默默地祈祷着。
The speakers announced her name and I steadied my hand on the camera as she flowed across the ice gracefully, like her old self. Proudly, she took up her stance. Steel Magnolias’ song filled the arena, and she took off for a full performance. 主持人念到海蒂的名字时，我平稳地举起相机拍下她滑过的优雅身姿，就像她曾经的自我。她十分自豪地准备好姿势。钢木兰的音乐声萦绕着舞台，海蒂的表演很完美。
She picked the tip of her foot into the ice and lifted up into a jump. She was so high that a short look of fear crossed her face. I got worried, whispering, “Please God, don’t let her break anything on the landing.”
她抬起她的脚尖跃起一跳。一丝短暂的 恐惧闪 过她的脸庞。我开始担心，喃喃低语。“求求您啊上帝，请不要让她落地的那瞬间出现任何差错吧！”
She landed perfectly, leg out behind her. Her face bore a huge smile as if to say, “I did it!” She store into her next move as the audience went wild. “Go Heidi!” echoed around the arena. She leaned into her ultimate move, the inside-outside eagle, perfectly done. 她完美地着地了！腿骄傲地挺在身后。她的脸上浮现一个大大的微笑，仿佛在说，“看，我坐到了！”当观众们欣喜若狂的时候，海蒂继续她的下一动作。“加油啊海蒂！”鼓励声回荡在舞台上空。海蒂俯身完成了她的最后一 个动作，内外鹰，非常完美！
From the stands came a joyful noise. None of us could believe it. Another huge jump! She was garnering points for the team. She glided into a lovely spiral jump, heavy boot held high like a flag of victory. Her cheeks were pink with effort and she was smiling with pride. Heidi had out-skated her best!
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