5月17日
World Cup Fever
The U.S. fields their best team ever, but will it be enough to beat Brazil?
Progress in American soccer
Arena, as always, kept his emotions in check after the Panama game. But he said it was a luxury to secure a spot so early, and that should help in the long run.
“I just think it is a real positive because we have two objectives,” he said. “One is clearly to make our team better and prepare for the World Cup. Secondly, it is to continue to move our domestic players along. We’ve had an early start on that because of the fact we qualified so early. I had the opportunity to see a number of players, and I think that is important. Hopefully some of these players emerge and compete to get on our 23-man roaster.”
The favorites
Defending champion Brazil was the early favorite, and it’s easy to see why after it finished atop the South American qualifying group with 34 points, ahead of Argentina. In addition to winning the last World Cup, the Brazilians won the most recent Copa America and Confederations Cup.
Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira had practically settled on a starting lineup. ”Other teams have problems deciding who will be picked, we have problems deciding who will be left out,” said Parreira. “Some very good players will miss out because we can only take 23.”
The one word Parreira doesn’t want to hear is “magic.” The Brazilian media dubbed the foursome of Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka and Adriano (or Robinho) the “Magic Quartet.”
“The word magic is not part of our vocabulary,” Parreira told reporters. “We’re not getting involved in this sort of talk. I want to hear words like efficiency, productivity, winning well, sweat, perspiration and talent.”
Specialized Terms
Copa America 南美国家杯
Confederations Cup 联合会杯
Lineup (n) 球队阵容 a group of people that has been brought together to form a team
Vocabulary Focus
In check (idiom) under control
Domestic (adj) relating to things within a person’s own country
Settle on (v. Phr) to decide which one to choose among various alternatives
Quartet (n) 四重奏
Dub (v) to give someone a particular name, especially describing what one thinks of them
Perspiration (n) polite word for sweat
Discussion Question
Do you plan to watch the World Cup? If so, which team or teams will you cheer for?
Extra Exercise
1. Translate the following sentence into Chinese, ‘But he said it was a luxury to secure a spot so early, and that should help in the long run.’
2. According the audio, what’s the meaning of ‘move...along’ in this article?
说明：
1.文本摘自《Advanced 彭蒙惠英语》，由chandler30亲自录入。
2.回帖内容为大家讨论类话题，如非个人隐私，请不要选中“只有楼主可见”，以便大家交流。
3.参考答案在二楼，回复可见。
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