来 源：文都网校

配套课程：文都网校08春季四级 强化班 课程试听 优 惠价 150元

备 注：报名文都网校四级强 化课程，配套内部讲义电子版（word）可免费提供下载。

Exercise 2 (200309)

Sports is one of the world’s largest industries, and most athletes are professionals who are well paid for their efforts. Because an athlete succeeds by achievement only—not by economic background or family connections—sports can be a fast route to wealth, and many athletes play more for money than for love.
This has not always been true. In the ancient Olympics the winner got only a wreath of olive leaves (橄榄叶花环). Even though the winners became national heroes, the games remained amateur for centuries. Athletes won fame, but no money. As time passed, however, the contests became increasingly less amateur and cities began to hire athletes to represent them. By the fourth century A.D., the Olympics were ruined, and they were soon ended.
In 1896, the Olympic games were revived (使再度兴起) with the same goal of pure amateur competition. The rules bar athletes who have ever received a $50 prize or an athletic scholarship, or who have spent four weeks in a training camp. At least one competitor in the 1896 games met all these qualifications. He was Spiridon Loues, a water carrier who won the marathon race. After the race, a rich Athenian offered him anything he wanted. A true amateur, Loues accepted only a cart and a horse. Then he gave up running forever. But Loues was an exception and now, as the Chairman of the German Olympic Committee said, “Nobody pays any attention to these rules.” Many countries pay their athletes to train year-round, and Olympic athletes are eager to sell their names to companies that make everything from ski equipment to fast food.

上一页12 下一页