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Extensive Reading

BOOK IV

Unit OneFootball

Unit OneI. Overview

• In this unit, you will read 3 passages about football as an international sport, but from unusual perspectives.

Unit OneStructure

• This unit will give you a glimpse of the game of football (soccer) with special focus on women’s football, World Cup and Cuju in ancient China.

Unit OneText A

Women’s Football Popularity on the Rise

• Football has now replaced netball as the most popular female sport in England.

Unit OneText B

• Officials for World Cup 2006 had made a mess of the job of officiating the game, giving rise to squabbles between the teams and officials and making footballers leave for home with grudges and complaints.

Officially Wrong

Unit OneText C

• Centuries before football appeared in Europe, the Chinese had been practicing kicking balls with their feet to score points in organized matches.

Ancient Chinese Football

Unit OneFocus of this session

Unit OneII. Text A

Women’s Football Popularity on the Rise

• Main Idea of the Text

• This article mainly talks about the view of Britons about British women footballers. The author asks why US women players are more revered than British players. Although the quality and quantity of players are undoubtedly rising, the spectators are unfortunately not.

Unit One Background Information

Author • Jaskirt Dhaliwal• Jaskirt works as a freelance p

hotographer and journalist, including work for BBC Asian Network and BBC Birmingham. She specialises in portraiture and telling stories through her images and bodies of work, such as the Award winning Women’s Football body of work which focuses on the identity of women’s football and female footballers.

Unit OneBackground Information

Source• The British Broadcasting Corporation (the

BBC) is the world’s largest broadcaster. Incorporated in the UK by government charter, it employs 28,500 people in that country alone and has an annual budget of more than £4 billion. The BBC is a quasi-autonomous statutory corporation as a public service broadcaster and is run by the BBC Trust; it is, per its charter, supposed to “be free from both political and commercial influence and answer only to its viewers and listeners”. BBC Newsgathering is the largest news system through its regional offices, foreign correspondents and agreements with other news services.

• BBC/Birmingham is one of the production centres of the BBC.

Unit OneCultural Notes

• The phrase “The Beautiful Game” as a synonym for football was first coined by Didi, a Brazilian superstar footballer. In 1977 Pelé, one of football’s greatest superstars, named his autobiography My Life and the Beautiful Game. The book’s dedication read “I dedicate this book to all the people who have made this great game the Beautiful Game”.

Unit OneCultural Notes

• The phrase has now entered the language as a colourful description for association football and as such was used as part of the title for the 13-part series charting the history of the game: History of Football: The Beautiful Game.

Unit OneCultural Notes

• The Football Association, also known as simply The FA, is the governing body of football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. The FA has a unique place in the history of football.

• The FA is a member of UEFA and FIFA, and holds a permanent seat on the International Football Association Board (IFAB). Unlike other national football associations, it does not take the national name (ie. English) in its title (compared to the Scottish Football Association, for example).

Unit OneCultural Notes

• Euro 2005• The 2005 UEFA Women’s

Championship, also referred to as WOMEN’S EURO 2005 (trademark of UEFA), was a football tournament for women held from June 5 to June 19, 2005 in Lancashire, England. The UEFA Women’s Championship is a regular tournament involving European national teams from countries affiliated to UEFA, the European governing body, who have qualified for the competition. The competition aims to determine which national women’s team is the best in Europe.

Unit OneCultural Notes

• Birmingham City Ladies= BCLFC• Women’s football.Birmingham City Ladies FC were formed in 1968 by fe

male supporters of Birmingham City FC who wanted to play themselves. Initially the team played only friendlies but in 1970 they joined the newly formed Heart of England League. In 1972 the club won that league and in 1974 they joined the West Midland Regional League. Birmingham City Ladies were champions of that league on five occassions (1975,77,88,89 and 94). They also made it to two FA Women’s Cup semi finals (1974 and 88). The club had begun to struggle by the early 1990’s but the establishment of a junior set up helped them continue and then flourish.

Unit OneCultural Notes

• 2005: The miracle of Istanbul• There was a surprise in 2005. It involv

ed two of Europe’s most successful clubs. Six-time European Champions A.C. Milan faced four-time winners Liverpool in what could be considered one of the most dramatic finals in the competition’s history. Milan were the overwhelming favourites, having claimed the crown two years previously and boasting a star-studded lineup that included the ageless Paolo Maldini and Ukraine‘s Andriy Shevchenko along with a new threat in the form of the Brazilian attacking midfielder Kaká.

Unit OneCultural Notes

• Chelsea Football Club (pronounced /tʃɛlsiː/, also known as The Blues or previously The Pensioners) are a professional English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions three times, and have won the FA Cup four times, the League Cup four times and the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup twice.

Unit OneCultural Notes

• The National Premier Division• The FA Women’s Premier

League National Division is at the top of the English women’s football league pyramid. Below it are simultaneously the Northern and Southern divisions. The league is played on a home and away basis, with each team playing each other twice, and points being awarded in the standard football format.

Unit OneCultural Notes

• Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands of England. Usually referred to by a shortened version of its name, Wolves, the club is known for its distinctive team colours and long history. The club was founded in 1877 and since 1889 has been based at Molineux Stadium.

Unit OneCultural Notes

• Fulham Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Founded in 1879, they celebrated their 125th anniversary in 2004, and they are in the top tier of English football, the FA Premier League. Fulham are the oldest professional football team in London, usually considered to have been founded in 1879.

Unit OneCultural Notes

• Arsenal Football Club (also known as Arsenal, The Arsenal or The Gunners) are an English professional football club based in Holloway, North London. They play in the Premier League and are one of the most successful clubs in English football, having won thirteen First Division and Premier League titles and ten FA Cups, and hold the record for the longest uninterrupted period in the English top flight.

Unit OneCultural Notes

• Charlton Athletic Football Club (also known as The Addicks) is a professional association football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. Charlton was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the South-East London area, including both East Street Mission and Blundell Mission, combined to form Charlton Athletic Football Club.

Unit OneCultural Notes

• Everton Football Club is an English football club located in the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League and has contested more seasons in the top flight of English football than any other. Currently managed by David Moyes, Everton have won the League Championship nine times — the fourth highest of any team. Additionally, they have won the FA Cup five times and the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup once. The club’s most recent major trophy was the 1995 FA Cup.

Unit OneLanguage Points

Key Words & Expressions• take over (para. 1):

– to accept responsibility for; to gain control of.

接管 ; 接替 ; 控制• e.g.

– The strikers took over the factories.

（罢工工人接管了工厂。）• e.g.

– He took over my debts.

（他接收了我的债务。）• e.g.

– To take over a company/business

（ 接管一家公司∕业务）

Unit OneLanguage Points

• array of (para. 3):– a group of people or things, especially one that is larg

e or impressive. 陈列，展示

• e.g. – A bewildering array of options （一系列令人困惑的选择）

• e.g. – There was an impressive array of film stars at the pre

miere. （在首映式上，电影明星纷纷露面，蔚为壮观。）

Unit OneLanguage Points

• a/one hell of a sth. (para. 13):– to improve your skill at doing something, especially when you ar

e already very good at it

spoken not polite) used to emphasize the idea that something is very big, very good, very bad etc （口语，非正式）强调非常大，非常好，或非常差

• e.g. – I’ve come one hell of a long way to get here.

（我走了好远的路才到这儿。 ）• e.g.

– Envy like yours is a hell of a good motive for murder.

（像你的这种嫉妒是非常好的谋杀动机。）

Unit OneLanguage Points

Difficult Sentences• Under representation of women in sport, and football, is

by no means an uncommon thing, you only have to look at the back pages of any newspaper to realise that, but after the success of Euro 2005, the times may be changing. (para. 3)

• Under representation 在本句指重视度不够，曝光度不够，没有取得和男子对同样的重要性和支持度。而这种现象在本领域确实司空见惯的。

• back pages of any newspaper 指体育新闻版面。

Unit OneLanguage Points

• Only the dramatic plight of Birmingham City Ladies caught the public eye, after they were saved from imminent collapse and financial ruin in the 11th hour, proving miracles don’t just happen in Istanbul! (para.4)

• “miracles in Istanbul” 指在伊斯坦布尔发生的比赛逆转，被称做是奇迹的一次比赛（参见文化背景），本句把伯明翰城市女队的奇迹转机比喻为和在伊斯坦布尔发生的类似的一次逆转。

Unit OneLanguage Points

• When I first started here there were only two teams, and now we have a centre of excellence and four full teams from under 10’s and upwards, with the senior side competing in the highest women’s football league.” (para. 6)

• a centre of excellence 这个概念在很多种行业、学科中都使用，指卓越中心，卓越学科基地。 four full teams from under 10’s and upwards 指队员的年龄是 10 岁以下和以上。

Unit OneLanguage Points

• The progression of the women’s game did see one team, Fulham, go professional for a season whilst under the financial wing of its male counterparts. (para. 9)

• 女子球队确实取得了进展，有一个队，富勒姆女队，在男队的资金资助下，进行了一个赛季的职业赛。