林書豪旋風! 看看經濟學人怎麼說

經濟學人的文章向來言簡意賅
輕鬆好消化(大家不要被經濟學人這幾個字給嚇到了)
多閱讀類似優質英文
你的托福寫作分數肯定會提升
記得多閱讀 多寫筆記
模仿作者再來寫一篇
都是很好的練習方式(天下文章一大抄)

我之前都喜歡用英文寫心得報告
這樣可以避免用中文思考後再翻譯
比較會寫出原汁原味的英文
所以大家不妨試著寫讀後感(in English please!)
有寫有bobe

本文章除了討論了林書豪現象(對他的背景有很詳細的介紹)
也針對NBA的選秀機制
與少數族裔球星的背景與提升minorities的社會地位
有諸多探討
因為Jeremy Lin現象而出現的新單字
最熱門的當屬Linsanity
本文的標題We  have a Linner
也是對林書豪的最大恭維(Linner=Winner)

另外一個好東西要跟大家分享的
是我意外在網路上發現的NBA籃球英語
我已經將幾十頁的教學內容整理好了
做成pdf檔案提供大家下載
感謝當初製作這些教材的人
真是太用心!(感謝倪無言與小笨霖)
大家請儘量下載享用

下載NBA籃球英語請點我(Chloe真心推薦的好東西)

最後祝大家閱讀愉快(若有錯誤請不吝指正)

Basketball’s surprising new star

We have a Linner

Feb 9th 2012, 17:40 by D.R.

NEW YORKERS have always liked larger-than-life personalities具有英雄架式或非凡性格 in their sporting heroes體育英雄. From Babe Ruth, who justified his earning more than the president because “I had a better year than he did”, to Joe Namath, who brazenly大言不慚地 guaranteed an improbable Super Bowl victory and then delivered展現實力, a bit of bravado誇炫/虛張聲勢 has always helped athletes get on the back pages of the Big Apple’s紐約市的暱稱 tabloids八卦媒體. There will be no such boasting from Jeremy Lin, the city’s newest sensation媒體新寵. Soft-spoken說話輕聲細語 and a devout Christian虔誠的基督徒, the New York Knicks’ new starting point guard先發控球後衛 has openly speculated that his career might end up “terrible”, and attributes all his success to God.(這篇文章作者拿林書豪與之前的美國諸運動明星做比較，林書豪低調謙遜的態度，跟那些不可一世又盛氣凌人的運動明星確實不同)之前林書豪一直苦無機會上場秀球技，還曾經一度以為自己的籃球生涯就要走到盡頭，這次即便因為表現優異而聲名大噪，還是很低調謙虛的將所有榮耀歸於主，展現了不一樣的氣度。

But New Yorkers also like an underdog, and Mr. Lin has taken a remarkably improbable route to sporting stardom儘管紐約人喜歡英雄氣概的運動明星，不過類似林書豪這種一開始不被看好，但後來大放異彩的低調球員，也能博得粉絲青睞，所以他的成名路不同於他人The child of Taiwanese immigrants林的父母皆是台灣移民, neither of whom stood taller than 1.68m (five feet, six inches父母身高都很一般), Mr. Lin grew to be 1.91m and starred on his high-school basketball team in California高中就加入球隊，表現亮眼. No university would offer him an athletic scholarship可惜高中時期的努力，還是無法為他贏得體育獎學金. Fortunately, Mr. Lin was also studious勤奮努力 enough to be admitted to Harvard靠自己的努力進了哈佛. He soon proved wrong the coaches at universities with far stronger basketball programmes by excelling for the Crimson進入了哈佛校隊( crimson深紅色是哈佛校色). He was twice named one of the five best players in the Ivy League常春藤聯盟, a group of eight academically prestigious universities.美國八所頂尖的私立大學

Chloe補充: 常春藤盟校或常春藤聯盟（Ivy League）成立於1965年，是由美國東北部地區的8所大學組成的體育賽事聯盟。這8所學校有著許多共同的特點：它們都是美國名校、也是美國生產最多羅德獎學金得主的大學聯盟。此外它們也是美國歷史悠久的大學：8所學校中的7所是在英國殖民時期建立的。常春藤盟校包括：布朗大學、哥倫比亞大學、康乃爾大學、達特茅斯學院、哈佛大學、賓州大學、普林斯頓大學、耶魯大學。(資料來自於維基百科)

Yet after graduating with an economics degree畢業於哈佛經濟系 in 2010, he was passed over又乏人問津/沒被選上 once again. None of the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) 30 teams chose him in their annual draft of amateur players(NBA年度選秀). Two different clubs wound up(為wind up的過去式) signing him兩個球隊最後簽下了他, but both dropped him without giving him meaningful playing time可是後來在沒給他什麼機會表現的情形下，最後又將他釋出了(現實人生).

Struggling to stay in the league, Mr. Lin—who has considered becoming a pastor once his playing days are over林書豪曾一度考慮要去當牧師，心想這輩子在職籃界可能沒戲唱了—signed a contract with the Knicks一直到後來才輾轉加入Knicks. He barely played until this month可是一直到這個月之前，其實也都再坐板凳. But when Mike D’Antoni, New York’s coach, gave him a chance at last on February 4th, he did not disappoint(所以林書豪的成功要感謝教練的慧眼…給他上場的機會). Coming off the bench late in the first quarter而且還不是一開始就讓他先發，等到很後面才讓他上場比, he erupted(此字本意是暴發)勇奪 for 25 points, five rebounds籃板球, and seven assists助功—a typical game for an $18m-a-year superstar like Dwyane Wade, not a no-name journeyman. The Knicks won easily板凳小咖林書豪的表現與一個年薪一千八百萬的明星球員相當，(jouneyman我覺得這邊翻譯板凳小咖比較傳神)

Any player can pull off 贏得a single big game. But Mr. Lin has not let up鬆懈(林書豪的螺絲可沒鬆掉，他後來幾場一樣努力表現，沒有被成功沖昏頭). Mr D’Antoni had him start the next game, and Mr. Lin outdid himself又超越自己, leading the team in scoring (with 28 points) and assists (with eight). New York won again. On February 8th he returned to the starting lineup這次終於當了先發球員, and posted 23 points and a career-high ten assists in a third consecutive Knicks victory連續贏三場.

In the space of five days, Mr. Lin has gone from a little-known curiosity to the toast of the town從一名沒沒無聞的小人物到炙手可熱的風雲人物. He is coming up on 70,000 Twitter followers and over 130,000 Facebook likes. He has been the subject of profiles in the New York Times and ESPN. A rap homage to him has even surfaced on YouTube林書豪爆紅之後，美國各大媒體瘋狂報導，就連youtube上面也有人寫饒舌歌來稱頌他的表現. Move over, teammates Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, and the recently crowned 2012 Super Bowl champion New York Giants as well. New York has been gripped by an outbreak of viral #Linsanity.林書豪旋風狂掃紐約，讓整個紐約(民眾)為之瘋狂

下面的幾段，經濟學人指出，林書豪的崛起引發兩個耐人尋味的問題：他的才能是否能被更早發現，如果答案是肯定的話，NBA的選才方式或有效率不足之處，以及他是否能帶動亞裔美國人對籃球的關注，或能打破種族成見。
經濟學人說，姚明雖是NBA第一位亞洲巨星，但他並不在美國生長，且二百廿九公分的身高也讓球迷覺得有距離，美國亞裔對他並不認同。

Mr. Lin’s rise raises two issues for close observers of the league. The first is whether his talent could have been spotted earlier, and if so, whether that means that inefficiencies still exist in the NBA’s labour market for savvy teams to exploit. Might a character based on Mr. Lin star one day in a basketball-focused remake of “Moneyball”, last year’s film about a baseball team that succeeds by identifying underappreciated players?有潛力但是尚未被發掘或是重用的選手

Daryl Morey, the Houston Rockets’ general manager and the NBA’s closest counterpart to the protagonist of “Moneyball”(有看過魔球這部電影的人就會知道了), is skeptical. “People put him in the bucket of a small-school performer小小舞台(沒啥表現機會),” he says, implying that NBA clubs might unfairly ignore athletes who played for universities not known for their basketball teams(NBA在選秀時，可能還是經常會忽略那些非明星籃球校隊的大學，哈佛大學確實是一流學府，可是不以籃球表現讓人驚艷，這可能也是林書豪之前一直無法有機會被好的球隊選上的原因). Mr. Lin is the first NBA player to have attended an Ivy League school since 2003過去八年來，長春藤名校畢業的職籃球員只有林書豪一人而已，現在大家懂了吧, and the league’s first Harvard graduate since 1954而且林書豪還是自1954年來第一個自哈佛大學畢業的職籃選手. “But for every Jeremy Lin,” continues Mr. Morey, who let Mr. Lin go six weeks ago, “I can give you a hundred guys who performed at that level of competition and didn’t make it. No one could predict the heights he has gotten to.”其實慧眼不是人人有，漏網之魚當然可能，因為誰能預料林書豪今天會有這樣表現，過去被忽略的球員一定也不少 And despite the hype喧騰的熱潮, Mr. Lin has starred for all of three games. He could easily start to struggle once opposing defences familiarise themselves with him and adapt their strategies to contain him, probably by forcing him to take longer shots than he is accustomed to.專家提出警告，儘管連續獲勝，成為明日之星，可是林書豪現象能持續多久，還是有待觀察，因為他會勝利，跟之前對手搞不清楚他的球路有關，現在他上場幾次之後，其他球隊也絕非省油的燈，會開始研究他的球路與弱點，將來林書豪想要贏球得分，有可能就不是那麼容易了(如long shot就不是林的強項)

The second question is whether he is likely to draw increased attention to the sport from other Asian-Americans, and perhaps shatter some racial stereotypes along the way. 因為籃球這個運動，確實不是亞洲人的強項Although Yao Ming was the league’s first Asian star, Asian-Americans only partially embraced him as their own. He grew up in China rather than in the United States. And at 2.29m, he is too much of a physical outlier非常態的體格(指的是姚明的體格高大並非一般亞裔美人的體型) for most fans to relate to所以難以引起一般粉絲的共鳴.

相反的，林書豪的謙虛性格和學業表現符合對美國亞裔的主流觀念，飆悍的球風又有黑人球員神韻，亞裔終於找到一位代表性運動員，可與其他族裔平起平坐。

Mr. Lin’s modesty and academic pedigree conform to mainstream perceptions of Asian-Americans. But his profile as a player does not. Some of the aspects of the game where he is weakest, such as long-distance shooting可是林書豪的球技也並非無懈可擊，他最弱的是長射這需要長期練習, are those that require the most practice and repetition. In contrast, his court vision, which enables him to execute precise passes in traffic精準的傳球, and his killer crossover dribble換手運球/帶球移動 and powerful dunks強而有力的灌籃, which recall Allen Iverson at his best, are usually seen as “innate” skills 這些技巧是林書豪的強項，會讓大家想到Allen Iverson在表現最佳時的演出就是如此that historically have been associated with black players.這些球韻都頗有經典非裔美人的味道

Jackie Robinson’s first Major League Baseball (MLB) game in 1947 was a key step towards the African-American civil rights movement a decade later. In the 1980s, Fernando Valenzuela’s success for MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers helped Hispanic Americans emerge as a social and political force. America’s third-biggest minority group may at last have found an athlete to announce their presence to the rest of the country with authority. 這一段在舉例說明美國職棒大聯盟之前也曾出國一些少數族裔的明星球員，他們的崛起帶動了美國黑白的民權自由運動，拉丁裔的選手則提升了拉丁裔美人在美國的社會地位，林書豪現象，更宣示了亞裔黃金時代的到來。

Chloe看法:以這樣的角度來看，林書豪才是真正的台灣之光啊！ (拿之前的王建民跟林書豪相比，畢竟兩人成長背景與教育環境不同，所以前者嚴格來說，只有台灣人在瘋，不過林書豪因為說的是流利美語，又念過哈佛名校，如此允文允武的優秀人才確實人間少有，而且林謙遜有禮，對於向來誇大又驕傲的美國人來說，還真是一股清流啊…各位建民的粉絲不要誤會我，我也很喜歡王建民，有一次在國父紀念館附近(光復南路上)的一家麵店看見他，真是驚為天人，建民如果不打棒球，建議可以改行當麻豆，因為他的身材高挑，皮膚細緻且品味出眾，全身上下名牌不說，還擦了香噴噴的古龍水。我本想要張簽名，可是因為天性膽小害羞所以作罷。王建民也很和善親切，這些都值得我們學習。現在只希望林書豪的表現能越來越好，不要只是曇花一現a flash in the pan…