2011年ESL之餐饮娱乐 15 Playing in a Tournament

15 Playing in a Tournament

GLOSSARY 1

standings – rankings; a list of how good or strong people or teams are whencompared against each other

* We played pretty well last year, but we weren’t at the top of the standings.

to seed – to put an athlete or a team in a position based on the likelihood 2 ofwinning

* The team is seeded 12th, but I have a feeling they’re going to do better thanthat.

in a bracket 3 – a drawing showing which teams will play each other, with thewinners playing other winners until one final winner is left; a group of teams thatcompete against each other in a tournament

* It seems unfair that they’re in a bracket with kids who are so much bigger thanthey are.

tournament – a competition to determine which athlete or team is the best;championship

* That high school usually wins the annual basketball tournament.

double-elimination – a type of tournament competition where a team that losestwo games cannot win the tournament, but a team that has lost only one gamecould still win the tournament

* Blake was really disappointed he lost the tennis match, but he still has hope,since he’s playing in a double-elimination tournament.

out of contention 4 – not longer being considered for something; not eligible 5; notmeeting the requirements for something

* Xanda says the interview was terrible and he’s sure he’s out of contention forthe job.

title – the winning position in a tournament or championship

* If you want to win the title, you’ll have to practice more often.

round-robin rounds – a type of tournament or championship where every teamplays against every other team

* The round-robin rounds are interesting, because we get to meet all the otherplayers, but it involves playing a lot of games.

defending champion – the athlete or team that won a championship ortournament last year and is trying to win again this year

* Do you think the defending champion has an advantage, or does the defendingchampion face too much pressure to win?

to rank – to assign 7 someone or something a position based on how good or bigit is

* This city was ranked number three on a list of the most polluted cities in thecountry.

season – the period of time when games are played for a particular sport eachyear

* Christopher played football last season, but this fall he wants to play soccerinstead.

injury – damage to one’s body; being hurt on one’s body

* Elyssa had a broken arm and wrist, a sprained 8 ankle, and many other injuriesfrom playing sports when she was a kid.

run-in – a disagreement with someone; a fight with someone; a disagreeableencounter

* Ever since Mark had a run-in with the police, his girlfriend’s parents won’t lether date him.

let’s just say – a phrase used when one doesn’t want to provide a lot of detailsand is providing only a general statement about something

* - Were the test questions confusing?

* - Let’s just say that all my studying was a waste of time.

clash 9 – an argument or disagreement due to people having different opinions orbeliefs about something

* How did they ever fall in love and get married, given their clashes 10 on politics,religion, and parenting?

demanding – needing a lot of special attention and care; creating a lot of workfor other people

* Finnian is a very demanding patient, always asking for soup, massages 11, extrablankets, special music, and more.

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. Which type of tournament would involve the greatest number of games?

a) A single-elimination tournament.

b) A double-elimination tournament.

c) A round-robin tournament.

2. Which statement describes the team’s performance?

a) Last year’s performance was better than this year.

b) Last year’s performance was weaker than this year.

c) Last year’s performance was about the same as this year.

______________

WHAT ELSE DOES IT MEAN?

title

The word “title,” in this podcast, means the winning position in a tournament orchampionship: “College recruiters spend a lot of time talking with high schoolplayers who have won their regional title.” A “title” is also a deed, or legalownership of a piece of land and/or a building: “Were you nervous when yousigned the title documents for your first home?” When talking about people, a“title” can refer to the name of one’s job or the prefix 12 that comes before one’s lastname: “The job doesn’t pay very well, but it has a great title: ‘Executive Vice-President of National Sales Management.’” Or, “After your wedding, did you askpeople to use the title ‘Mrs.’ or did you continue to use ‘Ms.’?”

clash

In this podcast, the word “clash” means an argument or disagreement due topeople having different opinions or beliefs about something: “Everyone expectsthe politicians to bring up clashes over job creation 13 during the next debate.” A“clash” can also mean a short battle or fight: “The local police are reporting aseries of clashes with rebels 14 in the mountains.” The phrase “a scheduling clash”

refers to a conflict when two things are supposed to happen at the same time,but cannot: “Jacques set up a meeting for Wednesday, but I couldn’t attendbecause I had a scheduling clash.” Finally, the phrase “color clash” refers to twocolors that look bad next to each other: “The paint colors they chose for theirhome created a terrible color clash.”

CULTURE NOTE

Types of TournamentsIn this episode 15, we discussed two types of tournaments: double-eliminationtournaments and round-robin tournaments. But there are several other commontypes in U.S. sports. These include single-elimination, up and down, andconsolation tournaments.

“Whereas” (while, used for contrast) the double-elimination tournament makes itpossible for a team to still win the tournament even after it has lost one game, a“single-elimination tournament” makes that impossible. In a single-eliminationtournament, as soon as a team loses a game, it cannot win the tournament.

An “up and down tournament” is used when there isn’t very much time, or whenthere aren’t enough “courts” or “fields” (the places where the game is played) forall the teams. This is a common tournament type in elementary and junior highschools. All the teams play “simultaneous” (happening at the same time) gamesfor a specified 16 period of time. When that time ends (even if individual gameshave not ended), the winners move “up” to a lower-numbered court or field andthe losers move “down” to a higher-numbered court or field. When thetournament ends, the winning team is in the lowest-numbered court or field.

A “consolation” tournament allows teams to continue to play even when it is clearthat they cannot win the tournament. As teams lose games in the main bracket,they are moved to a second bracket where they can continue to play againstother teams that have lost games. In this type of tournament, each team gets toplay at least two games.

______________

Comprehension Questions Correct Answers: 1 – c; 2 – a

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT 17

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 741: Playing in aTournament.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 741. I’m your host, Dr.

Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development inbeautiful Los Angeles, California.

Our website is eslpod.com. Go there to download a Learning 18 Guide for thisepisode that will help you improve your English as fast as possible.

This episode is a dialogue between Irene and Kent. It uses vocabulary we wouldtalk about in describing a formal competition or tournament. Let’s get started.

[start of dialogue]

Irene: How is your team doing in the standings?

Kent: They’re seeded sixth and they’re in a bracket with one of the best teams inthe tournament. Our team has already lost to them.

Irene: I thought it was a double-elimination tournament.

Kent: It is. That’s the only reason they’re not out of contention for the title.

Irene: Why did the organizers get rid of the round-robin rounds?

Kent: I think it’s because they wanted to cut down on the number of gamesoverall. I’m not sure.

Irene: Your team is the defending champion. What happened this year? Whyaren’t they ranked higher?

Kent: They didn’t have a very good season. There were a lot of injuries, and asthe coach, I had some run-ins with a couple of the new players. Let’s just say wehad some clashes in personality.

Irene: Isn’t there a game this afternoon?

Kent: Yeah, but I have to feed my team first. They won’t play until they get whatthey want.

Irene: What do they want?

Kent: Ice cream. Who knew six-year-olds could be so demanding?

[end of dialogue]

Our dialogue begins with Irene saying, “How is your team doing in thestandings?” The “standings” (standings – plural) means the list of how good aset of teams are. Standings always relate to the rankings: is your team in firstplace, in second place, in last place, and so forth 6. So in any competition,especially a sports competition where you have different teams playing over along period of time, you will have standings – you will have rankings. Some willbe best, some will be worst. Well, one will be best and one will be worst – youget the idea.

Kent says that his team is seeded sixth and they’re in a bracket with one of thebest teams in the tournament. “To be seeded” comes from the verb “to seed”

(seed), which here means that you put an athlete or a team in a certain positionin a tournament so that the better the team, the more likely they are to advancein the tournament. It can be quite complicated 20, but basically 21 where you areseeded in a tournament determines whom you will be playing. Kent says that histeam is in a bracket with one of the best teams in the tournament. The best wayto understand a bracket is to take an example. Let’s say that you have eightteams, and you want to determine who is the best among the eight teams. Soyou have team A play team B; team C plays team D. The winner of the A-Bgame plays the winner of the C-D game. And then, for the other four teams – Eand F, G and H – E plays F, G plays H, and the winner of those games play eachother. Then finally, the winner of the A-B-C-D “bracket” or side of the tournamentplays the winner of the E-F-G-H side of the tournament. So, a “bracket” is the –you can think of it as the A and B is a bracket, or the A, B, C, and D could beconsidered a larger bracket or section of the tournament. Kent is saying that histeam is in a bracket with one of the best teams in the tournament. So if his teamis A and team B is the best team, well, he’s in a difficult bracket – or his team is.

A “tournament” is just another name for a competition to determine who is thebest person in this game, whatever the competition is about.

Irene says, “I thought it (meaning the tournament) was a double-eliminationtournament.” There are different kinds of tournaments – different kinds ofcompetitions to determine who is the best team or player. One kind is called a“double-elimination.” “Elimination” is when you lose and are out of thetournament. That is, you can no longer go forward. Now my example of the eight teams is what we would call a “single-elimination” tournament. That is, ifyou lose once that’s it, you don’t play anymore. In a double-eliminationtournament it’s more complicated. You actually have to lose two games beforeyou are eliminated 22 from the tournament; that’s double-elimination.

Kent says yes, it is a double-elimination tournament. He says, “That’s the onlyreason they (meaning his team) is not out of contention for the title.” “To be incontention” (contention) means that you can still win; it’s still possible for you tobe the champion – the best player. “To be out of contention” is the opposite; it’sto be eliminated from the tournament or to be in a place where you can no longerwin first place. Kent says that his team is not out of contention for the title. The“title” here just means the winning position, first place, number one. “Title” hassome other meanings in English as well; take a look at our Learning Guide forthose.

So Irene then asks, “Why did the organizers (the people who organized or putthe tournament together) get rid of (or eliminate) the round-robin rounds?”

“Round-robin” (robin) is another kind of tournament; we’ve talked about singleeliminationand double-elimination. A “round-robin” tournament is where all ofthe teams play each other. So A plays B, A plays C, A plays D, A plays E, F, G,and H; all of the teams play each other. It’s a much longer kind of tournament,and usually only works 23 when there are a smaller group of teams and when youhave a lot of time.

Kent says, “I think it’s because they wanted to cut down on the number of gamesoverall.” What Kent is saying is that he believes the organizers eliminated theround-robin rounds – that is, they got rid of them – because they wanted todecrease or cut down on the number of games overall 19. “Overall” here means thetotal number of games. But then he says, “I’m not sure.”

Irene says, “Your team is the defending champion.” The “champion” is thewinner, the number one position, the person who wins the tournament.

“Defending” here means the person or the team that won it last time or last year.

So if the Dodgers 24 win the World Series – my favorite baseball team – next yearthey would be the defending champions because they won it last year.

Unfortunately, they haven’t won it since I think like 1988, so they are not exactlydefending champions! But if they did win last year, then they would be thedefending champions this year, and if they win this year they would be thedefending champions next year, and so forth. Irene asks, “What happened thisyear? Why aren’t they ranked higher?” That is, why isn’t his team ranked or putinto a higher position in the tournament. “Rank” here is related 25 to the idea ofbeing seeded in a tournament.

Kent says, “They didn’t have a very good season.” A “season” is the period oftime when games are played for that particular sport. The football season isfrom, I don’t know, late August to, say, January. The American baseball seasonis from April to October. Those are the months or the time periods when theteams play. Kent said, “There were a lot of injuries (meaning a lot of players gothurt), and as the coach, I had some run-ins with a couple of the new players.” A“run-in” is a disagreement with someone, a fight with someone. “I had a run-inwith my boss the other day.” That means I had a disagreement or an argumentwith my boss. Kent says he had a run-in with a couple of the new players on theteam. He says, “Let’s just say we had some clashes in personality.” Theexpression “let’s just say” is used when we don’t want to give the person a lot ofinformation about the topic; we don’t want to give them a lot of details, so we’retrying to make a general statement – a summary statement about whathappened. Kent says, “Let’s just say we had some clashes in personality.” A“clash” (clash) is an argument or disagreement between two people who havedifferent opinions or beliefs about something. “Clash” has a number of othermeanings; take a look at the Learning Guide for some additional 26 explanations.

And of course, The Clash was a famous punk rock group back in the late 70searly80s when I was a young person, many years ago.

Irene says, “Isn’t there a game this afternoon?” Kent says, “Yeah (yes), but Ihave to feed my team first (he has to give them some food). They won’t playuntil they get what they want.” Irene says, “What do they want?” Kent says, “Icecream. Who knew six-year-olds could be so demanding?” “To be demanding”

means to need a lot of special attention and care, which usually creates a lot ofwork for other people to take care of you. Of course, we find out that the teamthat Kent is coaching is not an adult team; it’s a group of six-year-old children.

Now let’s listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.

[start of dialogue]

Irene: How is your team doing in the standings?

Kent: They’re seeded sixth and they’re in a bracket with one of the best teams inthe tournament. Our team has already lost to them.

Irene: I thought it was a double-elimination tournament.

Kent: It is. That’s the only reason they’re not out of contention for the title.

Irene: Why did the organizers get rid of the round-robin rounds?

Kent: I think it’s because they wanted to cut down on the number of gamesoverall. I’m not sure.

Irene: Your team is the defending champion. What happened this year? Whyaren’t they ranked higher?

Kent: They didn’t have a very good season. There were a lot of injuries, and asthe coach, I had some run-ins with a couple of the new players. Let’s just say wehad some clashes in personality.

Irene: Isn’t there a game this afternoon?

Kent: Yeah, but I have to feed my team first. They won’t play until they get whatthey want.

Irene: What do they want?

Kent: Ice cream. Who knew six-year-olds could be so demanding?

[end of dialogue]

This episode was written by the top-ranked podcast scriptwriter in all ofHollywood, Dr. Lucy Tse.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thank you for listening. Comeback and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.

English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Tse,hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan, copyright 27 2011 by the Center for EducationalDevelopment.