新东方优美背诵短文50篇 Unit21:The Origin of Sports
时间：2018-12-08 作者：英语课 分类：新概念优美背诵短文50篇
21 The Origin of Sports
When did sport begin? If sport is, in essence, play, the claim might be made that sport is much older than humankind, for , as we all have observed, the beasts play. Dogs and cats wrestle 1 and play ball games. Fishes and birds dance. The apes have simple, pleasurable games. Frolicking infants, school children playing tag, and adult arm wrestlers are demonstrating strong, transgenerational and transspecies bonds with the universe of animals – past, present, and future. Young animals, particularly, tumble, chase, run wrestle, mock, imitate, and laugh (or so it seems) to the point of delighted exhaustion 2. Their play, and ours, appears to serve no other purpose than to give pleasure to the players, and apparently 3, to remove us temporarily from the anguish 4 of life in earnest.
Some philosophers have claimed that our playfulness is the most noble part of our basic nature. In their generous conceptions, play harmlessly and experimentally permits us to put our creative forces, fantasy, and imagination into action. Play is release from the tedious battles against scarcity 5 and decline which are the incessant 6, and inevitable 7, tragedies of life. This is a grand conception that excites and provokes. The holders 8 of this view claim that the origins of our highest accomplishments 9 ---- liturgy 10, literature, and law ---- can be traced to a play impulse which, paradoxically, we see most purely 11 enjoyed by young beasts and children. Our sports, in this rather happy, nonfatalistic view of human nature, are more splendid creations of the nondatable, transspecies play impulse.
21体育的起源
体育运动开始于何时?如果体育运动的本质就是游戏的话，我们就可以宣称体育运动比
人类古老，因为正如我们所观察到的，野兽也进行嬉戏。狗和猫会扭抱玩球，鱼和鸟翩翩起舞，猿类会进行一些简单的、愉快的游戏。
雀跃的幼儿，捉迷藏的学童和成年摔跤者展示出人与动物界的有力的跨越世代与物种的永恒的联系--特别是幼兽，它们翻筋斗、追逐、
奔跑、扭打、模仿、嬉笑(或者看起来是)，直到愉快地精疲力尽。他们的玩耍，同我们的
一样，似乎并没有别的目的而只是给游戏者以愉悦，暂时把我们从严肃生活的痛苦中拉出来。一些哲学家称我们的嬉戏是我们本质中最崇高的部分。
依他们这些随意性很大的见解，游戏无害而且实验性地允许我们的创造力、幻想和想象发挥作用。游戏让人们从永不间断亦
不可避免的生活悲剧-与乏匮和衰退进行的枯燥抗争中得到一种解脱。这是一个令人兴奋、给人启发的伟大见解。
这种见解的持有者宣称，我们的最高成就如宗教典礼、文学、法律的起源可以追溯到游戏的冲动。但令人不解的是我们看到只有幼兽和小孩子才最纯粹地享
受着这种冲动。从这种比较豁达和非宿命的人性观来看，我们的运动是超时代、跨物种的辉煌的创造。
- He taught his little brother how to wrestle.他教他小弟弟如何摔跤。
- We have to wrestle with difficulties.我们必须同困难作斗争。
- She slept the sleep of exhaustion.她因疲劳而酣睡。
- His exhaustion was obvious when he fell asleep standing.他站着睡着了，显然是太累了。
- An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
- He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。
- She cried out for anguish at parting.分手时，她由于痛苦而失声大哭。
- The unspeakable anguish wrung his heart.难言的痛苦折磨着他的心。
- The scarcity of skilled workers is worrying the government.熟练工人的缺乏困扰着政府。
- The scarcity of fruit was caused by the drought.水果供不应求是由于干旱造成的。
- We have had incessant snowfall since yesterday afternoon.从昨天下午开始就持续不断地下雪。
- She is tired of his incessant demands for affection.她厌倦了他对感情的不断索取。
- Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
- The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。
- Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
- It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。
- It was one of the President's greatest accomplishments. 那是总统最伟大的成就之一。
- Among her accomplishments were sewing,cooking,playing the piano and dancing. 她的才能包括缝纫、烹调、弹钢琴和跳舞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》