【一起听英语】跑酷

Parkour即跑酷，时下风靡全球的时尚极限运动，以日常生活的环境（多为城市）为运动场所，依靠自身的体能，快速、有效、可靠地驾驭任何已知与未知环境的运动艺术。它也是一种探索人类潜能激发身体与心灵极限的一种哲学。

Dan: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Dan

Walker Smith and in today’s programme Kate and I are going to be talking

about parkour. Do you know what parkour is Kate?

Kate: Hi Dan. Well I don’t really know what parkour is, but I’ve got a feeling it has

something to do with jumping on and off buildings. Am I right?

Dan: That’s pretty much it actually. Parkour is a growing sport that mixes running,

jumping, climbing and gymnastics. You might have seen it on TV; it’s been

around. You see people running up walls, climbing across buildings and

jumping over objects that are in their way.

Kate: Ah right yes, now I know what you’re talking about. I’ve definitely seen

people doing this on the television.

Dan: Exactly, and what’s interesting is that it’s not competitive. Many of the runners

don’t even like the idea of commercial events. They’d rather keep it as a pure

sport that’s just for fun.

Having said that, there are Parkour World Championships. So my question for

you Kate is which city is hosting the Parkour World Championships this year?

Is it:

a) Vienna

b) Vancouver

c) Venice 

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Kate: Well I have no idea, so I’m going to guess b) Vancouver.

Dan: Well we will see if you’re right at the end of the show.

Now we’re going to hear an extract from the British parkour runner Brad

Moss 1. Here he is talking about what he likes about the sport. He says that

because it’s not competitive or professional, you can concentrate on personal

development. So he’s less concerned about being sponsored. Kate what does

he mean there?

Kate: Ah, well to sponsor in this context is to give someone money in exchange for

advertising 2 and publicity 3. So sportsmen and sports teams are often sponsored

by big companies.

Dan: OK, well let’s have a listen to Brad. What other sport did he practise before he

took up parkour?

Extract 1

Parkour gave me a real opportunity to develop personally, as opposed to, you know,

with skateboarding, which I used to do. It was all about doing things for videos and

wanting to get sponsored and things. Whereas parkour had a lot more freedom

thorough that, and it’s about practising what you personally need to improve on.

Dan: OK, so Brad was a skateboarder before becoming a parkour runner.

Skateboards are short boards with four small wheels in each corner, and

people who ride on them are called skateboarders.

Kate: Yes, and I think there are a lot of similarities between parkour and

skateboarding. For example you’ve got to be very aware of your surroundings,

and it’s a way of getting around that’s really quick and very impressive to

watch. 

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Dan: Exactly, I totally agree. Let’s hear from Brad again, as he talks about his

favourite sort of areas to practise parkour. He uses the word dense 4, so what’s

he saying here Kate?

Kate: Well the word dense means made of or containing a lot of things. So if an area

is dense with people, for example, then there are a lot of people in that area.

Dan: OK, let’s listen to the clip, and see if you can spot the ways that Brad gets

around objects.

Extract 3

I enjoy spaces where there’s lots of dense things and where I can move. You know, go

under, over, between; ways of moving that challenge me directly. I do enjoy developing

creative movement, but not the extent of doing stunts 6 and acrobatics 7.

Dan: So using parkour Brad goes under, over and between the objects in his path.

But he says that he doesn’t do many stunts or acrobatics. What do these

words mean Kate?

Kate: Well a stunt 5 is a dangerous action which you might do to entertain someone.

So there are lots of stunts in action films, for example. And acrobatics is

another word for gymnastics. It’s using your body to make skilful 8 movements,

with lots of jumps and twists.

Dan: Parkour that uses a lot of stunts and acrobatics is known as free running.

Let’s listen to a British free runner talking about her first experience of the

sport. There’s a couple of interesting words here Kate, so I was wondering if

you wouldn’t mind explaining them.

Kate: Sure, no problem. 

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Dan: OK, well what does she mean when she describes her first class as insane?

Kate: Ah, OK, well insane usually means mad or crazy. But what she probably

means here is that the first class was very hard and there were lots of ridiculous

moves.

Dan: And she also says there was a positive atmosphere – what does she mean

there Kate?

Kate: Well atmosphere here is the feeling that a place gives you, so that when she

says there was a positive atmosphere, she means there was a good feeling in

the class.

Dan: OK let’s listen to her talking about her first experience of free running. What

effect did the class have on her?

Extract 1

I had an insane first class where in the first 10 minutes we were just looking at each

other going ‘Oh my God, this is impossible, they can’t expect us to do this.’ But it was

fun and it was a really positive atmosphere and I just got hooked.

Dan: She says she was hooked after her first class. Hooked is an informal word

meaning addicted 9. People usually talk about being hooked on about drugs or

on cigarettes, but here she says she was hooked on free running.

Does free running or parkour sound like something you’d like to try Kate?

Kate: Oh I’m afraid not; I’m not very good with heights. I think I’ll just watch from

now on. 

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Dan: Well maybe you’ll get convinced one day. But for the moment, we’re almost

out of time, so let’s go over some of the vocabulary we’ve come across today:

parkour

to sponsor

a skateboard

dense

stunts

acrobatics

insane

atmosphere

hooked

Dan: And I asked you at the beginning of the show Kate which city is hosting this

year’s Parkour World Championships?

Kate: And I took a wild guess at b) Vancouver.

Dan: Actually the answer is Vienna. Although it’s the world championships, a lot of

the parkour community are actually against this sort of competition. They want

to keep parkour pure and non-competitive, and they see the idea that bringing

in a competition is going to make it quite commercial and that people will only

do it for money.

Kate: Yes I can see their point. But then having a competition does mean that more

people get to know about it.

Dan: Exactly, and if you are in Vienna this year, you might want to check it out.

So from all of us here at BBC Learning English, thanks for listening, and

goodbye! 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010

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Kate: Goodbye!