大学篮球的标志性赛事达到了高潮：最后一轮是在周六，冠军赛定在了周一。这里是我们的完整报道。
The N.C.A.A. tournament, also known as the Big Dance, is among the most cherished rites of American sports. About 350 colleges and universities field a team in the top division, compared with 65 in football. At the end of the regular season, 68 teams move on to a knockout tournament.
被称为“劲舞”(Big Dance)的NCAA(国家大学体育协会)篮球联赛是美国体坛最受重视的比赛之一。约有350所学院及大学组织球队参加一级联盟的比赛，而大学橄榄球赛事只有65所大学参加。常规赛季结束后，会有68支球队继续参加淘汰赛。
The first men’s tournament was held in 1939, and for more than a decade only eight teams were invited. The women’s tourney started in 1982. The moniker “March Madness” became part of pop vernacular in the mid-1980s, stemming from the David-versus-Goliath upsets that always shock players, coaches, fans and bookmakers.
它的第一场男子赛事是在1939年举行的，在十几年的时间里，只有八个球队受到了邀请。女子赛事在1982年开始举办。由于球员、教练、球迷和赌球庄家们常常被比赛中意外的以弱胜强震惊，“疯狂三月”(March Madness)的叫法成为了1980年代中期流行用语的一部分。
The odds of picking a perfect bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillion. Even so, it’s almost a duty of U.S. citizenship to fill out a tournament bracket. (Last year, ESPN.com reported that some 70 million brackets were filled out and a total of $10.4 billion was wagered.)
猜对结果的几率是百万的三次幂乘以9.2分之一。即便如此，填写预估结果简直就像是一项公民义务一样。(去年，ESPN.com报道美国人填写了约7000万份预估结果，赌注高达104亿美元。)
The survivors this year are Michigan, Kansas, Villanova and Loyola-Chicago, a team that entered as a 300-to-1 underdog and wasn’t even supposed to win its first game.
今年的四强队伍是密歇根(Michigan)、堪萨斯(Kansas)、维拉诺瓦(Villanova)和芝加哥洛约拉大学(Loyola-Chicago)。芝加哥洛约拉大学原本不被看好，是一支赔率为300:1的弱队，大家本来以为它第一场球就会输。
March Madness indeed.
确实是个“疯狂三月”。
