今天的这段对话，在讨论足球，

现代的足球运动是从什么时候开始的？又是如何开始的呢

来听今天的讲解:

A: Welcome to Old Trafford. home of Manchester United.

欢迎来到曼联主场——老特拉福德。

B: Yeah, it's great to be here. I've heard so much about David Beckham. He used to play for Manchester United. didn't he?

嗯。能来这里太好了。我听过很多有关大卫·贝克汉姆的事。他过去是在曼联队踢球吗？

A: That's right, but now he plays for Real Madrid.

是的，然后为皇家马德里队效力。

B: I only know a little about him, bur r know he's very handsome.

我只知道一点点关于他的情况。不过我知道他很帅。

A: He certainly is. He's also married with three children.

他的确很帅。而且他结婚了，还有3个孩子。

B: I know he's married to Posh Spice who used to be with the Spice Girls.

我知道他娶了以前辣妹组舍里的高贵辣妹。

A: That's right and he has three boys called Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz.

是的。他有3个儿子，分别叫做布鲁克林、罗密欧和克鲁兹。

B: Football is England's national sport, isn't it?

足球是英国的全民运动吧？

A: Yeah, we invented it. Rumour has it that Anglo-Saxons used the heads of captured Danes as footballs.

没错，是我们首创的。据谣传，盎格鲁.茸克逊人曾经把被俘的丹麦海盗的脑袋当作足球来踢。

B: But what did they use as footballs when they ran out of heads?

要是他们没脑袋踢,又拿什么来当足球呢？

A: Inflated pig bladders would you believe!

用充气的猪膀胱，不相信吧？

B: So football has always been popular in England, right?

所以足球在英国一直都很受欢迎，对吗？

A: Not quite. It was actually banned in 1477 because it interfered with young men leaming to be archers.

也不全是。实际上足球在1477年时曾放禁止过，因为它妨碍了年轻人练弓箭。

B: Wow. I suppose national defence had to come first then What about the modem game? How did that start?

哦．我想保家卫国足应该放在第一位的。那么现代的足球运动是从什么时候开始的？又是如何开始的呢？

A: IC wasn't until 1863 that football became as we know it now.

直到1863年足球才发展成为我们今大所看到的样子。

B: Why? What happened then?

为什么？那时候发生什么事了吗？

A: The rules of the game were formulated by a group of public school men and that led to the formation of football clubs and leagues.

一群私立学校的人制定了足球的比赛规则，这样就促使了各足球俱乐部和联赛相继成立。

B: The Premiership is supposed to be the best league in the world but England haven’t won the World Cup since 1966. Why is that?

据说英格兰超级联赛是世界上最好的足球联赛。但英国自1966年后就再也没有赢得过世界杯，为什么呢？

A: I think there are two reasons for that. First, there are a lot of foreigners who play in England which means less room for English players and secondly, we've never had a good

我想有两个原因。第一，有很多外国人在英国踢球，只给英国本土球员留下很小的发挥余地。第二，我们一直都没有一个好的组织者。

B: I hope that will change in the future. Who do you think will win the Premiership?

我希望将来情况会有所改善。你认为谁能在本次英超中夺冠呢？

A: It seems to be a two horse race between Manchester United and Chelsea.

曼联和切尔西队好像不相上下。

B: It would be nice if a different team won this year.  By the way, can you tell me what a “hat trick" means?

如果今年有别的队能打赢的语就太好了。对了，你能告诉我“帽子戏法”是什么意思吗？

A: It means a player who scores three goals in a game.

那是指一个球员在同一场比赛中踢进了3个球。