金融時報:足球王國何遭世紀慘??？

足球王國何遭世紀慘敗？

世界杯首場半決賽，東道主巴西以1比7慘敗德國，令不少球迷大跌眼鏡。這究竟是內馬爾、席爾瓦兩員大將缺席所致？還是桑巴足球傳統(tǒng)戰(zhàn)術打法的失??？

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

shell-shocked 非常震驚的，極度驚恐的

scoreline ['sk?:lain] （體育比賽結果的）分數欄

feint [fe?nt] 假動作

dribble ['dr?b(?)l] 運球，帶球

spectre ['spekt?] 纏繞心頭的恐懼，兇兆

distraught [d?'str??t] 心神錯亂的，憂心如焚的

incumbent [?n'k?mb(?)nt] 義不容辭的

Brazil shell-shocked by team's World Cup horror show (550 words)

Simon Kuper and Thalita Carrico in São Paulo, and Joe Leahy in Belo Horizonte

It's hard to think of a bigger humiliation in sporting history than Brazil 1 Germany 7. Football teams have lost 7-1 before, but never the self-proclaimed “country of football”, winner of five World Cups, host and bookmakers' favourite for this tournament, playing in a semifinal.

Nate Silver, the US statistician, said that based on the teams' pre-match rankings this was the most unexpected scoreline in the World Cup's history.

Symbolically, it was a fitting end to Brazil's long years of economic boom. But in sporting terms, it was something more specific: the end of Brazil's footballing tradition. The phrase jogo bonito, or “beautiful game”, can now be ditched along with clichés about “samba football”. Brazilians stopped offering feints, dribbles and beautiful goals long ago. They must now surely realise their country needs to adopt a new, faster-passing, more European, more German style.

The crowd in Belo Horizonte and millions across Brazil – this may prove the largest TV audience in Brazilian history – watched in disbelief. Some fans left the stadium at half-time, disgusted by a performance that will mark Brazil's footballing psyche forever.

Brazilian TV showed fans weeping and even collapsing as Germany scored five unanswered goals in 30 first-half minutes. Miroslav Klose's 16th goal in World Cups for Germany – a record for the tournament – passed almost unnoticed. Brazilian players humiliated themselves further in the second half by diving ostentatiously in the hope of penalties.

Paulo Marujo, a fan watching from São Paulo, said: “I never imagined Brazil would not make it to the final. Now I don't know what I'm going to do.”

But many Paulistas watching in city-centre bars were laughing, as were pharmacy workers crowded around a television set in their shop on the central Avenida Paulista. A lot of Brazilians had doubted their team all along. The Seleção reached the semifinal after kicking Colombia's playmaker James Rodriguez throughout the quarter-final. In the same violent match Brazil lost their captain, Thiago Silva, to suspension, and their talisman, Neymar, to a broken back.

Neymar was the spectre at the German feast. He is Brazil's last undisputed purveyor of jogo bonito – but one man is a thin foundation for a tradition. Most of Brazil's players in recent World Cups have played an ugly, slow, defensive game in the service of one or two geniuses, such as Romario, Ronaldo or Neymar.

In 2004, after German football hit a low, coaches Jürgen Klinsmann and Joachim Löw led a reinvention of national tradition. The result was the “beautiful game” of cerebral fast-passing football that Germany played on Tuesday, applauded at the end by the Brazilian crowd.

Brazilian football needs to start again too, ideally led by German coaches.

Afterwards Brazil's players wept on the field. President Dilma Rousseff must feel distraught too, ahead of elections in October. However, there is historically no correlation between Brazil's performance in World Cups and the incumbent's performance in elections later that year. Fans have held Ms Rousseff responsible for the waste, overspending but generally smooth organisation of this tournament. Responsibility for the 7-1 lies firstly with Brazil's hapless players and their unimaginative coach Felipe Scolari, but more broadly with the country's outdated football tradition.

請根據你所讀到的文章內容，完成以下自測題目：

1.According to the authors, what is the main reason for Brazil's failure?

A.President Rousseff's overspending on the tournament.

B.Brazil's palyers did not get luck.

C.Brazil's outmoded football tradition.

D.The coach Felipe Scolari did not do well in the game.

答案(1)

2.What do we know about Brazil's performance in the World Cup?

A.Brazilians had no doubt about their team all the time.

B.Brazil's performance in World Cups has nothing to do with the elections later.

C.Brazil's player now keeps the record for the tournament.

D.Brazil lost their captain because of his broken back.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following teams reinvented the football tradition in the country after hitting a low in 2004?

A.Colombia.

B.Brazil.

C.Germany.

D.Holland.

答案(3)

4.Brazil used to offer the following except?

A.Feints.

B.Dribbles.

C.Fast passing.

D.Beatiful goals.

答案(4)

* * *

(1)答案：C.Brazil's outmoded football tradition.

解釋：作者在文末指出“but more broadly with the country's outdated football tradition”，“more”一詞表明這是主要原因，其余均為次要原因。

(2)答案：B.Brazil's performance in World Cups has nothing to do with the elections later.

解釋：從歷史上來看，巴西選舉與世界杯上表現無聯(lián)系。A選項，部分巴西人對國家隊持懷疑態(tài)度。C選項，德國隊克洛澤目前是世界杯進球最多的球員。D選項，背部受傷的不是巴西隊隊長而是隊員內馬爾。

(3)答案：C.Germany.

解釋：原文：In 2004, after German football hit a low, coaches Jürgen Klinsmann and Joachim Löw led a reinvention of national tradition. 德國隊教練克林斯曼與勒夫在2004年率領低谷中的德國隊改變傳統(tǒng)。

(4)答案：C.Fast passing.

解釋：Fast passing是現在德國隊善用的。