每日背誦第四期35
Pocket billiards such as modern-day pool and snooker were around, but they were considered to be the ill-bred cousins of carom billiards, which used a pocketless table. The name pool was born during the 1840s when billiards was closely identified with gambling parlors, or "pool parlors" in the lexicon of the day. The name stuck, and with more than 40 million people playing in America alone last year, so has the game.
“球袋臺(tái)球”(pocket billiards)如花式、英式臺(tái)球在當(dāng)時(shí)比比皆是，但卻被視為是“教養(yǎng)不良的兄弟臺(tái)球”（carom billiards),它們的球臺(tái)沒有球袋。“彈子”(pool)這個(gè)名詞 出現(xiàn)在19世紀(jì)40年代，當(dāng)時(shí)臺(tái)球室和賭場(chǎng)是緊密聯(lián)系在一起的，以當(dāng)時(shí)的辭匯稱之即為“彈子房”。這個(gè)名稱就保留下來，去年，光是美國(guó)就有超過四千萬人玩臺(tái)球，這項(xiàng)運(yùn)動(dòng)也常盛不衰。
(短文節(jié)選,本篇始于：臺(tái)球的沿革)
