The World Cup

What are you doing?

你在做什么？

What am I doing? What am I doing? Don’t you know what day it is?

我在做什么？我在做什么？你不知道今天是什么日子吗？

Ummm. no.

嗯，不知道。

It’s only the day when the world’s biggest sporting event is kicking off.

今天是全球最大体育赛事开幕的日子。

What?

什么？

The World Cup! The first match is today! It’s Mexico vs. South Africa! It’s going to be a really good match! Both teams have a very strong offense and have skilled players. I think that South Africa will probably dominate the first half since they are the host country, and all.

世界杯！第一场比赛就在今天！墨西哥对南非！这场比赛肯定会很精彩！两队进攻都很强，球员技术也都很出色。我觉得南非作为东道主，上半场可能会占优势。

I have no idea what you’re talking about. The only sporting event we watch at home is the Super Bowl.

我不知道你在说什么。我们家看的唯一体育赛事是超级碗。

This is bigger than the Super Bowl, man! Teams from 32 countries compete against each other every four years and fight to win that trophy. They first start in a group stage with bigger groups, each group having 4 teams. The top 2 teams pass on to an elimination stage before going on to the quarterfinals and semifinals.

老兄，这可比超级碗大多了！来自32个国家的球队每四年一次相互竞争，争夺那个奖杯。他们先从小组赛开始，分成几个大组，每组四支球队。前两名晋级淘汰赛，然后再到四分之一决赛和半决赛。

Sounds interesting, but soccer doesn’t really appeal to me.

听起来挺有意思的，但足球对我来说没什么吸引力。

Are you kidding? Over seven hundred million people watched the final match of the World Cup! It’s a very exciting and nerve wracking sport! Each nation is cheering on their team, hoping they will become the next champion. So far Brazil is the team with the most titles under their belt; they’re really good!

你在开玩笑吗？超过七亿人观看了世界杯决赛！这是一项非常激动人心又令人紧张的运动！每个国家都在为自己的球队加油，希望他们能成为下一个冠军。迄今为止，巴西是夺冠次数最多的球队，他们真的很厉害！

All I know about soccer is that you can’t use your hands and that players are always falling down, trying to get a free kick or penalty kick. It seems like a sissy sport to me!

我对足球的了解就是不能用手，而且球员们老是摔倒，想骗个任意球或点球。在我看来这简直是个娘娘腔的运动！

Whatever dude, I’m going to go watch the opening match.

随便你怎么说，哥们，我要去看开幕式比赛了。