那些年,英国人发明的运动

1、那些年 ,英国人发明的运动Like everyone, everywhere, the British are dreaming of winning piles of Olympic medals. But if other athletes from other nations happen to run off with the lion ' s share最大的一 份 of the golds again, the Brits will know how to console 安慰 themselves.They' ll head for the pub, order

2、a beer, and ruminate反复 思考 on the fact that half of these sports wouldn ' t even exist if it wasn' t for them. There ' s a curious conviction深信among the British, that the best games on this planet were invented by them. Well, maybe not by them directly; by their sporty ancestors祖先 , looki

3、ng for something wholesome 有益身心的 to do when they needed a break from drinking and running the British Empire.The list of sports the Brits say they created is surprisingly long. It includes tennis, field hockey, soccer, badminton, golf, squash壁球 and modern boxing.Everyone knows the Chinese are the ma

4、sters of ping pong. They' ve won far more Olympic gold medals than anyone else.Yet, if you suggest they invented that sport, the British will swiftly 很快地 put you straight. They ' ll point out it began as an after-dinner game, played on the dinner table by cigar-puffing 喷出 Victorian gentlemen

5、, using a champagne 香 槟 cork 软木塞 as the ball, and books as the net and paddles球拍.They called it wiff waff.Some Brits even suggested this nation invented baseball, after a 260-year-old diary surfaced in England, containing a description of a kid, playing something that sounded a little like that grea

6、t game.There's more. The British also firmly believe Britain is the birthplace of the modern Olympics. In the heart of rural England in a county called Shropshire lies the little market town of Much Wenlock. Its inns旅馆and crooked弯曲的 houses go back to medieval中世纪的times.In the mid-19th century, th

7、e local doctor was a man called William Penny Brookes. Brookes was a passionate 充满热情的 believer that sport's good for mind, body and soul, and that everyone should be allowed a crack尝试at it, from farm hands to the local gentry 乡绅 . So he organized the Much Wenlock Olympics.The games began with a

8、procession行列，队伍 through town, led by a band the model, perhaps, for today' s opening ceremony仪式.There were wheelbarrow独轮手推车races, singing, and quoits掷铁环游戏 another Old English invention that involved throwing a piece of rope or a horseshoe. Townsfolk ran around a track, and tossed 投，掷 a big rock.

9、 Much Wenlock still holds its Olympics annually 一年一次 , though with different sports.Brookes was as interested in ancient Greece as he was in sports. He began to bombard炮轰the Greek government with letters, urging力劝it to revive（使）复兴the Olympic Games in Athens. Eventually, Brookes recruited 征募 the supp

10、ort of a sports-mad French baron 注 who took up his cause 事业 with g u sto 由衷的高兴 and won the Greeks around.In 1896, the first modern Summer Olympics were held in Athens, four months after Brookes died. The rest is history.As this year' s games approach接近,the British are already reveling 陶醉 in all

11、their sporting inventions. In a new book, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, boasts 自夸 that these reveal显示the essential本质的difference between Britain and the rest of the world. The people of other nations, like the French, looked at a dining table and merely saw the opportunity to have dinner, says

12、Johnson. The ingenious 有独创 性的 British looked at the same table and played wiff waff.I know, I know big deal. But don 't we all need something to hang onto紧紧抓住when we ' re weeping into our beer?就像任何地方的所有人一样，英国人也梦想着赢得成堆 的奥运奖牌。但如果其他国家的运动员碰巧再次卷走大部分 金牌，英国人也深谙自我安慰之道。他们会走进酒吧，叫一杯啤酒，反复回味这件事情一一 如果不是因为

13、他们，半数运动项目压根不会存在。英国人有 一种莫名其妙的想法，认为地球上大多数最好看的比赛都是 他们发明的。好吧，或许不是由他们直接发明，而是由他们 热爱运动的祖先发明的在举杯畅饮和治理大英帝国之 余，祖先们需要休息片刻， 便寻找一些有益身心的事情来做。英国人自称由他们发明的运动能列出长得出人意料的 清单，单子上包括网球、曲棍球、足球、羽毛球、高尔夫球、 壁球和现代拳击等。众所周知，中国人擅长打乒乓球。他们在奥运会乒乓球 项目赢得的金牌数量远远超过其他国家。然而，假如你认为 中国人发明了这项运动， 英国人会马上纠正你。 他们会指出， 乒乓球始于一项饭后游戏，维多利亚时期的绅士们抽着雪 茄，用香

14、槟酒的软木塞当作球，用书当作球网和球拍，在餐 桌上玩这种游戏。 他们把这种游戏叫做 “乒乓球( w iff waff )一些英国人甚至认为英国发明了棒球：人们在英格兰发现了一本有 260 年历史的日记，其中有一段描述，写到一个 小孩在玩游戏，听起来与这项伟大的运动有点相似。他们的发明还不止这两种呢。他们还深信英国是现代奥运会的发祥地。在英格兰乡村的中心一个叫什罗普郡的地方，有一个叫马奇温洛克的小集镇。那里的小旅馆及歪歪 斜斜的房子可以追溯到中世纪。在 19 世纪中期，当地有一位威廉 ?彭尼 ?布鲁克斯医生。布鲁克斯是一名运动狂，他相信运动有益于心灵、身体和灵 魂，下至农夫，上至地方乡绅，每个人都应该参与其中。因 此，他举办了马奇温洛克奥运会。运动会由队伍穿越小镇开始，领头的是一组乐队 这或许就是今天奥运会开幕式的雏形。运动会上有独轮手推车 赛跑、唱歌和套环项目（又一项古英国发明，需要抛出一段 绳子或一块马蹄铁） 。小镇的居民会沿着跑道奔跑，抛起一 块大石。现在的马奇温洛克每年依然会举办自己的奥运会， 不过运动项目已经不一样了。就像他的运动热情一样，布鲁克斯对古希腊同样很有兴 趣。他开始写信炮轰希腊政府，力劝其在雅典重新举办奥运 会。最后，布鲁克斯得到了一位热衷于运动的法国男爵的支 持。这位