2022年的世界盃在卡達開踢了!運動賽事是外國人茶餘飯後的閒談(small talk)話題中常見的主題,若是想和外國友人或是客戶聊世足的話,學會關於世足賽的常見英文用法絕對不會錯,還可以從中掌握TOEIC測驗關鍵字!
什麼是FIFA?
FIFA就是法語中國際足球聯盟(The Federation Internationale de Football Association)的簡稱,如果不會說法文,也可以用英文International Federation of Association Football來表達,或單純叫做FIFA就好。如果想要和朋友討論今年的FIFA,後方不管有沒有加上英文字World Cup都可以,但最完整的說法就是FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022,也可以直接說FIFA 2022,一般有關注比賽的人都會立刻知道你的意思。
Photo: Reuters 圖片來源:路透
A: Which team are you supporting in the 2022 FIFA World Cup? (2022世界盃,你支持哪一隊?)
B: I always support the host nation in every World Cup. (每次世界盃我總是支持主辦國。)
舉辦host、take place?
舉辦比賽最常聽到兩種動詞用法,那就是host跟take place。若要簡單地區分,就是「人或主辦國」host(主辦)比賽,和「比賽本身」發生(take place)在特定的時間點。
Qatar will be hosting the FIFA 2022 starting from Nov. 20 this year.
(卡達將於今年11月20日起,主辦2022年世足賽。)
The FIFA 2022 is scheduled to take place from Nov. 20 in Qatar.
(2022世足賽預定於11月20日於卡達開打。)
另外,在一般商業的會議中,舉辦也都會使用這兩組字,而且泛用性很廣,請務必學會運用。
The Annual Conference on Innovation is going to take place next week in Taipei.
(年度創新會議將於下週在台北舉辦。)
It’s an honor for my university to host the convention.
(能舉辦大會,是本大學的榮幸。)
談論比賽、勝負
如果你有觀看運動比賽的習慣,相信你也會注意到幾個和比賽相關的英文單字,例如:competition、contest、game、match、tournament。若翻查字典,你會發現這些字其實都被歸類在同義字的範圍,因為這些字的意義大部分是重疊的。雖然這些字都有比賽的意思,但是後面的這三者,卻是在FIFA中最常用到的三個字。game廣義地用於各式各樣的球類運動競賽中,例如:baseball game、basketball game、volleyball game、tennis game等。
A: Did you see the basketball game yesterday? (昨天你有看籃球比賽嗎?)
B: Sure, but I don’t quite remember the exact scores. (當然,但我不太記得確切比分了。)
match在名詞最常見的意思是火柴,但是在動詞上因為有「對應」的含義,所以就變成了「對手」或是「相對競爭」的比賽名詞,例如football match、karate match。也因為match有這樣的含意,所以後來就衍伸成了「對手」的意思。在這個用法中,最常見的說法是tight match,用很「緊」表示差距甚小,而這種勢均力敵的說法會以下列的方式呈現:
Team Alpha lost tight match to Team Delta last Wednesday.
(Alpha隊在上週三的比賽中,以些微之差敗給了Delta隊。)
而與tight match相反的英文字則是blowout(贏、勝利)。※此意僅用於運動賽事中
Team Alpha eliminated Team Beta with blowout win in Game 2.
(在第二場賽事中,Alpha隊狂勝了Beta隊。)
需要特別注意的,blowout可以用來表達贏,也可以表達輸。例如blowout win、blowout victory、blowout loss、blowout defeat。若配上輸的時候,動詞配上suffer:
Team Theta has unfortunately suffered blowout loss in its first match in the season.
(Theta隊很不幸地在球季中的第一場賽事就以鎩羽大敗收場。)
但如果要在商業或政治情境中表達大勝或大敗,通常會用landslide(土石流)victory、landslide defeat的方式來表示。
The company suffers a landslide defeat after announcing its financial forecast for the upcoming quarter. (這家公司公布下一季的財務預測後,遭受了大挫敗。)
種子隊、比分
FIFA一共有三十二隊參賽,那麼是如何選出呢?主辦國有例如優先種子隊的權利,稱之為automatically qualified host team(自動合格主辦國,此次是卡達),另外三十一個隊伍都要先經過資格賽(qualifying competitions)。其中有上一屆的衛冕國(defending champion)法國,以及足壇兩大超級巨星梅西和C羅的阿根廷和葡萄牙。
在職場中,qualify是人事情境中非常重要的詞,當要形容一個人是很適合該職務的應聘者,我們會說他是a qualified candidate(合格的、勝任的候選人)。當這個人的資歷遠超過要求時,就是over-qualified(資歷過高的),相反則為under-qualified(資歷不足)。因此,資歷的名詞也以qualification表達。
The qualification summary on the resume has highly impressed the HR officer before the interview. (這份履歷上的經歷摘要在面試前就讓面試官留下了深深的印象。)
【多益模擬試題】
1. The conference will ______ in the capital city next week.
(A) hosting (B) take place (C) hosted (D) be taken place
2. The job candidate has an impressive list of _____.
(A) quantities (B) qualifications (C) qualifies (D) qualifiers
【解析】
1. 正解為(B) take place。題意為「會議將於下週於首都舉辦。」由於前方有will,所以後方一定要用原型動詞,因此只剩下(B)、(D)可以選擇。(A)與(C)的host都是「由人舉辦」,不是「被人舉辦」,所以(A)是錯誤答案。(C)則只要加上be動詞就可以成為正確答案。(D)的take place若以會議為主詞,要改為主動—be taking place,故唯一能選擇的答案為(B)。
2. 正解為(B) qualifications。題意為「這位求職者有一長串令人印象深刻的資歷清單。」句子前方出現job candidates,要先搜尋與求職有關的用字。(A) quantities為數量、(C) qualify為符合資格的動詞,(D) qualifier則為符合資格者。意思皆不相符。
SOURCE:https://www.englishok.com.tw/toeic/toeic-issue/fifa-2018-russia-learn-sport-english-words
文章由TOEIC Program Taiwan · Chun Shin提供:
www.facebook.com/ToeicProgramTaiwan
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