Section A Discovering the Main Ideas
Exercise 1: Answer the following questions with the information contained in Text A. 1) Why wasn’t Owens worried in the face of Hitler’s ―master race‖ theory?
2) What made Owens angry with Hitler? What was the consequence of his anger? 3) How did Luz Long help Owens?
4) How was it that Owens and Long formed a real friendship during the Games although they were rivals in the competition?
5) Why did Owens think Long was the perfect example of what Pierre de Coubertin had conceived of as the spirit of the Games?
▇ Answers for reference:
1) He had been well-prepared and had performed very well especially in the running broad jump. In fact, a year before, as a sophomore at Ohio State University, he had set the world’s record of 26 feet 8-1/4 inches. That’s why he was confident and very sure of his success in this event.
2) Hitler had intentionally kept the world in the dark about an excellent athlete by the name of Luz Long, who had a good chance of winning the running broad jump. If Long won, Hitler would prove to the world that Aryans were better than any other races. Hitler’s intention angered Owens. The consequence of his anger was that he made mistakes twice in the three qualifying jumps.
3) Long reassured Owens that he didn’t believe in Hitler’s theory. Then he offered Owens a useful tip to avoid fouling again in the third qualifying jump.
4) Despite the fact that they were fierce competitors, Long helped Owens qualify for the finals, which meant Long himself might miss the gold medal. Then they poured out their hearts, sharing their views on life and sports. When Owens won, Long congratulated him heartily and sincerely. Their friendship was thus forged.
5) Because what Long did for Owens well illustrates the Olympic spirit advocated by Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games. According to him, the important thing in the Games is not winning but taking part. This spirit is also true of life, the essence of which is not conquering but fighting well.
Exercise 2: Text A can be divided into three parts with the paragraph number(s) of each part provided as follows. Write down the main idea of each part.
Part Para(s). Main Idea
Jesse Owens was determined to get gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games, especially in the running broad jump where he
1-5 had already set the world record. Due to his anger with Hitler and One
the tension arising from it, however, he fouled twice in the first two qualifying jumps. He would probably fail to qualify for the finals. With Luz Long’s help, Owens overcame his tension. He qualified
6-18 for the finals and won the gold medal eventually. Major rivals as Two
they were, they formed a true friendship despite the anger of Hitler. Owens cherished his friendship with Long dearly and in the
19 meantime he realized that Long perfectly symbolized the Olympic Three
spirit—not winning but taking part.
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Section B In-Depth Study
At the 1936 Olympic Games, Jesse Owens, a black athlete from America, amazed the world by winning four gold medals, including the one for his achievement in the broad jump. Now Owens tells this story about putting differences aside for the spirit of the Games. His well-cherished friendship with the German broad jumper Luz Long bears out the Olympic spirit, which is, in Pierre de Coubertin’s words, “The important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part. The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”
My Greatest Olympic Prize
Jesse Owens
1 It was the summer of 1936. The Olympic Games were being held in Berlin. Because Adolf Hitler childishly insisted that his performers were members of a ―master race,‖ nationalistic feelings were at an all-time high.
2 I wasn’t too worried about all this. I’d trained, sweated and disciplined myself for six years, with the Games in mind. While I was going over on the boat, all I could think about was taking home one or two of those gold medals. I had my eye especially on the running broad jump. A year before, as a sophomore at Ohio State University, I’d set the world’s record of 26 feet 8-1/4 inches. Everyone kind of expected me to win that Olympic event hands down.
3 I was in for a surprise. When the time came for the broad-jump trials, I was startled to see a tall boy hitting the pit at almost 26 feet on his practice leaps! He turned out to be a German named Luz Long. I was told that Hitler had kept him under wraps, evidently hoping to win the jump with him.
4 I guessed that if Long won, it would add some new support to the Nazis’ Aryan-superiority theory. After all, I am a Negro. A little hot under the collar about Hitler’s ways, I determined to go out there and really show Der Fuhrer and his master race who was superior and who wasn’t. 5 An angry athlete is an athlete who will make mistakes, as any coach will tell you. I was no exception. On the first of my three qualifying jumps, I leaped from several inches beyond the take-off board for a foul. On the second jump, I fouled even worse. ―Did I come 3,000 miles for this?‖ I thought bitterly. ―To foul out of the trials and make a fool of myself?‖
6 Walking a few yards from the pit, I kicked disgustedly at the dirt. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to look into the friendly blue eyes of the tall German broad jumper. He had easily qualified for the finals on his first attempt. He offered me a firm handshake.
7 ―Jesse Owens, I’m Luz Long. I don’t think we’ve met.‖ He spoke English well, though with a German twist to it.
8 ―Glad to meet you,‖ I said. Then, trying to hide my nervousness, I added, ―How are you?‖ 9 ―I’m fine. The question is: How are you?‖ 10 ―What do you mean?‖ I asked.
11 ―Something must be eating you,‖ he said—proud the way foreigners are when they’ve mastered a bit of American slang. ―You should be able to qualify with your eyes closed.‖ 12 ―Believe me, I know it,‖ I told him—and it felt good to say that to someone.
13 For the next few minutes we talked together. I didn’t tell Long what was ―eating‖ me, but he seemed to understand my anger, and he took pains to reassure me. Although he’d been schooled in the Nazi youth movement, he didn’t believe in the Aryan-supremacy business any more than I did. We laughed over the fact that he really looked the part, though. An inch taller than I, he had
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a lean, muscular frame, clear blue eyes, blond hair and a strikingly handsome, chiseled face. Finally, seeing that I had calmed down somewhat, he pointed to the take-off board.
14 ―Look,‖ he said. ―Why don’t you draw a line a few inches in back of the board and aim at making your take-off from there? You’ll be sure not to foul, and you certainly ought to jump far enough to qualify. What does it matter if you’re not first in the trials? Tomorrow is what counts.‖ 15 Suddenly all the tension seemed to ebb out of my body as the truth of what he said hit me. Confidently, I drew a line a full foot in back of the board and proceeded to jump from there. I qualified with almost a foot to spare.
16 That night I walked over to Luz Long’s room in the Olympic village to thank him. I knew that if it hadn’t been for him I probably wouldn’t be jumping in the finals the following day. We sat in his quarters and talked for two hours—about track and field, ourselves, the world situation, a dozen other things.
17 When I finally got up to leave, we both knew that a real friendship had been formed. Luz would go out to the field the next day trying to beat me if he could. But I knew that he wanted me to do my best—even if that meant my winning.
18 As it turned out, Luz broke his own past record. In doing so, he pushed me on to a peak performance. I remember that at the instant I landed from my final jump—the one which set the Olympic record of 26 feet 5-5/16 inches—he was at my side, congratulating me. Despite the fact that Hitler glared at us from the stands not a hundred yards away, Luz shook my hand hard—and it wasn’t a fake ―smile with a broken heart‖ sort of grip, either.
19 You can melt down all the gold medals and cups I have, and they couldn’t be a plating on the 24-carat friendship I felt for Luz Long at that moment. I realized then, too, that Luz was the perfect example of what Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, must have had in mind when he said, ―The important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part. The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.‖
▇ 课文参考译文
我最珍贵的奥运奖牌
杰西·欧文斯
1 那是1936年的夏天。奥林匹克运动会正在柏林举行。阿道夫·希特勒天真地坚持认为自己的运动员来自―优等民族‖，这使得民族主义情绪空前高涨。
2 对这一形势我并不十分忧虑。六年来，我训练、流汗、严于律己，头脑里装的就是奥运会。我乘船渡海，所思所想的就是夺一两枚金牌回家。我尤其期待跳远项目的冠军。一年前，当我还是俄亥俄州立大学二年级学生的时候，就以26英尺8.25英寸的成绩打破了世界纪录。人人都有些许期待：我在这个奥运项目上会轻而易举地夺冠。
3 事情却令我措手不及。跳远预赛的时间到了，我看见一个高个子男孩在跳远练习时以近乎26英尺的成绩跳入沙坑，这让我震惊！原来他是德国人，叫卢兹·朗。我听说，希特勒一直将其雪藏，明显是希望他赢了跳远项目。 4 我暗自思量，卢兹·朗若赢，定会为纳粹的―雅利安人优越‖理论增添新的证据。我毕竟是一个黑人。我对希特勒的做法有点恼火，决定去拼搏，让这个纳粹元首、让他的优等民族实实在在地看看孰优孰劣。
5 带着怒气的运动员会犯错，任何教练都会这样说。我不例外。三轮资格赛的第一轮，我越过跳板几英寸起跳，犯规了。第二次起跳，违规程度更严重。―我越洋三千英里，难
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道就为了这个结局？‖我痛悔地想，―就为了在预赛犯规出局，出尽洋相吗？‖
6 我离开沙坑，走了几码，憎恶地踢地上的土。突然，我感到有一只手放在我的肩头。我扭头，看到一双友善的蓝眼睛，正是那个高个子德国跳远运动员。他在第一轮预赛中已然轻松地获得决赛资格。他紧紧地握住我的手。 7 ―杰西·欧文斯，我是卢兹·朗。我想，我们是初次见面。‖他的英语说得很好，尽管带有德语口音。
8 ―很高兴见到你，‖我说。为了竭力掩饰内心的紧张，我接着说：―你好吗？‖ 9 ―我很好。问题是：你怎么样？‖ 10 ―你想说什么？‖我问。
11 ―一定有什么事儿让你心神不安，‖他说，显现一副外国人掌握了一点儿美国俚语的那种得意神情。―你本来闭着眼睛也能获得决赛资格。‖
12 ―说真的，这一点我也知道，‖ 我对他说道 ——这句话对人说出来，感觉不错。
13 我们一起聊了几分钟。我没有告诉他是什么在―吞噬‖我，然而他好像理解我的愤怒，就千方百计消除我的焦虑。他虽然一直在纳粹的青年运动中接受教育，却和我一样，不相信雅利安人种优越论。当然，他看起来的确很有优势，这一事实让我俩开怀大笑。他高我一英寸，身体精瘦，肌肉发达，明亮清澈的蓝眼睛，金黄的头发，棱角分明、非常英俊的面庞。最后，他看我稍稍安静下来，就用手指着起跳板。
14 ―看，‖他说, ―为什么不在跳板后面数英寸处画一条线,尝试从那里起跳？你肯定不会犯规，而且肯定应该能跳出足以获得决赛资格的成绩。预赛不得第一名，有什么关系呢？明天才是最重要的。‖
15 我领会了他话中的真谛，所有的紧张情绪仿佛突然从我身上退去。我信心百倍，在跳板后足足一英尺处画了一条线，接下来就从那里起跳。我以几乎超出一英尺的成绩获得决赛资格。
16 那天晚上，我走到卢兹·朗在奥运村的房间向他致谢。我知道，若没有他，我不可能参加第二天跳远项目的决赛。在他的住处，我们坐着谈了两个小时 —— 讨论田径、我们自己、世界形势还有许多别的事情。
17 最后，我起身告辞，此时我们都知道真正的友谊已经建立。第二天，卢兹将走上田赛场尽全力打败我。但是，我知道他希望我发挥最佳水平—— 即使这意味着将夺冠的是我。
18 卢兹最终打破了自己的历史记录。他这么做，也激励我攀登成绩的巅峰。我依然记得，在我最后一跳落地时—— 这一跳把奥运纪录推向26英尺5.31英寸 —— 他就在我身边祝贺我。尽管希特勒在距离不到100码的看台上对我们怒目而视，卢兹依然使劲地握住我的手，这一握绝非那种―伤心欲绝却强颜欢笑‖的虚情假意。
19 在那一刻，我对卢兹的纯真情谊如同24克拉的宝石，即使熔化我毕生的金牌金杯，都不足以为这颗宝石镀上一层金光。我接着体会到，现代奥运的奠基人皮埃尔·德·顾拜旦当年头脑里正是孕育着卢兹这样的完美形象才说道：―奥运最重要的不是夺冠而是参与。生命最重要的不是征服而是奋力拼搏。‖
Good Usage （Paras. 1-2） childishly insisted nationalistic feelings at an all-time high
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disciplined myself
with the Games in mind was going over on the boat had my eye especially on set the world’s record of
win that Olympic event hands down
Good Usage （Paras. 3-4） was in for a surprise
hitting the pit at almost 26 feet kept him under wraps add some new support to hot under the collar about
Good Usage （Paras. 5-6） was no exception qualifying jumps foul out of the trials make a fool of myself
look into the friendly blue eyes of easily qualified for the finals on his first attempt
offered me a firm handshake
Good Usage （Paras.7-12） Something must be eating you.
be able to qualify with your eyes closed
Good Usage （Paras.13-14） took pains to reassure me not… any more than laughed over the fact looked the part
a lean, muscular frame
a strikingly handsome, chiseled face What does it matter if …? Tomorrow is what counts.
Good Usage （Paras.15-16） the tension…ebb out of
the truth of what he said hit me
Good Usage （Paras.17-18） broke his own past record
pushed me on to a peak performance a fake smile with a broken heart
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