英格蘭“二次退歐”

英格蘭“二次退歐”

中國的“段子手”寫到：“原來人們口中一直說的英國脫歐是指退出歐洲杯啊……”——2016年歐洲杯足球賽爭奪進(jìn)入8強(qiáng)的最后一場比賽中，英格蘭隊以1比2被冰島隊淘汰，大爆冷門。

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

metaphor 隱喻；比喻說法['met?f?; -f??]

banana republic 香蕉共和國（指中、南美洲發(fā)展中國家）

penalty 點球；罰金；處罰['pen(?)lt?]

equalizer 扳平一球['i:kw?laiz?]

throw-in 界外球

unimaginative 缺乏想象力的；無趣的[?n?'m?d??n?t?v]

tabloid 小報；藥片['t?bl??d]

caricature 漫畫；諷刺畫'k?r?k?tj??; 'k?r?k?t???]

free-kick 任意球

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England suffer second exit from Europe （688 words）

By Simon Kuper

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For decades the England football team has provided some of the best metaphors for national decline, but never has their timing been better than Monday night in Nice. While financial markets continued selling off British assets, and Westminster came to resemble a banana republic from a comic opera, England made their second exit from Europe in four days against a country with just 330,000 inhabitants. Nobody on social media could think up a joke that was as funny as the reality.

England began well. Wayne Rooney netted a penalty only four minutes into the game, after Raheem Sterling collided with Iceland’s keeper Hannes Halldorsson. However, the nation’s new tendency to shoot itself in the foot was rolled out just two minutes later. Iceland’s equaliser was foretold, because they had scored an almost identical goal in their last match against Austria: captain Aron Gunnarsson takes a long throw-in, Kari Arnason heads it on and someone else shoots home. Yet England fell for it, and this time Ragnar Sigurdsson netted. Twelve minutes later Iceland went ahead when Kolbeinn Sigthorsson slipped easily between an immobile Gary Cahill and Chris Smalling, and put in a soft shot. Keeper Joe Hart, who has had a disastrous tournament, got his left hand to it but the ball trickled on into the net.

For the rest of the match, England hardly managed to put Iceland under pressure. The passing was not merely unimaginative — that we had come to expect — but lacking in the most elementary competence. By contrast, the Icelanders do the basics right. They play their familiar 4-4-2, keep just the right distances between players, run and tackle hard, make few mistakes and are now unbeaten in four games here. The hot Nice stadium echoed to the “Hu!” of their assembled fans.

Still, to be eliminated by this tiny country with no star players was England’s most embarrassing result since losing to the US in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, at the World Cup 1950. From the moment Iceland’s second goal went in, you could see the haunted looks in English players’ eyes. They began to panic and rush their passing, probably already imagining the next morning’s tabloid headlines.

Each England player became a caricature of himself. Sterling allied pace with a total lack of vision, always managing to receive the ball looking the wrong way. Rooney, playing his 115th international and one of his worst, has lost all acceleration and passed with unusual inaccuracy. When Jack Wilshere joined him in midfield, they looked like a pair of middle-aged men. Any shot at Hart is currently dangerous, and his laborious efforts to put the ball into play take the surprise out of England’s build-ups.

Cahill has the guardsman’s build of an English centre-back of the 1980s, and the touch to match. Harry Kane is a promising player who by the end of this tournament couldn’t even put a free-kick into the penalty area. Dele Alli, who dallies on the ball, might have been better off in the under-21s. But it would be cruel to continue. If there was a bright spot, it was forward Marcus Rashford who came in for Rooney in the last few minutes. Only 18, he should be part of England’s humiliations for many years to come.

England played as if the wings were forbidden territory. Their one hope was that the referee, Damir Skomina, would fall for their strikers’ utterly unconvincing dives and give a penalty. The end that almost every England fan had expected — on penalties to France in the quarter-final — was not to be.

They exited to the sound of a whole continent laughing. England’s coach Roy Hodgson resigned immediately, going the way of David Cameron. In the new national climate, his successor will presumably be another Englishman. Even the tabloids, for all their creative ability, will struggle to build up many expectations around him.

Meanwhile Iceland are just three matches from winning the Euro, though they will now face serious football nations. In the quarter-final against France on Sunday they will be supported by possibly the largest proportion of a country’s population ever to attend a football match abroad.

請根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測題目：

1. When did Wayne Rooney net a penalty into the game?

A. after 45 minutes

B. in overtime

C. not mentioned

D. the first 4 minutes

2. Which one is not mentioned as Icelandic players’ performance for the rest of the match?

A. kept the right distances between players

B. run and tackle hard

C. shouted the “Hu!”

D. made few mistakes

3. Who won England in Brazil at the World Cup 1950?

A. US

B. Iceland

C. China

D. Brazil

4. Who resigned immediately after the 1/8 matches?

A. Prime Minister

B. England’s coach

C. Icelandic coach

D. the FIFA President

[1] 答案 D. the first 4 minutes

解釋：魯尼第4分鐘率先罰入點球，開始的情形對英格蘭還是有利的。

[2] 答案 C. shouted the “Hu!”

解釋：場館的歡呼聲來自于粉絲。

[3] 答案 A. US

解釋：1950年6月29日世界杯小組賽美國1比0英格蘭. 很多人認(rèn)為，這場比賽是世界杯史上的頭號冷門。

[4] 答案 B. England’s coach

解釋：宣布結(jié)果后英格蘭隊主帥霍奇森(Roy Hodgson)幾分鐘后辭職。