三月為何“瘋狂”？

College basketball’s signature tournament has reached its peak: The Final Four is on Saturday, setting up the championship game on Monday. Here’s our full coverage.

大學(xué)籃球的標(biāo)志性賽事達到了高潮：最后一輪是在周六，冠軍賽定在了周一。這里是我們的完整報道。

The N.C.A.A. tournament, also known as the Big Dance, is among the most cherished rites of American sports. About 350 colleges and universities field a team in the top division, compared with 65 in football. At the end of the regular season, 68 teams move on to a knockout tournament.

被稱為“勁舞”(Big Dance)的NCAA(國家大學(xué)體育協(xié)會)籃球聯(lián)賽是美國體壇最受重視的比賽之一。約有350所學(xué)院及大學(xué)組織球隊參加一級聯(lián)盟的比賽，而大學(xué)橄欖球賽事只有65所大學(xué)參加。常規(guī)賽季結(jié)束后，會有68支球隊繼續(xù)參加淘汰賽。

The first men’s tournament was held in 1939, and for more than a decade only eight teams were invited. The women’s tourney started in 1982. The moniker “March Madness” became part of pop vernacular in the mid-1980s, stemming from the David-versus-Goliath upsets that always shock players, coaches, fans and bookmakers.

它的第一場男子賽事是在1939年舉行的，在十幾年的時間里，只有八個球隊受到了邀請。女子賽事在1982年開始舉辦。由于球員、教練、球迷和賭球莊家們常常被比賽中意外的以弱勝強震驚，“瘋狂三月”(March Madness)的叫法成為了1980年代中期流行用語的一部分。

The odds of picking a perfect bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillion. Even so, it’s almost a duty of U.S. citizenship to fill out a tournament bracket. (Last year, ESPN.com reported that some 70 million brackets were filled out and a total of $10.4 billion was wagered.)

猜對結(jié)果的幾率是百萬的三次冪乘以9.2分之一。即便如此，填寫預(yù)估結(jié)果簡直就像是一項公民義務(wù)一樣。(去年，ESPN.com報道美國人填寫了約7000萬份預(yù)估結(jié)果，賭注高達104億美元。)

The survivors this year are Michigan, Kansas, Villanova and Loyola-Chicago, a team that entered as a 300-to-1 underdog and wasn’t even supposed to win its first game.

今年的四強隊伍是密歇根(Michigan)、堪薩斯(Kansas)、維拉諾瓦(Villanova)和芝加哥洛約拉大學(xué)(Loyola-Chicago)。芝加哥洛約拉大學(xué)原本不被看好，是一支賠率為300:1的弱隊，大家本來以為它第一場球就會輸。

March Madness indeed.

確實是個“瘋狂三月”。