The Origin of Basketball 籃球的起源

路瑾

Many sports in America were imported from other countries.European immigrants brought tennis， golf， bowling and boxingto America. Baseball and football came from other Old Worldgames. Only basketball has a truly American origin.

美國的許多運(yùn)動項目都是從其他國家引進(jìn)來的。歐洲移民把網(wǎng)球、高爾夫球、保齡球和拳擊帶到了美國。棒球和足球源自東半球的其他運(yùn)動。只有籃球才真正起源于美國。

Today， basketball is one of the most popular games inthe world. It is played by millions of people. But the historyof basketball is less than 140 years. Who invented it？ Whathappened then？

今天，籃球是世界上最受歡迎的運(yùn)動之一。數(shù)百萬的人在打籃球。但是籃球的歷史還不到140 年。是誰發(fā)明了籃球？當(dāng)時發(fā)生了什么？

The person responsible for the popular game was Dr. JamesNaismith （1861-1939）. Dr. Naismith was a Canadian-American?Physical Education teacher at the School forChristian Workers located in Springfield，Massachusetts. The weather was bad in the winterof 1891， and the students of the School had tostay indoors. As they could not take part in theirusual outdoor sports， they were unhappy， and some even got infights from time to time.

詹姆斯·奈史密斯博士（1861—1939）是這個流行運(yùn)動的發(fā)起人。奈史密斯博士是位于馬薩諸塞州斯普林菲爾德的基督教工人學(xué)校的加拿大裔美國體育教師。1891 年冬天，天氣不好，學(xué)校的學(xué)生不得不待在室內(nèi)。由于他們不能參加平日的戶外運(yùn)動，他們很不高興，有些人甚至?xí)r不時地打架。

At this， the head of the school gaveDr. Naismith 14 days to create an indoorgame. The goal of this directive was to provide a creative andhealthy indoor game so that the students might have something toplay.

為此，學(xué)校負(fù)責(zé)人給了奈史密斯博士14 天時間來開發(fā)一項室內(nèi)運(yùn)動。這項指令的目的是提供一種有創(chuàng)意、健康的室內(nèi)運(yùn)動，讓學(xué)生們有東西可玩。

It was not easy to invent such a game because it had to playindoors and the court was not so large. Dr. Naismith thought for afew days and soon he had a good idea.

發(fā)明這樣的運(yùn)動并不容易，因為它必須在室內(nèi)進(jìn)行，而且球場又不是很大。奈史密斯博士想了幾天，很快就有了一個好主意。

It was a fast， exciting game with much moving and passingthe ball， which was played between two teams. In order to makea score， the player had to throw the ball into the basket ten feetabove the floor on the wall. At each end of the court， there wassuch a basket. At first， Dr. Naismith planned to have the ballthrown into a box. Having trouble finding boxes of the samesize， Dr. Naismith changed his plan. He usedthe basket instead of the boxes. He cut outthe bottom of the basket， allowing the ball tofall through. Originally， the game was spelled“basket ball”， not “basketball”.

這是一場在兩支球隊之間進(jìn)行且需要頻繁移動和傳球的快速而激動人心的比賽。為了得分，球員必須把球扔到離地面十英尺（ 約3 米）高的墻上的籃筐里。球場的兩端都有這樣一個籃筐。起初，奈史密斯博士計劃把球扔到一個盒子里。由于找不到同樣大的盒子，奈史密斯博士改變了他的計劃。他用籃子代替盒子。他裁掉了籃子的底部，讓球從里面掉下來。最初，這項運(yùn)動的拼寫是“basketball”，而不是“basketball”。

It is believed that Naismith drew up therules of his new game of basketball in aboutan hour. Most of these rules still apply today.The game of basketball became an instantsuccess. The students found the game easy toplay and the rules easy to understand. Soon，basketball became popular very quickly and its popularity spreadwidely.

據(jù)說，奈史密斯大約在一個小時內(nèi)就制定了他的新運(yùn)動——籃球比賽規(guī)則。這些規(guī)則中的大部分至今仍然在用?；@球比賽一炮而紅。學(xué)生們發(fā)現(xiàn)這項運(yùn)動很容易玩，規(guī)則也很容易理解。很快，籃球運(yùn)動流行起來了，而且流行范圍很廣。

At the beginning， there were 9 players on each side， becauseDr. Naismith had only 18 players then. So the first rule of playingbasketball is that on each side there shall be 9 players. However，the 5-player rule was adopted by the U.S. soldiers who playedthe game in Europe during World War I. Soon， it became aworldwide sport.

起初，雙方各有9 名球員，因為奈史密斯博士當(dāng)時只有18 名球員。因此，打籃球的第一條規(guī)則就是各方都要有9 名球員。然而，第一次世界大戰(zhàn)期間，在歐洲玩這項運(yùn)動的美國士兵采用了五人制。很快，這項運(yùn)動就成了一項世界性的運(yùn)動。

Notes：

import v. 引進(jìn)

immigrant n. 移民

golf n. 高爾夫

bowling n. 保齡球

boxing n. 拳擊

baseball n. 棒球

Old World 東半球

truly adv. 真正地

origin n. 源頭；起源

invent v. 發(fā)明

responsible for 負(fù)責(zé)……

locate v. 地處；位于

indoors adv. 在室內(nèi)

outdoor adj. 室外的

from time to time 不時地

create v. 創(chuàng)造；開發(fā)

goal n. 目的

directive n. 指令

provide v. 提供

creative adj. 有創(chuàng)意的

court n. 球場；場地

instead of 取代

originally adv. 最早地

draw up 起草；制定

rule n. 規(guī)則

adopt v. 吸收

World War I 第一次世界大戰(zhàn)

worldwide adj. 全球性的