发布时间:2024-04-04 22:39
变更时间:星期四 4日 四月 2024 22:39:32

Why everyone loves the underdog

Whether it's Cinderella, David and Goliath or the Rocky movies, we all love an underdog story. The underdog in a situation is the person who seems least likely to win, nevertheless, with some luck and plenty of hard work, the underdog sometimes ends up the winner. Sport is full of underdog stories - minor teams and sportspeople who play with courage and end up beating the superstars and multi-million-pound clubs.

		   
无论是《灰姑娘》，《大卫与歌利亚》还是《洛基》电影，我们都喜欢一个黑马逆袭的故事。 在某种情况下，弱势群体是似乎最不可能获胜的人，然而，凭借一些运气和大量的辛勤工作，弱势群体有时会成为赢家。 体育充满了黑马的故事 - 那些勇敢地参与比赛并最终击败了超级巨星和千万英镑俱乐部的小团队和运动员。
		
	

But if you were given a choice between your team being the favorite to win or being the underdog, it's pretty obvious you'd want to be the favorite, right?

Well yes, being the favorite gives the team confidence, but maybe the fact that no-one expects the underdog to win is actually an advantage which could help them to a surprise victory. In this program, we'll be hearing about an underdog football club doing just that, and as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary, too.

		   
但是，如果让你选择你的球队成为赢家的热门还是成为弱势群体，很明显你会选择成为热门，对吧？
嗯，是的，成为热门会给球队带来信心，但也许没人预料到弱势群体会赢得比赛实际上是一种优势，这可能会帮助他们取得意外的胜利。在这个节目中，我们将听到一支弱势群体的足球俱乐部正在做到这一点，像往常一样，我们也会学习一些有用的新词汇。

Great. But first, I have a question for you, Georgie. One of the biggest underdog stories in sports history happened in the 2015-16 English football season when a little-known club beat top clubs like Manchester City and Liverpool, overcoming odds of 5000-1 to win the Premier League, but which club was it?
a) Charlton Athletic b) Leicester City or c) Crystal Palace?

I'll guess it was Crystal Palace.

OK, Georgie, I'll reveal the correct answer at the end of the program.

		   
太好了。但首先，我有一个问题要问你，乔治。体育史上最大的弱势群体故事之一发生在2015-16英格兰足球赛季，当时一支鲜为人知的俱乐部击败了曼彻斯特城和利物浦等顶级俱乐部，以5000-1的赔率赢得了英超联赛冠军，但是这支俱乐部是哪一支？
a) 查尔顿竞技队 b) 莱斯特城队还是 c) 水晶宫队？
我猜是水晶宫队。
好的，乔治，我会在节目结束时揭示正确答案。

The English football Premier League is a good place to find underdogs. Each season, the three best clubs in their second league are promoted up while the three weakest Premier League clubs are relegated down. One club that knows all about relegation is Luton Town FC. In 2009, Luton Town were relegated entirely from the English league. Slowly, their fortunes improved, however, and they have now become the first English team to progress from non-league to the Premier League.

		   
英格兰足球英超联赛是找到黑马的好地方。每个赛季，他们第二级别联赛中的三支最佳俱乐部晋级，而英超联赛中最弱的三支俱乐部则会被降级。一个非常了解降级的俱乐部是卢顿镇足球俱乐部。2009年，卢顿镇被完全降级出英格兰联赛。然而，他们的命运逐渐改善，现在他们已经成为第一支从非联赛晋级到英超联赛的英格兰球队。

Here's Luton fan, Alex, talking about his team's chances to BBC radio program, Mental Muscle:

"But some of these Elite Premier League clubs will look down their nose at us and just think we shouldn't be there, and we are there on merit and we've just gotta prove it this season. So we are the underdog, certainly, financially, but on the pitch, I don't think we will be."

Alex thinks some of the rich Premier League clubs will look down their noses at Luton. If you look down your nose at someone, you think you're better than them. But underdogs Luton have done better than expected, even beating some of the big clubs like Newcastle United. The question is how? Is there something about being the underdog that improves a team's chances of winning?

		   
以下是卢顿镇的球迷亚历克斯在BBC广播节目“心智肌肉”中谈论他的球队的机会：
“但是一些精英英超联赛俱乐部会看不起我们，只会觉得我们不应该在那里，而我们确实凭实力在那里，我们必须在这个赛季证明这一点。所以在经济上，我们是弱旅，但在球场上，我认为我们不会是。”
亚历克斯认为一些富裕的英超联赛俱乐部会瞧不起卢顿。如果你看不起某人，那就意味着你认为自己比他们更优越。但是弱势群体的卢顿表现得比预期要好，甚至击败了一些大俱乐部，比如纽卡斯尔联队。问题是为什么？是弱势群体的存在改善了球队获胜的机会吗？

To answer that, sports psychologist Gillian Cook spoke to BBC Radio program Mental Muscle.

"So, you could find that when the newly-promoted team comes up, they've got high confidence because they've just come from a season of winning - so they've got the belief that they can do it. But on the flip side, it's just as important to look at the top dogs' performance who everyone expects them to win when they're playing the newly-promoted team. So we might think of Man City who might be about to come up against Luton Town. So, what we can see from that is what in psychology literature is known as choking, and that's when pressure gets to an individual or a team and they underperform."

		   
为了回答这个问题，运动心理学家吉利安·库克在BBC广播节目《心智肌肉》中发表了讲话。
“因此，你可能会发现，当新晋升的球队出现时，他们会有很高的信心，因为他们刚刚经历了一个赛季的胜利 - 所以他们相信他们能做到。但是在另一方面，同样重要的是要看待那些被所有人期望获胜的顶级球队在与新晋升的球队对决时的表现。所以我们可以想象曼城可能即将要面对卢顿镇。因此，我们从中可以看到心理学文献中所称的“压力导致失准”，这就是当压力影响到个人或团队时，导致他们表现不佳。”

Clubs newly promoted to the Premier League are used to winning and start the season confidently. On the flip side, they have to play much stronger teams than before. The phrase 'on the flip side' is used to show the opposite, less positive side of something. Of course, it's not just the underdog playing, there are also top dogs, the most successful or powerful person or team. No one expects underdogs to win, and this gives them freedom to relax and play naturally. Top dogs, on the other hand, experience a lot of expectation, and this sometimes leads to 'choking', a sports term which describes the failure of a player to perform their best because of psychological pressure or social expectation. Choking causes teams and players to underperform, to perform worse than expected. It is also true that neutral fans - people watching a match when their team isn't playing - tend to support the underdog as well.

		   
新晋升英超联赛的俱乐部习惯于取得胜利并自信地开始新赛季。另一方面，他们必须面对比以前更强大的对手。短语“on the flip side”用于展示某事物的相反、不太积极的一面。当然，比赛并不仅仅是弱势群体在参与，还有顶尖球队，即最成功或最强大的个人或团队。没有人期望弱势群体会获胜，这给了他们自由放松和自然地比赛。另一方面，顶尖球队经历了很多期望，有时这会导致“压力导致失准”，这是一个描述球员由于心理压力或社会期望而未能发挥最佳水平的体育术语。压力导致失准会导致球队和球员表现不佳，表现比预期更糟糕。此外，中立球迷 - 即在他们的球队不参赛时观看比赛的人 - 也倾向于支持弱势群体。
		
	

In football, it's tough at the top. I think it's time to reveal the answer to your question, Neil. You asked me about the famous Premier League winning underdogs of the 2015-16 football season and I guessed it was Crystal Palace.
Which was the wrong answer, I'm afraid, Georgie. In fact, it was Leicester City, nicknamed the Foxes, who became the unexpected champions of the Premier League.

		   
在足球界，处于顶尖位置很艰难。我想现在是时候揭示你的问题的答案了，尼尔。你问我关于2015-16赛季著名的英超联赛夺冠弱势群体，我猜是水晶宫队。
但很遗憾，乔治，那是错误的答案。事实上，是莱斯特城队，绰号“狐狸”，成为了英超联赛意外夺冠者。
		
	

OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned from
this program about the underdog, the person in a competition or situation who seems least likely to win.
If you look down your nose at someone, you think you are superior to them.
The phrase 'on the flip side', is used to show the opposite, less positive or less popular side of something.
'The top dog' is an informal way of saying the most successful or powerful person in a group.
In sports,choking happens when a player or team fail to perform their best because of psychological pressure or social expectation.
And finally, the verb to underperform' means to perform worse than expected.

		   
好的，让我们回顾一下我们从中学到的词汇
这个节目讲述的是“underdog”，即在比赛或情况下似乎最不可能获胜的人。
如果你对某人“look down your nose at some one”，你就会认为自己比他们优越。
短语“on the flip side”用于表示事物相反、不那么积极或不那么受欢迎的一面。
“top dog”是一种非正式的说法，用来形容一个群体中最成功或最有权势的人。
在体育运动中，当一名球员或球队由于心理压力或社会期望而未能发挥出最佳状态时，就会发生“choking”。
最后，动词“underperform”的意思是表现比预期差。