双语阅读英语外刊精讲：奥运会(附音频)

2018-10-22 10:47:56来源：酷学英语

　　The Olympics still criss-crosses the globe, but with city after city ditching ambitions to put on the world's largest sporting event, the model is under threat.

　　criss-cross: V-T If a person or thing criss-crosses an area, they travel from one side to the other and back again many times, following different routes. If a number of things criss-cross an area, they cross it, and cross over each other. 交叉往返

　　ditch: [T] informal to stop having something because you no longer want it 扔掉，抛弃，丢弃

　　The latest blow comes courtesy of Budapest, which on March 1st withdrew its bid to host the 2024 summer games after public opposition.

　　come courtesy of: 来自

　　Its retreat comes on the heels of Boston, Rome and Hamburg canning their bids within the past two years, whittling a once-crowded pool of candidate cities down to only two: Los Angeles - itself a replacement for the torpedoed Boston bid - and Paris.

　　on the heels of: 紧跟，紧接着

　　can: to dismiss someone from a job解雇，开除

　　whittle: [T] to gradually make something smaller by taking parts away逐步减少，削弱；缩减

　　torpedo: to stop something such as a plan from succeeding破坏〔计划等〕；使失败

　　The situation ought to feel familiar by now to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the governing body of the games.

　　After lots of cities bowed out of the competition for the 2022 winter games it was again left with two options: Almaty, Kazakhstan and Beijing, China.

　　The prospect of having no bidders for future events - or of having a bidding contest between autocrats eager to host a vanity project - seems likelier than it once did.

　　vanity 虚荣（心）

　　A study in 2016 from the University of Oxford's Sa?d Business School found that from 1960 - 2016 (when data were available), the average cost overrun of hosting the games was 156%, the highest of any megaproject.

　　overrun: an amount of time or money that is larger than was planned or intended超出的时间；超出的成本[费用]

　　Tokyo has already seen its costs rise to ￥3trn ($26bn), four times the original estimate.

　　The IOC's contract with host cities includes a taxpayer guarantee, which puts them on the hook for overruns.

　　a taxpayer guarantee: 纳税人担保

　　puts on the hook: 陷入圈套，被套牢

　　There is no end of enthusiasm from sponsors or television broadcasters to pay fat sums to affiliate themselves with the Olympic brand.

　　affiliate: (affiliate yourself to/with sb/sth) to join or become connected with a larger group or organization 加入，加盟，并入

　　Broadcasters are still making the bet that live sports will continue to fascinate TV audiences.

　　Comcast, the parent company of NBC Universal, an American television company, paid a whopping $7.75bn fir exclusive broadcast rights to the games from 2022 - 2032.

　　whopping: very large极大的，异常大的

　　a whopping fee 一笔巨额费用

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