American sports English:Distance Events

P:Yang Chen, You are totally out of breath. What's wrong? Are you running away from the police? What did you do THIS time?

Y:Hey! NOT funny! 警察才不會追我呢。我是在練長跑。I'm training for the 1500m.

P:So you want to be the fastest in the world?

Y:No. I don't want to be the fastest, I just want to be faster than you.

P:That's not so easy. You know I'm very good at distance events.

Y 你擅長distance events，那我們要比試比試才知道誰更快。

P:Well, speed isn't the only important thing to win a distance race, Yang Chen.

Y:Yeah yeah, I know—長跑除了speed速度，還要有patience—耐心，right?

P:Well, patience is good, and so is endurance. E-N-D-U-R-A-N-C-E

Y:Ohhhhhh. Endurance. 耐力。

P:Right. That is the ability to sustain physical activity for a long period of time without stopping.

In the Olympics, distance events are among the most difficult because they involve speed, endurance, patience, and tactics.

Y:Tactics——策略? 你不是讓我把前面那個人絆倒吧？

P:No, please don't trip the person in front of you!

By tactics , I mean planning ahead how to make your moves.

For example, some of the world's greatest distance runners do not take the lead until the very end of the race, so they can conserve energy.

Y:沒錯，好像最后得冠軍的都不是一開始跑在最前面的人，而是到了最后才take the lead。

P:Right. And they have to maintain the lead until they make a final kick K-I-C-K.

Y:Make a final kick 不是踢別人一下，而是最后沖刺。

P:The runner's sprint in the end of the race.

So, Yang Chen, have you been working on YOUR kick? OW!

Y:You mean, THAT kind of kick?

P:Ouch, that hurts.

Y:That's my tactics to beat you!

A:原來長跑也講究tactics─策略！

B:Tactics are important in all kinds of competitions, including when you buy and sell stocks. Oh no, I'm back to the stock market again!

A:就是啊，怎么又說回來了。好了，等下了節目，我陪你去逛街吧，省得你老想著股票的事兒。

B:That's sweet of you. But remember to stop me when I want to buy things, 'cos I don't have much more money left! 錢都被套牢了！

A:又來了！好了，今天的節目時間差不多了。這次的撰稿人是曉北，編輯是蔚然。同學們，我們下次的美語訓練班再見!

B: Bye!