Animals:
　　One of the mascots¹ for the 2000 Olympics, in Australia, is the echidna. This mammal is also known as a spiny² anteater and represents Australia's land.

　　One of the mascots for the 2000 Olympics, in Australia, was the kookaburra. This bird sounds like a laughing human and represents the air over Australia.

　　One of the mascots for the 2000 Olympics, in Australia, was the platypus³. This animal is only one of two mammals that lay eggs; it represents the waters of Australia.

吉祥物：
??2000年澳大利亚奥运会吉祥物之一是针鼹鼠。它是一种食蚁动物，象征澳大利亚的大地。

??吉祥物之二是笑翠鸟。它叫声如人笑，象征澳大利亚的天空。

??吉祥物之三是鸭嘴兽。他是两种产卵的哺乳动物之一，象征澳大利亚的水域。

Entertainment:
　　In high school, Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank was an excellent athlete. She competed in Junior Olympics in swimming, and placed fifth in the Washington state all-around gymnastics.

　　MGM film bathing beauty and box-office darling Esther Williams arrived on the Hawaiian island Kauai to film the musical, Pagan Love Song,(1950) co-starring Howard Keel, Rita Moreno, and Philip Costa. Overall, this film was fairly routine, but in it, Williams performed her first salt water swimming ballet. Williams was a great swimming athlete who had qualified⁴ for three events in the 1940 Olympics, only to have them cancelled by World War II.

娱乐
??奥斯卡奖得主希拉里-斯万克在读高中时是一位优秀的运动员。她参加了高中奥林匹克游泳赛，在华盛顿州体操全能赛中排名第五。

??米高梅电影公司?quot;出水芙蓉"和票房冠军以斯帖-威廉姆斯来到夏威夷小岛考艾岛录制电影音乐-"异教徒情歌"（1950）。影片由霍华德-科儿、丽塔-莫瑞诺、菲利普-科斯塔参演。总体上，这部影片相当程序化。但威廉姆斯在片中第一次在盐水中表演芭蕾。她曾是一名不错的游泳运动员，在1940年奥运会中取得了三项游泳项目的参赛资格。但二战的爆发使那届奥运会被取消。

History
　　In a first-of-its-kind business arrangement, Visa International signed a $3 million deal in 1993 to become the official credit card of Atlanta, the host city of the 1996 Summer Olympics.

历史
??1993年，史无前例地，维萨国际公司签下了价值三百万美元的合同，成为1996年奥运会主办城市-亚特兰大的官方信用卡。

Law and customs
　　Married women were forbidden by law to watch, let alone compete, in the ancient Olympics. The penalty was death. The Greeks believed that the presence of wives in olympia would defile⁵ Greece's oldest religious shrine⁶ there, although young girls were allowed in. Ironically, the shrine that was off-limits to married women was dedicated⁷ to a woman, the fertility goddess Rhea, who was the mother of the supreme⁸ god Zeus. Women who broke the rule were thrown from a nearby cliff.

法律和习俗
　　古奥林匹克运动会期间，法律禁止已婚妇女观看，更不用说参加比赛了。违者处死。但年轻未婚女子可以进入会场。古希腊人认为已婚妇女出现在会场会玷污建在那的最古老的神祠。但具有讽刺意味的是，这座成为已婚妇女禁地的神祠是为一位妇女-生育女神瑞亚-而建。她是万神之神-宙斯的母亲。犯禁的妇女将会被从附近的悬崖上扔下去。

People
　　To date, athlete Debi Thomas was the first and only black athlete to win a medal at the Winter Olympics, and is the holder⁹ of two national championships and one world title in figure skating. She is now an aspiring¹⁰ orthopedic surgeon at Chicago's Northwestern University Medical School.

人物
??至今为止，德比-托玛斯是唯一一位在冬季奥运会上获得奖牌的黑人选手。她还是两次全国花样滑冰冠军和一次世界冠军。现在，她是芝加哥西北大学医学院的一位外科整形医生。

Sports
　 　At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Tom Malchow was the youngest member of the U.S. men's swim team at age 19. Malchow was humorously nicknamed Puppy Chow?by his older teammates. Four years later, at the Olympics in Sydney, he was the 200-meter butterfly gold medallist. Malchow's time of 1:55.35 was the third-fastest performance ever. His nickname changed to "Big Dog."

运动
??1996年亚特兰大夏季奥运会上，19岁的汤拇-玛秋是美国游泳男队最年轻的选手。他的队友戏称他"小狗粮"。四年后的悉尼奥运会上，他以1:55.35成为两百米蝶泳冠军。这一成绩是历史上第三好。他的绰号也被更改为"大狗"。

　　The first female athlete to appear in a Wheaties "Breakfast of Champions" television commercial was Mary Lou Retton, shortly after her gold medal win at the 1984 summer Olympics.

??在夺得1984年夏季运动会金牌后不久，玛丽-卢-瑞顿成为第一位在威帝"冠军早餐"电视广告节目中露面的女运动员。

　 　Australian swimmer Murray Rose won six Olympic medals and was the first man to swim the 1,500-metre freestyle in less than 18 minutes. He won national titles in three countries: the United States, Canada, and Australia. At age 17 in 1956, Rose became the youngest Olympian to win three gold medals during one Olympics.

??澳大利亚游泳健将默里-罗斯共夺得过六块奥运会奖牌。他还是第一位在1500米自由泳中游进18分钟的人，并成为美国、加拿大、澳大利亚的全国冠军。1957年，17岁的罗斯成为在一届奥运会夺得三枚金牌的选手中最年轻的一位。

　　The first Olympic games were held in Ancient Greece in 776 B.C. The Olympics were held every 4 years at Olympia, in honor of the god Zeus.

??公元前776年，第一届奥运会在古希腊举行。奥运会每四年在奥林匹亚山举行一次，用来纪念宙斯。 　 　Because of the outbreak of major world wars, the modern Olympics did not hold competitions in 1916, 1940, and 1944.

??由于世界大战的爆发，现代奥运会在1916、1940、1944年未能举行。

　　The first Winter Olympics Games were open in Chamonix, France, on January 25, 1924.

??第一届冬奥会于1924年1月25日在法国千墨里科斯举行。

　　Boston-native figure skater Tenley Albright was the first American woman to win an Olympic figure-skating gold medal. In 1952, Albright placed second in women's figure skating at the Olympic Games. She was the U.S. national championship from 1952 to 1956. In 1953, Albright became the first American woman to win the world championship title. She won the title again in 1955. At the 1956 Olympics, Albright won the gold medal in women's figure skating. She was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1988. After retiring, Albright became a surgeon.

??波斯顿运动员阿尔布莱特是第一位在奥运会花样滑冰项目中夺金的美国人。1952年，她在奥运会上排名第二。1952年到1956年，她是美国冠军。1953年，它成为了第一位在奥运会上夺得花样滑冰金牌的美国选手。她在1988年美国夏奥会上任职。退役后，她成为一名医生。

　 　The oldest individual to win a medal in the Olympics was Oscar Swahn. He won a silver medal in shooting for Sweden in 1920. He was 72 years old.

??以最大年龄获得奥运会奖牌的个人是奥斯卡-斯旺。他在1920年瑞典奥运会上，获得了射击银牌。当时他72岁。

　　Canada's first Olympic gold medal was won by a man competing for the United States. George Orton of Strathroy, Ontario, took first place in the steeplechase at the 1900 Olympics in Paris, but because Canada didn抰 have an official team, he entered as part of the American team instead.

??加拿大的第一位金牌获得者是为美国队效力的。奥兰多的乔治在1990年巴黎奥运会获得障碍赛冠军。但由于加拿大没有正式队，他只好为美国队效力。

　 　Until recent years, the Olympics were a hotbed of political protest and boycotts¹². The most poorly attended modern Olympic Games since 1964 were the 1980 Games in Moscow. Only 81 countries participated in those games because of a boycott¹¹ against the Soviet¹³ invasion of Afghanistan.

??近几年来，奥运会成为政治抗议和抵制的温床。1964年以来参加国家最少的奥运会是1980年莫斯科奥运会。因抗议苏联入侵阿富汗，只有81个国家参加。

　　In 1912 in Stockholm, the first electric timing¹⁴ devices and public address system was used at the Olympics.

??1912年斯德哥尔摩奥运会上，电子计时设备和公共报道系统第一次在奥运会上使用。

　 　In the opening procession of the Olympics, the team representing the host nation always marches last.

??奥运会入场式上，东道国队总是最后出场。

　　Iranian women competed in the Olympics for the first time at the 1996 Atlanta Games. The women were limited in the events in which they were allowed to participate, so they would not violate their country's restrictive laws regarding women's clothing.

??1996年亚特兰大，伊朗女选手第一次出现在奥运会赛场上。为了不违反伊朗有关妇女服饰的严格的法律，她们只能参加其中的一些项目。

　　Mark Spitz holds the all-time Olympic record for men's swimming events. At two Olympics (1968 and 1972), Spitz won a total of 11 medals and is tied as of 2000 with Matt Biondi (1984, 1988, 1992); has the most gold medals at 9 (tied again with Biondi); has the most gold medals at one Olympiad at 7 (Biondi trails at 5), and has the most total medals in one Olympiad (tied with Biondi).

??马克-斯皮茨保持着数项男子游泳记录。在1968和1972年奥运会上，他共得了11块奖牌，（与马特-波因迪持平（1984、1988、1992））；9块金牌，（与马特-波因迪并列）；在同一届奥运会上获得7块金牌，（马特-波因迪以五块的成绩紧随其后）；在同一届奥运会上夺得奖牌数第一，（与马特-波因迪并列）。

　　The field hockey event is the only event in which India has ever won any gold medals at the Olympics.

??曲棍球是印度在奥运会上唯一获得金牌的项目。

Statistics
　　To produce handles for the 10,000-plus Olympic torches carried in the 15,000-mile United States of America relay for the 1996 Summer Olympics, 60 pecan trees were used.

数据
??1996年夏奥会，美国用了60棵山核桃树制作了一万多个火炬手柄，用于一万五千多英里的火炬接力。

US Presidents
　　Jimmy Carter was sworn in as president under his nickname Jimmy." The U.S. boycotted¹⁵ the Olympics in Moscow while he was president.

美国总统
??杰米-卡特用他的昵称"杰米"宣誓就职。他任总统期间，美国抵制了莫斯科奥运会。

Words and Numbers
　　"itius, altius, fortius" is the Olympics' motto, and means faster, higher, stronger.

词和数字
　　"itius, altius, fortius"是奥林匹克格言，意思是"更快、更高、更强"。

上一篇：古代奥运会的风采 下一篇：体操场地、器材及比赛用语