hurdling: 跨栏赛跑

其实，只要告诉您“hurdling¹”是刘翔最引以为豪的一个词，即使不提供下面这幅图片，您也会猜出它就是大家常常提及的“跨栏赛跑”。日前，刘翔公开表示：他对卫冕2008年世界跨栏冠军充满了信心和决心。

请看《中国日报》相关报道：China's Liu Xiang says he is determined² to defend his Olympic 110m hurdling crown at the 2008 Beijing Games and fired out a warning to his main rival.

"I really want to be champion at the Beijing Olympics," the 23-year-old told the Beijing Times, "I couldn't quite dare to say it before, but today I finally have the guts³ to come out and say it," he added.

报道中的hurdling（跨栏赛跑）也可写作hurdle⁴(s)，属于田径项目的一种，指“参赛者在赛跑时必须连贯性地跨过一系列轻便、可移动的障碍”，如：He places first in the 400meter low hurdles⁵.（他在400米低栏中名列第一。）

和前不久讲过的另一个体育词汇snooker（“斯诺克”台球）正好相反，日常生活中，snooker作动词时表示“阻挠；阻碍”，而hurdle作动词时则用来形容“克服（障碍）”，举个例子：

He overcame many hurdles to become a lawyer.（他克服无数困难才成为一名律师。）

另外，hurdle在日常生活中也可作名词“障碍；难关”，如： brush hurdle（树篱）；economic hurdles（经济障碍）；the last hurdle before graduation（毕业前的最后一关）。