美国国家公共电台 NPR France's World Cup Team Brings Positive Attention To Suburban Fans

 

SUSAN DAVIS, HOST:

In France, there is pride in its national soccer team and high hopes of winning the World Cup tournament now being played in Russia. Many players on the French team are from these diverse, big-city suburbs that are struggling with poverty and low expectations. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley visited one of those French suburbs and watched a game with residents. She sends us this report.

ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE¹: One of the French team's star players, Kylian Mbappe, hails from the Paris suburb of Bondy. Bondy is less than 10 miles from the beautiful center of Paris, but it feels like another world with its monolithic², cinder-block buildings.

(SOUNDBITE OF KEYS JINGLING)

BEARDSLEY: Mayor Sylvine Thomassin greets me at the Bondy town hall. She says the Kylian Mbappe effect is a real boost for the town.

SYLVINE THOMASSIN: (Speaking French).

BEARDSLEY: "It's marvelous," she says, "because so often, people talk about the suburbs in negative terms." Thomassin says the Mbappes are an old Bondy family, three generations, originally from Algeria and Cameroon. Starting in the 1960s, immigrant workers, mostly from North Africa, flocked to France for the economic boom years. They worked in construction jobs and lived in suburbs around big cities\ like Paris, Lyon and Marseille. But today, the jobs have dried up, and the housing is crumbling³. Many people living in the suburbs say they face discrimination not only over their Arabic origins but also over their zip code.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

BEARDSLEY: A group of guys is listening to rap music in a public housing parking lot.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED RAPPER: (Rapping in French).

BEARDSLEY: Forty-two-year-old Nordine Breta says it doesn't matter if Mbappe is from here. He refuses to support the French team.

NORDINE BRETA: (Through interpreter) My parents are Algerian, and I was born here. But I don't feel French because my whole life, people have asked me where I'm from. That means I'm still not accepted as French. I'm sick of justifying⁴ myself.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: (Speaking in French).

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #2: (Speaking in French).

BEARDSLEY: Twenty years ago, France won the World Cup with a racially mixed team that was hailed as the harmonious⁵ future of the country. But a few years later, riots broke out in the suburbs over police racism⁶. The hope turned to anger and despair. Successive governments' promises to fix the suburbs have largely gone unfulfilled, but many suburbs are now tackling their own problems.

(SOUNDBITE OF TRUCK BACKING UP)

BEARDSLEY: In Bondy, old public housing blocks are being torn down and replaced by attractive, smaller housing units. Mayor Thomassin says there's an energy in the diverse suburbs that's missing from staid traditional France.

THOMASSIN: (Speaking French).

BEARDSLEY: "Our suburbs are overflowing⁷ with talent and motivation," she says. "But most of France doesn't realize this yet. There's a whole world on the other side of the Paris Beltway."

UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: (Singing in French).

BEARDSLEY: A group of kids sings the Marseillaise along with the TV as France sets to play Peru. Mohamed Coulibaly is the athletic⁸ director of the soccer club where they're watching the game.

MOHAMED COULIBALY: (Through interpreter) The French team has many players from the suburbs, so we're very much a part of this national adventure. Kids here are all different backgrounds, but I can assure you they all feel totally French.

BEARDSLEY: Thirty-nine-year-old James Koumpate has come out to watch his son's team practice at the club. He says the suburbs are rising and not just in soccer.

JAMES KOUMPATE: (Through interpreter) It might be a little harder to succeed in the suburbs because people have less, but there's more energy and sheer will.

BEARDSLEY: Koumpate agrees with the mayor of Bondy that the future of France is playing out here in its suburbs.

Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News. Bondy, France.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 monolithic   

adj.似独块巨石的；整体的

参考例句：

• Don't think this gang is monolithic.不要以为这帮人是铁板一块。
• Mathematics is not a single monolithic structure of absolute truth.数学并不是绝对真理的单一整体结构。

3 crumbling   

adj.摇摇欲坠的

参考例句：

• an old house with crumbling plaster and a leaking roof 一所灰泥剥落、屋顶漏水的老房子
• The boat was tied up alongside a crumbling limestone jetty. 这条船停泊在一个摇摇欲坠的石灰岩码头边。

4 justifying   

证明…有理( justify的现在分词 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护）

参考例句：

• He admitted it without justifying it. 他不加辩解地承认这个想法。
• The fellow-travellers'service usually consisted of justifying all the tergiversations of Soviet intenal and foreign policy. 同路人的服务通常包括对苏联国内外政策中一切互相矛盾之处进行辩护。

5 harmonious   

adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的

参考例句：

• Their harmonious relationship resulted in part from their similar goals.他们关系融洽的部分原因是他们有着相似的目标。
• The room was painted in harmonious colors.房间油漆得色彩调和。

6 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

7 overflowing   

n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The stands were overflowing with farm and sideline products. 集市上农副产品非常丰富。
• The milk is overflowing. 牛奶溢出来了。

8 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。