万花筒 2010-03-18&03-19 剪羊毛比赛

A new kind of entertainment was making its debut¹ high in the French Alps Monday that left some of its participants out in the cold.

Sheepshearing competitions are typically found in Australia and New Zealand, but farmers in the alpine⁴ region adopted this sport to promote the local economy and tourism.

The competition, in which competitors relieve a sheep of all its wool as fast as possible, amazed spectators. Belgian tourist Franck Bavier was impressed with the speed.

"With my father, shearing³ sheep. It took us two hours to shear² one - and here one minute 40(seconds)"

The participants could use some practice if they hope to compete at the international level.

The fastest barber in the alps cleared his sheep in one minute and 11 seconds. The record in New Zealand is only 25 seconds.

Shannon Knapton, Reuters

1 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

2 shear   

n.修剪，剪下的东西，羊的一岁；vt.剪掉，割，剥夺；vi.修剪，切割，剥夺，穿越

参考例句：

• Every spring they shear off the sheep's wool and sell it.每年春天他们都要剪下羊毛去卖。
• In the Hebrides they shear their sheep later than anywhere else.在赫伯里兹，剪羊毛的时间比其他任何地方都要晚。

3 shearing   

n.剪羊毛，剪取的羊毛v.剪羊毛( shear的现在分词 )；切断；剪切

参考例句：

• The farmer is shearing his sheep. 那农夫正在给他的羊剪毛。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The result of this shearing force is to push the endoplasm forward. 这种剪切力作用的结果是推动内质向前。 来自辞典例句

4 alpine   

adj.高山的；n.高山植物

参考例句：

• Alpine flowers are abundant there.那里有很多高山地带的花。
• Its main attractions are alpine lakes and waterfalls .它以高山湖泊和瀑布群为主要特色。