运动休闲－排球运动:美国教授发明Volleyball

 　　The sport originated in the United States, and is now just achieving the type of popularity in the U.S. that it has received on a global basis, where it ranks behind only soccer among participation¹ sports.

　　Today there are more than 46 million Americans who play volleyball. There are 800 million players worldwide who play Volleyball at least once a week.

　　In 1895, William G. Morgan, an instructor² at the Young Men's Christian³ Association (YMCA) in Holyoke, Mass., decided⁴ to blend elements of basketball, baseball, tennis, and handball to create a game for his classes of businessmen which would demand less physical contact than basketball. He created the game of Volleyball (at that time called mintonette). Morgan borrowed the net from tennis, and raised it 6 feet 6 inches above the floor, just above the average man’s head.

　　During a demonstration⁵ game, someone remarked to Morgan that the players seemed to be volleying the ball back and forth⁶ over the net, and perhaps "volleyball" would be a more descriptive name for the sport.

排球历史

　　1892年在美国马萨诸塞州，耐史密斯博士挂起了两个篮筐从而发明了篮球，而摩根在观察了他的朋友的新发明之后想，对于那些已过中年的商人来讲篮球运动也许过于激烈了一些。因此，四年之后，摩根发明了自己的运动项目。又过了一个世纪，他的发明——排球同篮球一道成为了奥运会上速度最快、对抗性最强的比赛项目之一。

　　摩根最初给他的发明起的名字是“mintonette”，当地的一位教授很快将其定义为一种把球击过球网的游戏，于是，它最初的名字也就发生了改变。

1 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

2 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

3 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

6 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。