VOA慢速英语--美国传奇女子篮球教练--帕特·萨米特

AS IT IS 2016-06-30 Remembering Legendary¹ Basketball Coach Pat Summitt 美国传奇女子篮球教练--帕特·萨米特

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Pat Summitt led the women’s basketball program at the University of Tennessee for 38 years.

Summitt started coaching the university’s women’s team while in her early twenties.

Two years after being named head coach, she was co-captain of the United States women’s basketball team. That team won the silver medal at the 1976 Olympics. She later won a gold medal as the U.S. team’s coach.

Summitt was one of the most influential³ and successful college basketball coaches ever. Her University of Tennessee teams won almost 1,100 games and eight championships.

Many of her players went on to become coaches or to play professional basketball.

Pat Summitt died on Tuesday. She was 64 years old. Five years ago, doctors found she had early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Americans have been reacting to her death.

President Barack Obama released a statement. It said: “she outworked her rivals, made winning an attitude, loved her players like family, and became a role model to millions of Americans, including our two daughters.”

In 2011, Pat Summitt announced that she had the disease and planned to retire from coaching. She left her position a year later.

Summitt got her start in sports before the United States had laws requiring women and men to be treated equally in school sports.

Sometimes she and her players would sleep in another team’s training area before a game because they did not have money for hotel rooms.

But her success could not be ignored, and women’s basketball is now one of the most-watched college sports in the U.S.

Kara Lawson played for Pat Summitt at the University of Tennessee. Lawson went on to play professional basketball and won an Olympic gold medal.

Her reaction to Summit²’s death was simple. She wrote “Gutted⁴. I love you. Thank you.”

Tennis great Billie Jean King broke gender⁵ barriers during her career. She wrote: “Pat Summit was an all-time great with a brilliant mind, a love of basketball and a deep loyalty⁶ to all around her.”

Abby Wambach was a star on the U.S. women’s soccer team for many years. She called Summitt “a hero of mine.”

Becky Hammon is an assistant coach with the National Basketball Association’s San Antonio Spurs. She called Summitt “a true pioneer and one of the greatest of all time.”

Words in This Story

attitude – n. the way you think and feel about someone or something

rival – n. a person or thing that tries to defeat or be more successful than another

role model – n. someone who another person admires and tries to be like

gutted – adj. very sad or disappointed

pioneer – n. a person who helps create or develop new ideas, methods, etc.

gender – n. the state of being male or female

1 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

2 summit   

n.最高点，峰顶；最高级会议；极点

参考例句：

• They climbed up the mountain and reached the summit.他们爬山，最终达到了山顶。
• The summit of the mountain is lost in the cloud and mist.山顶隐没在云雾之中。

3 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

4 gutted   

adj.容易消化的v.毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的过去式和过去分词 )；取出…的内脏

参考例句：

• Disappointed? I was gutted! 失望？我是伤心透了！
• The invaders gutted the historic building. 侵略者们将那幢历史上有名的建筑洗劫一空。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

6 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。