2006年VOA标准英语-Munich World Cup Stadium a Site to See

By Parke Brewer¹
Munich
13 June 2006

Allianz-Arena² stadium in Munich   
  
Twelve different cities are hosting the 2006 World Cup football finals in Germany. Of those 12, nine had existing stadiums undergo reconstruction³ for the month-long tournament, while the other three have new stadiums. The newest of those is in Munich, which hosted the opening match and will host five other games, including a semifinal.

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For those around the world who watched television coverage⁴ of the opening World Cup match in Munich last Friday between Germany and Costa Rica, they probably understand why the stadium, home of the famous Bundesliga football club Bayern Munich, is nicknamed "The Spaceship".

That is what it looks like by day or night from just about every angle or distance.

Stadium media guide Yelena Perec-Ducke told VOA Sports the exterior⁵ is covered with 2,874 translucent⁶ inflated⁷ panels, or cushions. "They are really like a pillow with the inside filled with warm air. Warm air is being pumped all the time inside. It is not plastic. It is call ethylene tetra-fluro-ethylene. It is a special polymer that is very flexible. It can take a lot of pressure, and it is two-hundredths of a millimeter thick," she said.

Perec-Ducke says there are gauges⁸ to make sure the panels, or pillows, stay properly inflated. "On top of the stadium there are 12 different measuring points, which are all the time measuring temperature, humidity, pressure and everything. And if something is being changed, temperature or humidity, or whatever, automatically there is more or less air pumped inside; also the difference in the temperature of the air being pumped inside, so there's always pressure built inside to keep the cushions blown up [inflated], so to say," she said.

There are 1,100 cushions, or panels, with light bars inside that have three colors, red, white and blue. The white ones are turned on at night for international matches like the World Cup. Blue and red are the colors of the Munich clubs that use the stadium and are turned on accordingly for their home matches.

The facility is located in northeast Munich on a large parcel of land next to a super highway and close to a rail line 13 kilometers northeast from the central train station. That makes is easily accessible for public and private transportation.

It took a little more than two years to build at a cost of about $400 million. There are 66,000 seats on three levels and 106 private VIP lounges of various sizes.

Perec-Ducke says the sight lines to the field are good from all seats. "Because of the way it was made, you can see perfect. The other thing is, it is built almost as a coliseum. There are shades [on the top] that can be pulled up across the top, and the light is then beamed down on the pitch, so it is really like in a theater. Everything is very condensed. Everything is very close. For the fans it is really something that they have a feeling that they are very close to the players," she said.

Perec-Ducke added that besides two big video screens, there is a state-of the-art sound system. "There are, on the height of 42 meters, there are 24 so to say, sound clusters, each made of six speaker boxes. Altogether they are 158,000 watts⁹ strength. Because of the way the arena was made, the sound is going up and then really going down again. And because of this round form - it is really like a coliseum - wherever you are you hear perfectly¹⁰ what they are saying," she said.

All in all, football fans lucky enough to have a ticket for World Cup games at the stadium in Munich should have an experience they will long remember. The next World Cup match in Munich is the Group H encounter between Tunisia and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

1 brewer   

n. 啤酒制造者

参考例句：

• Brewer is a very interesting man. 布鲁尔是一个很有趣的人。
• I decided to quit my job to become a brewer. 我决定辞职，做一名酿酒人。

2 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。

3 reconstruction   

n.重建，再现，复原

参考例句：

• The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后，该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
• In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期，技术决定一切。

4 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

5 exterior   

adj.外部的，外在的；表面的

参考例句：

• The seed has a hard exterior covering.这种子外壳很硬。
• We are painting the exterior wall of the house.我们正在给房子的外墙涂漆。

6 translucent   

adj.半透明的；透明的

参考例句：

• The building is roofed entirely with translucent corrugated plastic.这座建筑完全用半透明瓦楞塑料封顶。
• A small difference between them will render the composite translucent.微小的差别,也会使复合材料变成半透明。

7 inflated   

adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨

参考例句：

• He has an inflated sense of his own importance. 他自视过高。
• They all seem to take an inflated view of their collective identity. 他们对自己的集体身份似乎都持有一种夸大的看法。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 gauges   

n.规格( gauge的名词复数 )；厚度；宽度；标准尺寸v.（用仪器）测量( gauge的第三人称单数 )；估计；计量；划分

参考例句：

• A thermometer gauges the temperature. 温度计可测量温度。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The fuel gauges dropped swiftly. 燃料表指针迅速下降。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 watts   

（电力计量单位）瓦，瓦特( watt的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• My lamp uses 60 watts; my toaster uses 600 watts. 我的灯用60瓦，我的烤面包器用600瓦。
• My lamp uses 40 watts. 我的灯40瓦。

10 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。