VOA标准英语2008年-Boxing Champ Gets Washington Youth Off the Stre

By Brad Zerivitz
Washington
03 January 2008
 

A former world boxing champion is luring¹ young people off the streets of Washington and into the boxing ring. The program is in a center city neighborhood and provides at-risk youth with a rigorous boxing regimen. It also gives them help with their school work, as we learn in today's Searching for Solutions report. Brad Zerivitz has the story.

Boxer² Keely Thompson says he grew tired of watching young people fall into a life of gangs and violence in Washington. With the help of a local city council member, the former lightweight world boxing champion vowed³ to do something about it. So he founded Keely's District Boxing and Youth Center.

Thompson serves as executive director and head trainer. He describes the mission of the center. "We deal with a lot of kids who come from broken homes -- no mother, no father. Some of them are not educated. That's what we do. We educate them. We instruct them. We use the boxing for the discipline part of it."

The students come here to learn boxing, but they are not allowed to enter the ring before finishing their daily school work. The Keely Center's program stresses reading comprehension and verbal skills.

Thompson and the other staff members say they try to be more than just teachers and give students the support and encouragement that some may not get at home. "Some of them don't have that mother and father to reach out to them," he explains. "Their mother and father have two or three jobs. Some don't have neither one of them. The staff here, we reach out to a kid. We tell them we love them. This is the way out. This is the way you should do it," he said.

Like many of the people who are involved with the program, Kenneth Brown says he had a tough life before meeting Thompson. "I was affiliated⁴ with a gang. It was a bunch of us, we pretty much went around, did nothing, beat up people, got into a lot of fights. There was drugs involved. Before it became too late, I'm glad that I came here."

Brown, now a mentor⁵ in Keely's program, says he turned his life around and gave up drinking, drugs and tobacco to improve his performance in the ring. He is already an experienced amateur boxer with a 19 and 4 record. He hopes to box professionally next year. He says, "I know that boxing teaches you more things than just how to fight. Patience. It teaches you discipline. As a boxer, you learn to be humble⁶. Even though you know how to fight, you don't go around fighting.

Many of the program's graduates have gone on to college, and six have won the Golden Gloves amateur boxing tournament. Keely's lists more than 1,700 alumni already.

Thompson says young people arrive here every day and after working hard in and out of the ring, they are too tired to return to a life on the streets.

1 luring   

吸引，引诱（lure的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• Cheese is very good for luring a mouse into a trap. 奶酪是引诱老鼠上钩的极好的东西。
• Her training warned her of peril and of the wrong, subtle, mysterious, luring. 她的教养警告她：有危险，要出错儿，这是微妙、神秘而又诱人的。

2 boxer   

n.制箱者，拳击手

参考例句：

• The boxer gave his opponent a punch on the nose.这个拳击手朝他对手的鼻子上猛击一拳。
• He moved lightly on his toes like a boxer.他像拳击手一样踮着脚轻盈移动。

3 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

4 affiliated   

adj. 附属的, 有关连的

参考例句：

• The hospital is affiliated with the local university. 这家医院附属于当地大学。
• All affiliated members can vote. 所有隶属成员都有投票权。

5 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

6 humble   

adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低

参考例句：

• In my humble opinion,he will win the election.依我拙见，他将在选举中获胜。
• Defeat and failure make people humble.挫折与失败会使人谦卑。