第19期：九命用盡桑德蘭，四面楚歌莫耶斯

《看球學英語》是足球翻譯團開闢的一檔專欄節目，每個星期都會結合足壇熱點，與球迷一起花式學英語，提高看球的姿勢水平！這裡是一個互相學學的地方，你我並非學與教的關係。文中若有錯漏，請大發慈悲指正，定當誠心誠意修改。

本輪桑德蘭輸給伯恩茅斯之後，確定要降級。在英超頑強支撐了十年的黑貓被莫耶斯帶降級了，這篇文章向他們致敬。

首先是降級這個詞：relegation或demotion。relegate還有委任工作的意思。被降職也是demotion。對應的，升級則是promotion。

division是一個等級的聯賽，英超是一個division，英冠是一個division，等等。

top-flight是頂級聯賽，這個flight跟航空沒什麼有關係。

That is what Moyes has done to this club —drained them of energy and enthusiasm. And now, finally, their Premier League status has gone too, a decade after promotion.

drain名詞是下水管，動詞是排水。這個作者對莫耶斯的態度是很嚴厲的，drained them of energy and enthusiasm這種說法也是很形象的，用中文來說，它的意思就是

所以以後你不想跟別人斗圖的話也可以斗英文。

還有人更狠，直接說David Moyes the vampire hassucked the life out ofrelegated Sunderland.像吸血鬼一樣把生命/活力都吸幹了。

……it wasn』t until after Josh King』s latewinnerthat supporters even mustered the anger toturn ontheirbeleagueredboss.

winner贏家，冠軍，致勝的進球。這個詞的用處是很多的，例如小組第一可以叫group winner，世界盃冠軍可以叫World Cup winners，還有這句里的致勝的進球也是winner。

beleaguered被（敵人）包圍的，或者說，四面楚歌。其實莫耶斯並沒有下課的危險，這裡是表示他陷入孤立無援的境地。be-這個前綴有環繞的意思。

turn on也有很多個意思。我們看這句話，在對方打進致勝球之前，桑德蘭的球迷就已經積聚了足夠的怒火，開始反對本隊的主教練了。這裡的turn on有針對的意思。當然，如果你的男朋友/女朋友很能turn you on，那是好事，只不過如果你不注意的話，就會——

Moyes will assess his future after the remainingdead-rubbersare played out, but the final offerings from fans here were calls for him to go.

因為已經降級了，所以剩下的四場比賽對桑德蘭就沒有意義了，成了dead-rubbers。這跟籃球里的garbage time還是有點區別的，那是一場比賽中所剩的最後時間。

He spoke repeatedly —with some justification— of pre-existing issues; the club』s debt levels of ￡110million tell of mis-management over several years. But Moyes became obsessed with those problems, blinding him to the task of making better the mess he inherited.

with some justification意思是，他說的還有點道理。justify就是證明某件事的正當/合理性，這是很中性的。rationalize就有點貶義了，表示強行找理由來解釋/掩飾，冼地。

Jermain Defoe has not scored for 10 matches and his body language of late hasbetrayedhis frustration with those around him.

迪福的肢體語言暴露了他對隊友的不滿。這個betray不是背叛，而是暴露，但這兩個意思是有聯繫的，比如有一首歌叫「你的眼睛betray了你的心」。

Given that Sunderland areon courseto become the sixth-worst team in Premier League history,it is remarkablethere was no talk of him being sacked.

按照現在的勢頭，桑德蘭將成為英超歷史上第六差的球隊。on course表示（如果）延續現在的勢頭；通常說的走在XX的康庄大道上。

But,tellingly, he added: 『I』ve said near enough from the start that I』m experienced, and I know what a Premier League team looks like, I know what a Premier League squad looks like, and I』ve felt like we』ve been short of a little bit of quality to try to make that difference.』

這是莫耶斯的訴苦/甩鍋。

It says something thatthis defeat was actually one of their better performances.

要知道這場桑德蘭的比賽其實算他們踢得不錯的（但還是輸了）。

這三段中都有類似的東西：

it is remarkable that...

tellingly, ...

it says something that...

如果你想強調某個事/現象是值得注意、值得玩味的，可以採用這幾個短語。有的時候，表面上看起來沒什麼的事需要看官自己去體會，但說破了又沒意思了。這幾個短語非常合適。

There is sympathy for Moyes in so far as the club have beencheating relegationfor five years and financial guarantees from owner Ellis Short to help reverse that trend were not forthcoming.

這句話是說莫耶斯有值得同情之處，畢竟球隊多年來一直在混，老闆給錢也少。cheat除了欺騙、作弊之外還有逃脫的意思，例如一個人你以為要死了但一直不死，你可以說是cheat death。桑德蘭一直被人覺得要降級了，但多年來都沒降，所以是cheat relegation。

But Moyes and Sunderland were cursed from day one, quite literally. He had been in the job less than 24 hours when the aeroplane taking the squad to France for a pre-season training camp lost power in its engines and was forced to make an emergency landing in Manchester,of all places, the scene of his sacking at United in 2014.

這還說了一件秩事：莫耶斯和桑德蘭從第一天開始就被詛咒了。為什麼呢？因為他上任的第一天，載著球隊的飛機就引擎失靈而迫降，迫降的地點，你猜是哪，偏偏是跟莫耶斯八字不合的曼徹斯特。of all ...表示一種「偏偏……」的意思，往往有巧合/諷刺/命中注定的意思。永恆的經典《卡薩布蘭卡》里，鮑嘉著名的台詞：世界上那麼多個小鎮，有那麼多家酒館，她偏偏走進我的酒館。表達了他與舊情人重逢的複雜的心情。

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