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This summer"s World Cup competition will see teams competing to play the world"s best football. But the football they play will not all be of the same kind. The fans expect different styles of play from Brazil, Germany, or Italy.What makes Brazilian football Brazilian Our style of playing football contrasts with the Europeans because of a combination of qualities of surprise, accuracy and good judgment. This style has won Brazil five world cups. Yet many Brazilian fans only count four of these Victories. In 1994, the team abandoned this style for modern, scientific training and tactics. The team won the cup, but in a boring way.The Italians think differently. "To many Italians, the score 0:0 has a glorious quality, suggesting perfection," says the British football writer Simon Kuper. In the Italian culture, the idea of face is very important. This is why Italian teams are traditionally built around strong defenses. The Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff once said that Italian teams never exactly beat you. It"s just that you often lose to them.In Holland, there is a tradition of decision making through argument and discussion. It is a society where everybody is expected to have a point of view. "Every Dutch player wants to control the game," says Arnold Muhren. "You play football with your brains and not your feet.""A Dutch player argues," says Simon Kuper. "An English player obeys his superior. He is a soldier." The qualities valued in English football are military-strength, aggression and courage. This can make for exciting football. But it also means that the English find it difficult to use skillful players. David Beckham is usually criticized for his failure to defend—despite the fact that he is an attacker.If the English like to fight, the Germans like to win. In recent years, Germany has tried to change its image as a country of ruthless efficiency and a desire for victory at all costs. But Germans are quite happy for these qualities to remain in their national football team. "Football is a simple game," Gary Lineker once said. "You kick a ball about for ninety minutes and in the end the Germans win."It"s difficult to predict who will win this year"s World Cup. There is no strong favorite. But a look at the track record of previous winners shows that it is the nations with the strongest national characteristics in the football that perform best. It seems that you need to know where you come from if you want to get to the top. Who will win this year"s World Cup
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(cover) If you would like to ______ the details of the billionaire’s life, nasty to nice, the book is brutally straightforward.
(primary) The World Wide Web is a system of information resources accessed ______ through the Internet.
English is a vacuum cleaner language; it is able and willing to adopt any words it finds useful. Places, peoples, tongues from around the world all have become part of the English vocabulary. They give it flexibility and provide a certain sense of familiarity for people who speak it as a second or foreign language. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, English contains words from more than 350 living languages. "English is a free market," says Allan Metacalf, author of The World in So Many Words. "Guardians of other languages tend to become alarmed when they notice foreign words creeping in. They say, ’That’s a terrible thing; keep them out.’ But English is multicultural." Linguistic historians believe that English began to absorb other languages on a large scale in 1066. That was the year when King William, a Norman from what is now France, conquered England. That meant English speakers were ruled by French speakers. The English language had to make some changes. During the Renaissance, words flowed into English from Latin and Greek. The Age of Exploration introduced new terms from all corners of the world. And America changed everything. America began as an English-speaking land but its language has been and is still shaped by generations of immigrants. Each new group brings new ideas and new expressions. Irish, Italians, Germans, Eastern Europeans, Latinos, Africans, Asians-all change English in some degree. Mass culture makes adoptions easier. Today, words like kung fu and chow are no longer odd Chinese words; they have gone mainstream. Then there are words invented or given new meanings when English needs them. Some words like e-mail, blurb and fax enter the mainstream. Others like laser begin life as acronyms (首字母缩略) for things that otherwise would be too difficult to say in everyday conversation. Of course, language cannot be separated from culture, and importation depends on the situation. It also depends on whether the word remains useful. Linguists predict that foreign words will flow into English even faster as more nonnative speakers reach global leadership positions. The pace will increase, but it still will be English, which always is ready to accept new words. This is because English is a practical language with a long tradition of borrowing. King William was ______.
(publish) On ______ in 1975, the author’s first book was well-received both in the United States and overseas.
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