Yao Ming Rockets
to Stardom
Unit Five
Contents
• Warming-up
Questions
• Background
Information
• Key language points
• Explanation to some
difficult sentences
Warming-up Questions
• What do you know about
NBA?
• What do you know about Yao
Ming? And his road to NBA
as well?
• Are you keen on ball sports?
which sports do you like best?
• According to your
understanding, what does
sportsmanship mean to you?
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Background Information
The National Basketball Association (NBA)
• The National Basketball Association is
the USA's premier men's
basketball league. It has 30
teams; 29 in the United States
and one in Canada. It is an
active member of USA
Basketball (USAB), which is
recognized by the International
Basketball Federation as the
National Governing Body (NGB)
for basketball in the United
States. The NBA is one of the
four major North American
professional sports leagues.
The National Basketball Association (NBA)
• The league was founded in New York
City, on June 6, 1946 as the Basketball
Association of America (BAA). The
league adopted the name National
Basketball Association in the autumn
1949 after merging with the rival
National Basketball League. The
league's several international and
individual team offices are directed out
of its head offices located in the
Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in
New York City. NBA Entertainment and
NBA TV studios are directed out of
offices located in Secaucus, New
Jersey.
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Detailed Study of Text A
Key Language points
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Rocket:
vi. move at a very great speed
Prices have rocketed this year.
Vt. 用火箭将…[向…]推送[to, into]
rocket a satellite into orbit以火箭将人
造卫星送入轨道
rocket a person to the moon以火箭将
人送上月球
n. 火箭武器((炸弹、导弹等))
a rocket bomb火箭弹
a rocket range火箭试射 [实验] 场
a rocket launcher火箭筒; 火箭发射装
置
• Stardom:
• n. the state of being a very
famous performer明星的地位[身
份]
• jump to stardom一跃而成为明星
• She shot to stardom on
Broadway by a comic play.
• He rocketed to stardom
overnight on his father’s name.
Association:
n. 1) an organization of people joined
together for a shared purpose协会; 社团
• form an association to promote social
welfare成立一个促进社会福利的协会
• The Writers’ Association has organized
this activity.
• 2).the act of associating or fact of being
associated结合；联想；关联
• in association with... 与…联合; 与…有关联
• Having no interest in or association with
politics.对政治不感兴趣或与政治无关的
• The police have found the association
between the two murders.
Draft:
n. 1) (singular) the process or method of selecting one
or more individuals from a group
• The first draft of people for blood donation was
completed.
• 2)the first rough and incomplete form of something
written, drawn or planned
• The first draft of the will could not be found.
• I read the first draft and thought it was very good.
vt. 1) select, choose
• Craigwell was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks.
• They have been drafted into the P.L.A.
• 2)make a draft of
• Eva's busy drafting her speech for the conference.
Look forward to:
• +(n./doing)
• expect with pleasure in
(something about to happen)
期待，盼望
• I am very much looking
forward to the holidays.
• The girl is looking forward to a
long holiday for a good rest.
• I am familiar with his work and
look forward to hearing his
views on Literary and artistic
creation.
• Along the way:
• the passage of time and the
making of progress 随着时间的
推移
• You will get the whole picture
along the way.
• They got to know each other
better along the way and
finally fell in love.
Live
• 1)vi. inhabit or live in
A rather odd family came to live next door
to us.
• Live on 靠...生活
• I had to live on bread and water when I was
a student.
• Live through 度过，经受住
• He was among the few who managed to
live through the enemy prison camp.
• 2)adj. having life; not dead有生命的；活的
• You won't see live animals in a museum.
• experiments on live animals
Live
• 3) adj. a live television or radio
program is seen or heard on
television or radio at the same
time as it is actually happening实
况播送的，现场传播
• There will be live TV coverage of
tonight's big match
• 4) adj. a live performance is one in
which the entertainer performs for
people who are watching, rather
than a film, record etc: 现场的
• The band will be giving a live
concert performance next week
Brief
Adj. 1）using very few words or
including few details简短的
• a brief description of the film
• The President read a brief statement
to reporters before boarding his plane.
• 2）lasting only a short time短暂的
• He made a brief stay in Beijing.
v. give essential information to someone
给…指示，为…提供资讯
• The president has been fully briefed
on the current situation in Haiti.
Brief
n. a condensed written summary or
abstract 摘要,简报,公事包
He drew up a brief for his speech.
• In brief:
• 1)in as few words as possible
• We should, in brief, invest
heavily in digital systems.
• 2) without any details
• Here again are today's headlines
in brief.
Press
v. to push something firmly against a surface
压；按；推;榨；挤
• You must press this button to start the
radio.
• Manville kept his back pressed flat against
the wall.
• He pressed a card into her hand before
leaving.
press somebody to do something
• The police pressed her to remember all the
details.
press somebody for something
• The manufacturers are pressing the
government for action.
press for
• We must continue to press for
full equality.
Pressure:
n. pressing with force; the
strength of this force压迫感；
压力
• He felt a pressure on the right
shoulder.
• The doctor is checking the
patient's blood pressure.
• atmospheric pressure 大气压
rare:
• adj. not common, not seen or
heard very often难得的；稀有的；
罕见的
• Chances like this are very rare.
• His intelligence is rare among
children of his age.
• He's devoted his whole life to
the protection of the rare
animals.
• adj. Thin; light稀薄的
• The higher we go above the
earth, the rarer the air is.
Strength
n. 1)the quality of being strong in body or
mind体力；精力；意志力
• Filled for the moment with extraordinary
strength he raised himself completely.
• He hadn't enough strength of mind to
refuse.
• The little boy hasn't the strength to lift
that heavy box.
• 2)something providing force or power优
势
• Before going into the Asian market, they
thought carefully of their strengths and
weaknesses.
Work on
• 1) continue working; be
engaged in从事于；致力于
• This scientist is known to have
been working on this problem
for about ten years.
• The builders are still working
on the house.
• 2) affect; excite影响；激起;起作
用
• Wine will work on his emotion.
• This medicine will work on the
affected part.
Attitude
n. 1)a way of feeling or thinking
about someone or something态
度；看法
• I don't like his unfriendly attitude.
• Their attitude towards the new
policy is to wait and see.
• 2)the way in which one stands,
sits, etc.; the position of the
body姿态；姿势
• He stood there in a threatening
attitude.
• He was sitting in a lazy attitude.
Culture
• n.1) development of the arts
and sciences in society文化
• He has studied the cultures of
Eastern countries.
• Confucian culture 儒教
• Culture shock 文化冲击
• Culture gap 文化差异
• 2)development of the body,
mind and spirit教养
• He is a man of literary culture.
• They are persons of culture.
Aware
• Adj. having knowledge or
understanding知道的,注意到的,
觉察的
• Be aware of
• The children are aware of the
danger of taking drugs.
• I was aware of what he was
aiming at.
• Be aware that• They were well aware that the
company was losing money.
Loss
• n. 1) the act of losing; something
that is lost;遗失；损失
• US forces withdrew after
suffering heavy losses.
• The company is closing down
two of its factories, leading to
430 job losses.
• 2) if a business makes a loss, it
spends more than it earns:亏损；
所亏之本
• The company made a loss of
$250,000 last year.
• profit and loss利润与损失
• be at a loss:
• to be confused and uncertain
about what to do or say迷茫；
不知所措
• When her son finally left home,
Emily felt completely at a loss.
• In the long/over term:
• Over a long/short period of
time从长远/短期来看
• In the long term, the market is
promising.
• In the short term, we are likely
to lose money on this book.
• Development:
• n. the act of developing发展；
进展；开发
• The development of
agriculture and industry needs
careful planning.
• Parents watch the
development of a baby with
interest.
• Encourage:
• Vt. give someone hope,
courage, support, etc. 鼓励，鼓
舞
• Her first success encouraged
her to work even harder.
• Don't encourage her laziness
by doing things for her.
• Encouragement: n.
Back
Explanation to some difficult sentences
in the Text A
• 1.(title) Yao Ming Rockets to
Stardom!
• Meaning: Yao Ming becomes a
star player at rocket speed.
Here the word “rocket” is used
here as a pun. It has two
meanings: Yao Ming rises
quickly, like a rocket, to join in
the NBA stardom; and he is to
play for the Houston Rockets.
2.(para1) No. 1 draft pick
• No.1 draft pick means the first
player selected by a sports
team. NBA draft refers to a
procedure that started in 1947
whereby new or existing
sports players are made
available for selection or
reselection by teams in a
league, usually with the earlier
choices being given to the
weaker teams during the
annual selection process.
3.(para.9)
• 7-foot-5 Yao’s quick moves
and eye for the ball are rare
to a player so tall.
• Meaning: It is unusual for
Yao Ming, who is 7 feet 5
inches tall, to move so fast
and to have such good
judgment in basketball.
4.(para.9)
• However, he needs to
improve his upper body
strength and is working on
this at present.
• Meaning: But he still needs
to make his upper body
more powerful, and now he
is trying to improve this.
5.(para.10)
• Funnily enough, the Chinese
were so excited about the
World Cup that they hardly
picked up on the news about
Yao on Thursday.
• Meaning: It is very interesting
that the Chinese didn’t hear
about Yao’s NBA draft pick on
Thursday, as they were so
excited about the World Cup at
that time.
6. (para.11)
• The Chinese newspapers
have named them the
“walking Great Wall”.
• Meaning: The Chinese
newspapers have
described them as the
“Human Great Wall”.
The End
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