Yao Ming Rockets to Stardom

1. Yao Ming Rockets to Stardom Unit Five

2. Contents • Warming-up Questions • Background Information • Key language points • Explanation to some difficult sentences

3. 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? Back

4. Background Information

5. 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.

6. 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. Back

7. Detailed Study of Text A

8. Key Language points • 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

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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. 

13. 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.

14. Live • 1)vi. inhabit or live inA 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

15. 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

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 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

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. 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.

30. 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

31. 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.

32. 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.

33. 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.

34. 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.

35. 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.

36. 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”.

37. The End Back