Lawrence Trent曾经是一名国际象棋大师，现在是象棋解说员。这是年轻人的比赛，不是老年人的比赛。这绝对是我赢得的最重量级比赛之一。是的，这绝对是我赢得的最重量级的比赛之一。我爱下象棋，因为它极富趣味性。走几步好棋、想出几个新招，都很有意思。一直以来，象棋选手都局限于职业棋手，但是在这里，业余选手也可以获胜。
单词解析Word analysis
例句：They dropped two games in a row and were eliminated from the tournament.
1. tournament['t??n?m(?)nt]n.锦标赛，联赛，比赛
他们在划船比赛中输了两场比赛，并被淘汰出局。
2. master['mɑ?st?]n.大师，主人
例句：Sir， you are truly a master of disguise.
长官，你真是伪装大师。
3. grandiose['gr?nd???s]]adj.宏伟的，宏大的
例句：These proposals have nothing to do with grandiose schemes for reinventing market capitalism.
这些提议与改造市场资本主义的宏伟计划毫不相干。
4. baIIroom['b??lru?m； -r?m]n.舞厅，大宴会厅
例句：The ballroom suddenly lit up.
舞厅突然亮了起来。
5. commentator['k?m?nte?t?]n.解说员，实况播音员
例句：Instead of deciding the real issue， the com-mentator would chop logic.
这位评论家不去解决实质问题，而总是咬文嚼字。
6. definiteIy['def?n?tl?]adv.肯定地，当然，明确地
例句：It has not yet been definitely settled.
这事还没有明确解决。
7. professionaI[pr?'fe?(?)n(?)l]adj.专业的，职业的
例句：The football team was disciplined by a professional trainer.
这支足球队受过专业训练员的训练。
语法知识点Grammar points
1. They've put up a million dollars in prize money， brought the whole sho w to Las Vegas and tried to change the game's image.
“has/have+过去分词”为现在完成时；“put up”为常用固定搭配，表示“提供，张贴，建造，提供食宿等”；“try to do sth”表示“努力做某事”。
2. And if you are gonna get any kind of public attention in the U.S.，you've got to bring the excitement.
“if”引导条件状语从句，表示“如果”；“gonna”“have got to”属于非正式的表达，分别表示“be going to”“have to”。
3. Yeah， this is definitely one of the biggest games that I've won.
“one of the+最高级”，表示“最……之一”；“that”引导定语从句，先行词是前面的“the biggest games”；“have+过去分词”表示现在完成时，won的原形为win。
4. The first million-dollar chess tournament is taking place in Las Vegas with the aim of changing the whole feature of the game.
“take place”为固定搭配，表示“发生，进行，举行”；“with the aim of”表示“以……为目标”。
5. Well， that is what the organizers of the millionaire chess tournament wou ld like to see happen.
“is”后面是由“what”引导的表语从句；“would like to do sth”为固定搭配，表示“想要做某事”；表语从句中“see”的宾语是前面的“that”，还原过来是“would like to see that happen”。
51：鸟类真的是恐龙进化来的吗？Do Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs？
29/09/2014
New light has been thrown on the evolutionary link between birds and dinosaurs. And it's fair to say it's a very strong link. That's according to Dr. Stephen Brusatte， a paleontologist at the University of Edinburg. He is at the study to build the most comprehensive family tree of carnivorous dinosaurs that's ever been created. And it leads from prehistoric times to the present day. My colleague Dan Damon asked him just how closely related are the birds we see around us to dinosaurs.
Birds are dinosaurs in the same way that elephants are type of mammal or frogs are type of amphibian. Birds， chickens， humming birds-they are all living dinosaurs.
How do you make that link？
So we have lot of fossils now， a whole lot of fossils. And we've been finding more and more of them over the last 20 years or so. This is what prompted us to build this big family tree. So my colleagues and I traveled around the world looking at a lot of dinosaurs， putting together this huge data set. That tree shows us that there are so many features of living birds， things like feathers and wishbones， and wings that didn't just evolve in birds， but they evolved in the dinosaur ancestors of birds. I think a lot of people think about evolution in terms of missing legs. You know， there must be a link between monkeys and men or between dinosaurs and birds. But that's not really how evolution works. The evolution of birds was a long gradual process， first feathers of all， then wishbones， then wings. Then these dinosaurs got smaller. And then they put it all together. The bird body plan was there. They were able to fly. And then bang！Something was unlocked；birds took off. And birds survived the extinction that killed off the dinosaurs and they are still around today，10，000 of them.
Exactly 10，000 species. But they are birds. How did they survive？I mean， some of the dinosaurs must have survived when that， what it was， some kind of comet hit Florida. And so that killed off most of the dinosaurs. Almost every dinosaur died expect for some birds. And why some birds were able to make it through？Well， it's probably due to a lot of reasons， but one of the reasons is because they could fly. Maybe because they were smaller， they could grow faster. But as we also found in this study， birds evolved faster than other dinosaurs. Once that bird body plan of feathers and wings， and wishbones all came together， it allowed birds to simply change faster than other types of dinosaurs. Maybe that was a key to their success.
译文：
近日，科学家对于鸟类和恐龙之间的进化关系给出了新的阐释。爱丁堡大学古生物学者Stephen Brusatte博士正在进行创建有史以来最全面的食肉恐龙族谱的研究，时间跨度为从史前至今。我的同事Dan Damon问他：我们今天见到的鸟类和恐龙之间有怎样密切的联系？
鸟类就是恐龙的一种，正如大象是哺乳动物的一种，青蛙是两栖动物的一种。鸟、鸡、雀鸟等都是活着的恐龙。
怎么证明两者之间的联系呢？
我们现在有大量的化石。而且在过去的20中，我们发现了越来越多的恐龙化石。这促使我们绘制这样一个恐龙族谱。为此，我和同事周游世界，观察大量的恐龙化石，形成庞大的数据组。恐龙族谱显示：鸟类的许多特征，如羽毛、叉骨和翅膀等，不仅在鸟类身上进化，还存在于它的恐龙的鸟类祖先的进化过程中。关于进化，大多数人会想到腿的消失。毕竟猴子进化到人，恐龙进化到鸟类，都有这样一个过程，但进化并不完全是这个样子。鸟类的进化是一个漫长而渐进的过程，首先是羽毛，然后是叉骨，接着是翅膀。这样一来，恐龙的体积就变小了。然后鸟类的身体架构就形成了，而且它们已经具备了飞行的能力。突然有一天，鸟类挣脱了束缚，飞上了青天。它们逃过了恐龙灭绝的劫难，一万种鸟类生息繁衍至今。
是的，一万种。但是它们是鸟类，怎么存活下来呢？我的意思是，当年彗星撞击佛罗里达的时候，肯定还有一些恐龙存活了下来。
那一次，大多数恐龙都灭亡了，除了一些鸟类。那么，为什么这些鸟类能够存活下来呢？原因有很多，其中一点就是它们会飞。可能因为它们体积较小，所以长得快些。但我们在这个研究中也发现，鸟类比其他恐龙进化得更快。
它们一旦拥有了羽毛、翅膀和叉骨，就会比别的种类的恐龙变化得更快一些。也许这就是鸟类成功的关键因素之一。
单词解析Word analysis
1. comprehensive[k?mpr?'hens?v]adj.综合的，全面的
例句：This investigation is designed to be the most comprehensive.
这次调查是所有调查中最全面的一次。
2. prehistoric[pri?h?'st?r?k]adj.史前的，陈旧的
例句：After all， we seem to have killed off all our prehistoric competitors.
毕竟，我们似乎已经杀死了所有史前的竞争对手。
3. coIIeague['k?li?g]n.同事，同僚
例句：John chanced upon a former colleague of his at the airport.
约翰在机场偶然碰到一个以前的同事。
4. mammaI['m?m(?)l]n.哺乳动物
例句：A whale is a kind of mammal.
