20110107 Determining Asia's Best (1)

Determining Asia's Best

Asia's biggest soccer tournament starts today

Today, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) begins one of the world’s foremost soccer tournaments. In the AFC Asian Cup, Asia’s top 16 national teams will contend to be the region’s best.

How it all got started

The AFC organizes the Asian Cup every four years. Stretching from Australia to Lebanon, this confederation is the most wide-reaching of FIFA’s six confederations. The AFC began in 1954 with 12 participating nations. As soccer, called football in most countries, grew in popularity throughout Asia, so did the confederation.

Today, the AFC claims 46 member nations – representing over half the world’s population!

AFC tournaments started in Hong Kong in 1956 with Korea Republic winning the first two. In the 1960s, victories shifted to the Middle East where they stayed until the 1990s. Japan brought triumph back to the Far East in 1992, winning three of the next four championships. Who will win this year’s Asian Cup? The next 32 games will answer that.

foremost adj. 最重要的/最著名的

eg: Henry was accepted by one of the foremost colleges in the U.S., his whole family was thrilled.

=> 當美國最著名的大學之一接受了Henry的入學申請時，全家人都興奮得不得了。

eg: Sherry is one of the foremost biochemists of the country.

=> Sherry是國內最優秀的生物學家之一

represent v. 代表/象徵/表示

eg: Geoffrey is representing his school in the national math contest.

=> Geoffrey代表學校參加全國性的數學比賽

eg: The defendant hired a famous lawyer to represent him in court.

=> 被告聘請了一位有名的律師代表他出庭

eg: Red roses often represent love.

=> 紅玫瑰常常象徵著愛情

shift v. 轉移/轉換

eg: She shifted her weight from one foot to the other so she wouldn't feel tired.

=> 她把身體的重量從一隻腳換到另一隻腳，這樣就不會覺得累。

eg: He tried to shift his focus from his terrible break–up with Nancy to his job.

=> 他試著把焦點從和Nancy分手的痛苦轉移到工作上