Pigeon racing in China

四川成都双流中学 蒋建平（特级教师）

鸽子具有非凡的导航能力，能从千里之外飞回家，所以人们会组织鸽子比赛看哪只先归巢。现在我国的赛鸽运动很火爆，仅北京一地就有约十万人参加。

题材 新兴赛事 体裁 新闻报道文章词数342 难度 ★★★ 建议用时6′

海词积累

1.van n.厢式货车

2.deputy n.代理人；副职

3.loft n.阁楼；顶楼

Every day during the racing season, 55-year-old Zhang Yajun wakes at 4 am and carefully loads bamboo cages containing his 76 cherished racing pigeons into a van.Then he drives up to 200 kilometers from his Beijing apartment to release them.They are in training for the October and November racing season.

Zhang is just one of some 100,000 pigeon breeders living in Beijing, according to Sun Yan,deputy general-secretary of the Racing Pigeons Association in Beijing Changping District.“Pigeon racing is a culture, but it's also a sport,”Sun says.

“Beijing's pigeon races are the most professional ones in China,”says Sun.“Although Europe is the birthplace of modern pigeon racing, China has become the center for pigeon racing,with the most money flowing in.With money,nothing is impossible.”

On race days,trucks carrying cages transport the birds hundreds of kilometers before they are released.When they arrive home,they stamp on an electronic board before entering a pigeon loft,and a message is automatically sent to the race organizer.Names of the fastest birds are announced over the Internet,with the organizer paying out a sum of money to the successful owners.

Zhang,who was a manager,says he spends about 100,000 yuan a year on his pigeons.Thatfood, medicine, race entry fees and transport costs for training sessions—as well as equipment such as his rooftop camera gear.He doesn't keep count of his expenses or prize money. “But overall,I know I lost money.Most people lose money,”he says.

Each spring,Zhang says,some 100 pigeons are born but by fall only about 20 are left.The rest have either gone through illness or died of injuries suffering from hitting telegraph poles or other obstacles.Or else they just got lost on the way home.

“The most exciting thing about this sport is that it's always uncertain，”says Zhang. “You never know what superstar you might have the next year—and your best birds might get lost or killed on the way,even during a race.It's a sport that makes people jealous,bitter,happy and ambitious.Those mixed feelings make the sport charming.”

——From CNN

Reading Check

1.Why does the author narrate Zhang Yajun's releasing pigeons in the beginning?

A.To describe a special scene.

B.To arouse the readers'interest.

C.To introduce the topic of the text.

D.To give some background information.

2.What does paragraph 4 mainly talk about?

A.The reward of the match.

B.The operation of the game.

C.The process of pigeon racing.

D.The atmosphere of the competition.

3.What does the underlined word“cover”in paragraph 5 mean?

A.Report. B.Include. C.Protect. D.Transport.

4.What makes pigeon racing so exciting according to the text?

A.Its fierce competition.

B.Its surprising outcome.

C.Its magnificent scenes.

D.Its permanent uncertainties.

Language Study

Complete the following phrases according to the text.