其實，只要告訴您“hurdling”是劉翔最引以為豪的一個詞，即使不提供下面這幅圖片，您也會猜出它就是大家常常提及的“跨欄賽跑”。日前，劉翔公開表示：他對衛冕2008年世界跨欄冠軍充滿了信心和決心。

請看《中國日報》相關報道：China's Liu Xiang says he is determined to defend his Olympic 110m hurdling crown at the 2008 Beijing Games and fired out a warning to his main rival.

"I really want to be champion at the Beijing Olympics," the 23-year-old told the Beijing Times, "I couldn't quite dare to say it before, but today I finally have the guts to come out and say it," he added.

報道中的hurdling（跨欄賽跑）也可寫作hurdle(s)，屬于田徑項目的一種，指“參賽者在賽跑時必須連貫性地跨過一系列輕便、可移動的障礙”，如：He places first in the 400meter low hurdles.（他在400米低欄中名列第一。）

和前不久講過的另一個體育詞匯snooker（“斯諾克”臺球）正好相反，日常生活中，snooker作動詞時表示“阻撓；阻礙”，而hurdle作動詞時則用來形容“克服（障礙）”，舉個例子：

He overcame many hurdles to become a lawyer.（他克服無數困難才成為一名律師。）

另外，hurdle在日常生活中也可作名詞“障礙；難關”，如： brush hurdle（樹籬）；economic hurdles（經濟障礙）；the last hurdle before graduation（畢業前的最后一關）。


(英語點津陳蓓編輯）