主题：Hope hangs over New Jersey as Yi takes floor新赛季阿联能否爆发？

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Yi Jianlian, in his third year, has a lot yet to prove on the basketball court.

PUT yourself, for a moment, in the giant shoes of Yi Jianlian. It's Wednesday, October 28 – game time. You're about to begin your third NBA season.

You adjust the waistline of your shorts and rub the bottoms of your Nikes on the shiny wooden floor at the Target Center in Minnesota. The referee instructs you to shake hands with your opponents, blows his whistle and throws the ball into the air.

What's going through your mind as the ball climbs toward the ceiling?

Since Yi, 22, was drafted in 2007, Chinese basketball fans have been holding their breath, waiting for The Next Yao to emerge. Some are still waiting – their faces turning blue for lack of oxygen. Others gave up hope long ago, concluding that Yi is no more than a poor man's Yao. A few have yet to make up their mind.

During year one, Yi's play with Milwaukee could be described, at best, as invisible. He averaged 8.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. People barely noticed him out on the floor.

During year two, in New Jersey, Yi started strong. But when all was said and done, his numbers basically mirrored those of his rookie season: 8.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. Observers feared he was not growing as a player.

Entering year three, however, Yi has given fans new reason for hope. When he takes the court on Wednesday, for instance, he will unveil a noticeably stronger upper-body.

His off-season weightlifting routine seems to have given him more power to collect rebounds in traffic. On October 10 against Boston, he scored 20 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. He ended the preseason last Friday on an even better note, scoring 22 points and 11 rebounds against Philadelphia – his second double-double in three games.

"There's possessions when he's coming in and boxing me out for rebounds," teammate Brook Lopez said after the game. "It's great to have him out there."

Yi also showed more emotion and confidence during the preseason, even getting physical with Boston's Kevin Garnett on October 10. This new attitude, wrote The Star-Ledger newspaper's Dave D'Alessandro, "looks like a willingness, or even eagerness, to hit first and let the guy know he's not going to back down."

For now, then, hope in Yi still hangs over New Jersey. The Nets are optimistic about his offseason development. How long this optimism lingers depends on what Yi does with the ball when it falls into his hands on Wednesday, and in the weeks to follow.

NBA's new video ‘rule book' doubles as a language tool

ATTENTION all Chinese basketball fans: The NBA's new online video rule book (nba.com/videorulebook) might be just as valuable to you as your English textbooks.

Because the online tool illustrates basketball rules with slow-motion video clips, fans can learn more about the game and, at the same time, add a host of new nouns and verbs to their English vocabulary.

For example, the term "second-degree flagrant foul" is "much easier to grasp after watching Shaquille O'Neal clobber Rodney Stuckey in midair," comments The New York Times.

For basketball fans whose native language is not English, making sense of such rules can be particularly challenging without clear examples. The online rule book allows English learners to match key words to on-the-court action. Take, for example, the offensive foul known as "hooking". To illustrate this, the video rulebook shows Utah's Carlos Boozer using his arm to push away or "hook" a defender while dribbling towards the basket. The action is shown from three different angles.

The rule reads: "On this play, the offensive player in the post starts his drive to the basket by reaching around and hooking his defender with his off [unused] arm. Offensive players are not permitted to hook their opponents with their off arms when trying to maneuver around them."

Currently, about 100 rules are illustrated with video clips. The NBA says it plans to add even more videos in the coming months.

BONUS

back down

放弃原主张

If she challenges you, don't back down. You have a strong argument that needs to be heard by management.

不要因为她的质疑而放弃你原本的主张。你有一个很好的想法，应该让管理层了解。

box out

卡位 (打篮球时，挡在对手和篮板之间阻挡对手抢篮板球)

In order to cram into the subway train, she had to box out others who were trying to get on behind her.

为了挤进地铁，她不得不挡住后面那些千方百计往前拥的人。

clobber

殴打，猛击

The thief clobbered the woman with a stick and stole her purse. The police doubt they will ever catch him.

小偷用棍子殴打了那个女人，还偷走了她的钱包。警方怀疑他们永远都抓不到他了。

poor man's sth

逊色的人(或物)，次等货色

Well, here she is – my "new" used Buick. With those shiny rims, she looks kind of like a poor man's Cadillac.

看，这就是我的"新"别克。装上这些崭新的轮圈后，她简直是一辆次等的凯迪拉克。

英语词汇解析

foul 犯规

referee 裁判

dribble 运球

flagrant 名目张胆的

gambler 赌徒

preseason 季前赛

rebound 抢断篮板球

rookie 第一年参加联赛的职业球队的新队员

waistline 腰围