Introduction

As the FIFA Women's World Cup approaches the end of the tournament, we look at the rise in the popularity of female only football. We hear about?the history of the women’s sport in the UK and around the world and what progress has been made since the FA banned women’s matches in 1921. You can learn some related vocabulary along the way too.

This week's question

When was the first?official?women’s football world cup??

A: 1970

B: 1988, or

C: 1991

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary

a struggle

word used to describe something that is difficult to do and might involve a lot of hard work or conflict

(to have) agency

being able to act independently and make your own choices

a backlash

a strong negative reaction to something

to dampen enthusiasm (for something)

to make people less interested in something

to ban

to use rules to stop something from continuing to happen

(to make) a concerted effort (to do something)

to try really hard to do something

Transcript?

Note: This is not a word for word transcript??

Catherine

Hello. This is 6 Minute English I'm Catherine.

Sam

And I'm Sam.

Catherine

Now Sam, have you been watching the World Cup?

Sam

Cricket or football? Because they are both being played at the moment

Catherine

They are. Now I’m talking about football, the Women’s World Cup.

Sam

In that case, yes, I have. I’ve really enjoyed it and it’s been great that finally we can watch the matches live on TV and that there has been so much interest in the media.

Catherine

We’ll be finding out a little bit more about the history of women’s football in England in today’s programme, but first, Sam, a question for you. When was the first?official?woman’s football World Cup?

A: 1970

B: 1988, or

C: 1991

What do you think, Sam?

Sam

Well I think I can get this through mathematics rather than knowledge, so I’m not going to say it right now, but I’ll tell you later.

Catherine

OK. Well I will tell you the answer later in the programme. Now, Gemma Clarke is a writer on women’s football in England and she spoke recently on the BBC Woman’s Hour Programme. Here she describes the reaction throughout the years to women’s football. Has it been easy for the women’s game in England?

Gemma Clarke

Women’s football has really been?a struggle?to play, to have any kind of?agency?and to be taken seriously as athletes. That can be seen throughout history. I think every moment that women’s football has had, you know there’s been a kind of,?a backlash?afterwards or a kind of an attempt to keep women back and?to dampen enthusiasm?for the sport.

Catherine?

So, it’s not been easy, has it?

Sam

No, she said it’s been a?struggle, which means it’s been difficult to make any progress.

Catherine

And she also mentioned that there was no?agency?in the women’s game. To have?agency?means you have control over your own situation, you can make the decisions you want to make. So she’s saying that the women’s game didn’t really have control over its own future.

Sam

Every time they had some success, there was a?backlash, there was a negative reaction to their success.

Catherine

That’s right and she goes on to say that people tried to?dampen enthusiasm?for the sport. They tried to make it difficult for people to see and enjoy it. So who tried to?dampen enthusiasm?and how did they do it? Well, during and after the First World War, women’s football became really popular with crowds of up to 50,000 watching games. It may have been popular with the crowds, but it wasn’t so popular with the?men?who ran the game, the English Football Association. Here’s Gemma Clarke again.

Gemma Clarke

The men’s football association were panicked by seeing women doing so well and they?banned?all women from playing football on association grounds and that lasted for about 50 years. It was a very?concerted effort?to keep women’s football at amateur status and ensure that there weren’t crowds watching them play.

Catherine

So the men were really worried by the success of the women’s game. They thought that it might take money and supporters away from the men’s game.

Sam

So they?banned?woman from playing on their pitches. This means that they no longer allowed them to use the pitches anymore. This effectively killed the professional women’s game as up to then they had been using the same facilities as the men.

Catherine

This she says was a?concerted effort?to restrict women’s football. When you make a?concerted effort?to do something it means that you try really hard to do it. I’m pleased to say that the ban on woman using Football Association pitches was eventually lifted, although only comparatively recently, in 1971. Right, before we review today’s vocabulary, let’s have the answer to today’s question. So I asked you, Sam, when was the first?official?Women’s World Cup? Was it…

A: 1970

B: 1988, or

C: 1991

And you said Sam that you were going to work this out with maths – so come on then.

Sam

I did! So, I know the World Cup is held every four years, it’s 2019 now, so the answer must be an odd year – bear with me - which makes it 1991. Am I right, Catherine?

Catherine

Well we’ll see if that mathematical approach is any better than actually just knowing the answer. The first World Cup for women was actually held in …..

Sam

Come on, hurry up! Let me out of my misery.

Catherine

1970

Sam

I can’t believe I got that wrong

Catherine

But, it wasn’t an official tournament. The first?officialwomen’s world cup was indeed 1991. Your maths worked. So well done Sam and everybody else who got that right. Now, before we get to extra time and penalties, let’s recap today’s vocabulary.

Sam

A?struggle?is how you can describe something that is very difficult to achieve, something you have to fight for.

Catherine

To have?agency?means being able to act independently and have control over your own choices.

Sam

A?backlash?is a strong negative reaction to something.

Catherine

If you try to?dampen enthusiasm?for something, you try to make people less interested in it.

Sam

Banning?something means using certain powers to stop something from happening.

Catherine

And finally, making a?concerted effort?means trying really hard.

Sam

Well the final whistle has blown for us today. We’ll see you again soon and don’t forget to look out for more from the BBC Learning English team online, on social media and on our app. Bye for now.

Catherine

Bye!

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雙語(yǔ)版Transcript Hello. This is 6 Minute English and I'm Catherine. 大家好，這里是六分鐘英語(yǔ)，我是凱瑟琳。 And I'm Sam. 我是薩姆。 Now Sam, have you been watching the World Cup? 薩姆，你看世界杯了嗎？ Cricket or football? Because they are both being played at the moment. 板球還是足球？因?yàn)樗鼈儸F(xiàn)在都在進(jìn)行中。 They are. Now I’m talking about football, the Women’s World Cup. 它們都在進(jìn)行中。我現(xiàn)在說(shuō)的是足球，女足世界杯。 In that case, yes, I have. 那樣的話，是的，我看了。 I’ve really enjoyed it and it’s been great that finally we can watch the matches live on TV and that there has been so much interest in the media. 我真的很享受，而且很高興我們終于可以通過(guò)電視直播觀看女足比賽，在媒體上看比賽如此有趣。 We’ll be finding out a little bit more about the history of women’s football in England in today’s programme, but first, Sam, a question for you. 我們將在今天節(jié)目中了解更多關(guān)于英格蘭女足的歷史，但是首先，薩姆，我有一個(gè)問(wèn)題要問(wèn)你。 When was the first official woman’s football World Cup? 第一次正式的女足世界杯是什么時(shí)候？ Was it... A: 1970 B: 1988 C: 1991 是 A: 1970年 B: 1988年 C: 1991年 What do you think, Sam? 你覺(jué)得呢，薩姆？ Well I think I can get this through mathematics rather than knowledge, so I’m not going to say it right now, but I’ll tell you later. 好吧，我想我可以通過(guò)數(shù)學(xué)而不是知識(shí)來(lái)解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題，所以我現(xiàn)在不會(huì)說(shuō)，但稍后我會(huì)告訴你。 OK. Well I will tell you the answer later in the programme. 好的。我將在稍后的節(jié)目中告訴你答案。 Now, Gemma Clarke is a writer on women’s football in England and she spoke recently on the BBC Woman’s Hour Programme. 杰瑪·克拉克是英國(guó)女足方面的作家，她最近在BBC《女性時(shí)間》節(jié)目中發(fā)表了講話。 Here she describes the reaction throughout the years to women’s football. 在這里，她描述了多年來(lái)人們對(duì)女足的反應(yīng)。 Has it been easy for the women’s game in England? 英格蘭女足比賽容易嗎？ Women’s football has really been a struggle to play, to have any kind of agency and to be taken seriously as athletes. 女足真的很難進(jìn)行，很難有任何決定權(quán)以及很難被作為運(yùn)動(dòng)員認(rèn)真對(duì)待。 That can be seen throughout history. 縱觀歷史可見(jiàn)。 I think every moment that women’s football has had, you know there’s been a kind of, a backlash afterwards or a kind of an attempt to keep women back and to dampen enthusiasm for the sport. 我認(rèn)為女足的每一個(gè)時(shí)刻，你知道的，都有一種，一種強(qiáng)烈抵制，或一種企圖來(lái)阻止女性，抑制對(duì)這項(xiàng)運(yùn)動(dòng)的熱情。 So, it’s not been easy, has it? 所以它并不容易，不是嗎？ No, she said it’s been a struggle, which means it’s been difficult to make any progress. 不容易，她說(shuō)這是一件難事，那指的是很難取得任何進(jìn)展。 And she also mentioned that there was no agency in the women’s game. 她還提到在女足比賽中沒(méi)有決定權(quán)。 To have agency means you have control over your own situation, you can make the decisions you want to make. 擁有決定權(quán)意味著你可以控制自己的處境，你可以做你想做的決定。 So she’s saying that the women’s game didn’t really have control over its own future. 所以她是說(shuō)女足并不能真的掌控自己的未來(lái)。 Every time they had some success, there was a backlash, there was a negative reaction to their success. 每次她們?nèi)〉靡恍┏晒Γ紩?huì)遭到強(qiáng)烈抵制，對(duì)她們的成功都有消極反應(yīng)。 That’s right and she goes on to say that people tried to dampen enthusiasm for the sport. 沒(méi)錯(cuò)，她繼續(xù)談到人們?cè)噲D抑制對(duì)這項(xiàng)運(yùn)動(dòng)的熱情。 They tried to make it difficult for people to see and enjoy it. 他們?cè)噲D讓人們很難看到并欣賞它。 So who tried to dampen enthusiasm and how did they do it? 所以是誰(shuí)試圖要抑制人們的熱情以及他們是如何做的？ Well, during and after the First World War, women’s football became really popular with crowds of up to 50,000 watching games. 好吧，在第一次世界大戰(zhàn)期間及之后，女足變得很受歡迎，觀看比賽的人多達(dá)5萬(wàn)。 It may have been popular with the crowds, but it wasn’t so popular with the men who ran the game, the English Football Association. 它或許在人群中很受歡迎，但對(duì)負(fù)責(zé)比賽的英國(guó)足球協(xié)會(huì)而言它就沒(méi)那么受歡迎了。 Here’s Gemma Clarke again. 這是杰瑪·克拉克再次談到的。 The men’s football association were panicked by seeing women doing so well and they banned all women from playing football on association grounds and that lasted for about 50 years. 看到女性表現(xiàn)如此出色，男子足球協(xié)會(huì)感到恐慌，他們禁止所有女性在協(xié)會(huì)場(chǎng)地踢足球，那持續(xù)了大約有50年。 It was a very concerted effort to keep women’s football at amateur status and ensure that there weren’t crowds watching them play. 他們不遺余力保持女子足球的業(yè)余地位并確保沒(méi)有觀眾觀看她們的比賽。 So the men were really worried by the success of the women’s game. 所以男人們真的很擔(dān)心女足比賽的成功。 They thought that it might take money and supporters away from the men’s game. 他們認(rèn)為那可能會(huì)搶走男足比賽的資金和支持者。 So they banned woman from playing on their pitches. 所以他們禁止女性在他們的球場(chǎng)上踢球。 This means that they no longer allowed them to use the pitches anymore. 這意味著他們不再允許她們使用運(yùn)動(dòng)場(chǎng)地。 This effectively killed the professional women’s game as up to then they had been using the same facilities as the men. 這實(shí)際上扼殺了職業(yè)女足比賽，在那之前，她們一直在使用與男子相同的設(shè)施。 This she says was a concerted effort to restrict women’s football. 她說(shuō)不遺余力限制女足。 When you make a concerted effort to do something it means that you try really hard to do it. 當(dāng)你不遺余力做某事時(shí)，它指的是你真的很努力地去做某事。 I’m pleased to say that the ban on woman using Football Association pitches was eventually lifted, although only comparatively recently, in 1971. 我很高興地說(shuō)，禁止女性使用足球協(xié)會(huì)運(yùn)動(dòng)場(chǎng)地的禁令最終被取消了，盡管只是在最近，在1971年。 Right, before we review today’s vocabulary, let’s have the answer to today’s question. 好的，在我們回顧今天的詞匯之前，讓我們先揭曉今天問(wèn)題的答案。 So I asked you, Sam, when was the first official Women’s World Cup? 所以我問(wèn)你，薩姆，第一次正式的女足世界杯是什么時(shí)候？ Was it... A: 1970 B: 1988 C: 1991 是 A: 1970年 B: 1988年 C: 1991年 And you said Sam that you were going to work this out with maths – so come on then. 而薩姆你說(shuō)你要用數(shù)學(xué)解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題——那就來(lái)吧。 I know, I did! So, I know the World Cup is held every four years, it’s 2019 now, so the answer must be an odd year – bear with me - which makes it 1991. 我知道，我用數(shù)學(xué)解決了這個(gè)問(wèn)題！所以，我知道世界杯每四年舉辦一次，現(xiàn)在是2019年，所以答案肯定是奇數(shù)年份——耐心聽(tīng)我說(shuō)——那就是1991年。 Am I right, Catherine? 我說(shuō)得對(duì)嗎，凱瑟琳？ Well we’ll see if that mathematical approach is any better than actually just knowing the answer. 好吧，我們來(lái)看看那種數(shù)學(xué)方法是否比直接知道答案更好。 The first World Cup for women was actually held in... 第一屆女足世界杯實(shí)際上是在…… Come on, hurry up! Let me out of my misery. 快點(diǎn)，快點(diǎn)！別讓我著急了。 1970 1970年。 I can’t believe I got that wrong. 我不敢相信我答錯(cuò)了。 But, it wasn’t an official tournament. 但它并不是正式的比賽。 The first official women’s world cup was indeed 1991. 第一次正式的女足世界杯確實(shí)是在1991年。 So your maths worked. 你的數(shù)學(xué)起作用了。 So well done Sam and everybody else who got that right. 薩姆和其他所有答對(duì)的人，你們做得很好。 Now, before we get to extra time and penalties, let’s recap today’s vocabulary. 現(xiàn)在在我們進(jìn)入加時(shí)賽和點(diǎn)球之前，讓我們來(lái)復(fù)習(xí)一下今天的詞匯。 A struggle is how you can describe something that is very difficult to achieve, something you have to fight for. “A struggle”是你如何描述一件很難實(shí)現(xiàn)的事情，一件你必須為之奮斗的事情。 To have agency means being able to act independently and have control over your own choices. “To have agency”指的是能夠獨(dú)立行動(dòng)，能夠掌控自己的選擇。 A backlash is a strong negative reaction to something. “A backlash”是對(duì)某事的強(qiáng)烈負(fù)面反應(yīng)。 If you try to dampen enthusiasm for something, you try to make people less interested in it. 如果你試圖抑制人們對(duì)某件事的熱情，你就是在試圖讓人們對(duì)它沒(méi)那么感興趣。 Banning something means using certain powers to stop something from happening. “禁止做某事”指的是使用某些權(quán)力阻止某事發(fā)生。 And finally, making a concerted effort means trying really hard. 最后“不遺余力”指的是很努力嘗試。 Well the final whistle has blown for us today. 好的，今天的終場(chǎng)哨聲已經(jīng)吹響。 Bye for now. 再見(jiàn)了。 Bye!?