王小萍

隨著高科技的發(fā)展，擁有一雙功能性跑鞋將有效提升運(yùn)動(dòng)員長跑的優(yōu)勢，但這公平嗎？

1 Platform shoes are back in fashion， at least in athletics. Many of the long?distance runners at the Tokyo Olympics arrived at the starting line sporting footwear with distinctive chunky?looking heels. It will be more than just fashion statement. The new shoes offer such a big performance advantage that critics have described them as “technological doping （興奮劑）”.

2 Running?shoe makers have long tried to boost athletic performance， observes Geoff Burns， a biomechanics expert at the University of Michigan. In olden days， a 1% improvement in “running economy”—the energy taken to travel a given distance—would have impressed. But in 2016 Nike released the first version of its “Vaporfly” model， which improved “running economy” by 4%.

3 If that percentage were to translate directly into performance， it would cut about five minutes off an elite males marathon time. In practice， as Dr Burns observes， it wouldnt quite do that. A marathon improvement of around 90 seconds would be a more realistic expectation.

4 Scientists are still puzzling over exactly how the shoes work. The soles are made of a new material that offers a mix of resilience （彈性） and softness， according to Dr Burns. This returns around 80% of the energy from each strike of a runners foot.

5 The carbon?fibre plate may help alter a runners gait. By cushioning （緩和打擊） a runners bones and muscles from repetitive impacts， the shoes may even help athletes train harder than they otherwise could.

6 In January 2020， World Athletics， the governing body of international athletics， passed new rules limiting the thickness of the sole of road shoes to 40 mm. Meanwhile， Nike appeared to have put its plans aside to design high?tech shoes for sportsmen at the Tokyo Olympics， possibly because they did not obey the regulations either. But if they have worked out a way around that problem， there could be fireworks in the match， too.

[Reading][Check]

Choose the best answers according to the text

[Language][Study]

Ⅰ. Analyze the difficult structure in the text

The new shoes offer such a big performance advantage that critics have described them as “technological doping”. 這款新鞋有著巨大的性能優(yōu)勢，以至于批評者將其稱之為“技術(shù)興奮劑”。

【點(diǎn)石成金】本句是一個(gè)主從復(fù)合句，句中such...that...引導(dǎo)結(jié)果狀語從句，意為“如此……以至于……”。

Ⅱ. Memorize some text?centered chunks

in fashion 流行 be made of... 由……組成

according to 根據(jù) a mix of... ……的混合

put...aside 擱置……