Fighting spirit

After successfully hosting the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, China has once again caught the world’s attention by organizing another big sporting event – the 2019 Military World Games.
继成功举办2008年北京奥运会之后，中国举办了又一场体育盛事 —— 2019年世界军人运动会，再度引发全球关注。

Known as “the Olympics for military personnel”, the 10-day event, held in Wuhan, Hubei province, has seen record high participation, with 9,308 athletes from 109 countries signed up for the games this year.
被誉为“军人奥运会”的军运会今年在湖北武汉举行，赛期10天，共有109个国家9308名军人报名参赛，赛会规模为历届最大。

Along with Olympic sports like swimming, soccer and basketball, the Military World Games also includes military-related events like naval pentathlon, aeronautical pentathlon, orienteering and parachuting.
除了游泳、足球、篮球等奥运会项目之外，军运会还设有军味十足的海军五项、空军五项、定向越野和跳伞等项目。

The theme for this year’s games is “Military Glory, World Peace”. “War is thought of as the first thing for a military, but military men are also the first to be sacrificed in wars,” Colonel Dorah Mamby Koita, secretary general of the International Military Sports Council, told CGTN. “That’s why we have the policy for athletes across the world to get together and work for peace.”
今年军运会的口号为“创军人荣耀 筑世界和平”。“战争被认为是军队的首要任务，但军人也是在战争中最先牺牲的，”国际军事体育理事会秘书长多拉·曼比·科伊塔在接受中国国际电视台采访时表示，“这也是我们举办赛事，令全球运动员齐聚一堂，共建和平的原因。”

Bearing this in mind, on Oct 18 the opening ceremony of the Games told stories of military characters and culture in a poetic way, interwoven into the context of Chinese civilization.
秉承着这样的想法，10月18日的军运会开幕式以一种诗意的方式，在中华文明的背景下呈现了军事人物和军事文化的故事。

The ceremony showed Chinese military culture, its contribution to global military affairs and Chinese people’s pursuit of peace. For instance, it showed the Chinese character “Wu” could be split into two characters of “stop” and “axe”, which convey the traditional meaning of “military”, that is, “to stop the use of weapons and avoid war is truly military”, or “any effort and determination to stop wars should be appreciated”.
开幕式展现了中国的军事文化、中国对全球军队事务所做出的贡献以及中国人民对和平的追求。比如，开幕式将汉字“武”分成“止”、“戈”二字，传达了“军队”的传统含义 —— “止戈为武”、“和合之道”。

Yang Xiaoyang, general director of ceremonies at the Games, said it’s great to bring military athletes together for peace through sports. “The military’s duty is to maintain peace,” he told China Daily. “Only a strong military can protect people and only by protecting people can they safeguard the bottom line of defending peace.”
本届军运会开闭幕式总导演杨笑阳表示，体育让军人运动员们因和平而团结在了一起。“军队捍卫的是和平，”他在接受《中国日报》采访时表示。“唯有强大的军队，才能保护好人民，唯有保护人民，才能捍卫和平的底线。”

以上文章内容选自《21世纪学生英文报高中版》，详情请见《21世纪学生英文报高中版》高一767期