| Anyone who refuses to leave prison simply because they are having too much fun playing billiards would be considered something more than just a diehard fan. 要是有人因为太爱打台球而不肯出狱，那他们绝对不只是球痴而已。 Yet that is exactly what a Captain Mingaud did during the French Revolution. 而在法国大革命时期，敏高德上尉正是一个顽固的台球迷。 Granted, Mingaud was not only playing billiards, he was busy revolutionizing the game. 他 不仅玩台球，还忙着改革这项运动。 Though billiards had already been popular for more than 100 years at that time, Mingaud was the first person to round the end of a pool cue with a file and apply a leather tip to it. 尽管当时，台球已盛行了百余年，而敏高德却是第一个使用锉刀把球杆尾端磨圆，并用皮子包上的人。 After prison, Mingaud promptly proved his invention's superiority over its flat, club-like predecessor in exhibitions throughout France. 出狱后，在法 国的多次展览会上，敏高德很快就证明他的新发明比原先那种平头像球棍的球杆好用。 What the captain had developed was essentially the cue in use today, but the game he generated interest in did not involve shooting balls into pockets. 上尉发明的球杆沿用至今，然而当时他引发兴趣的游戏，还未发展到将台球击进球袋的阶段。 Pocket billiards such as modern-day pool and snooker were around, but they were considered to be the ill-bred cousins of carom billiards, which used a pocketless table. “球袋台球”(pocket billiards)如花式、英式台球在当时比比皆是，但却被视为是“教养不良的兄弟台球”（carom billiards),它们的球台没有球袋。 The name pool was born during the 1840s when billiards was closely identified with gambling parlors, or "pool parlors" in the lexicon of the day. “弹子”(pool)这个名词 出现在19世纪40年代，当时台球室和赌场是紧密联系在一起的，以当时的辞汇称之即为“弹子房”。 The name stuck, and with more than 40 million people playing in America alone last year, so has the game. 这个名称就保留下来，去年，光是美国就有超过四千万人玩台球，这项运动也常盛不衰。 Despite its universal popularity and frequent airtime on ESPN with professionally organized tournaments, billiards has rarely enjoyed universal respect. 尽管台球已经风靡世界各地，ESPN也时常转播职业球队的公开赛，但却始终未能赢得世人尊重的目光。 |
