背景介绍：
要说十几年来世界足坛最闪耀的球星是谁，那一定绕不开梅西和C罗。十几年来，梅罗堪称是世界足坛的“绝代双骄”，外界也一直在讨论他们两人孰强孰弱。过去4届世界杯上，梅西一共出场19次，打入6球，助攻5次；C罗则参加了17场比赛，打入7球，助攻2次，数据相差不大，均是各自球队的头等功臣。本届世界杯之旅，梅罗能否带领各自球队过关斩将，拿下他们渴望已久的世界杯冠军奖杯。Lionel Messi and Cristiano
Ronaldo have forged modern footballA new book explores their
influence on and off the pitchWinning the Ballon d’Or, an award given to
the best male footballer in the world, is considered one of the crowning
glories of a player’s career. Only a handful of athletes have won the prize
twice; Marco van Basten, Johan Cruyff and Michel Platini each prevailed three
times. 金球奖是颁发给世界上最优秀的男子足球运动员的奖项，荣获该奖被认为是球员职业生涯的至高荣誉之一。能两次获奖的球员寥寥无几；三次获奖的仅有范·巴斯滕、克鲁伊夫和普拉蒂尼。For a decade, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo turned the Ballon d’Or into a duopoly. Between 2008—when Mr Ronaldo first won the award—and 2017, the pair claimed every Ballon d’Or between them.十多年来，金球奖成了梅西和C罗的双雄对决。从2008年C罗首次获得金球奖到2017年，二人包揽了每届金球奖。Never have the highest reaches of football
been dominated by the same two men for so long. In “Messi vs Ronaldo”, Joshua
Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, two journalists at the Wall
Street Journal, attempt to understand how they have done it. 此前足坛之巅从未被同样两人统治如此之久。在《梅罗之争》一书中，《华尔街日报》的两位记者约书亚·罗宾逊和乔纳森·克莱格试图弄清楚他们是如何做到这一点的。Talent is part of the story. Both players combine relentlessscoring—they are the all-time top goalscorers in La Liga, Spain’s top division, and the Champions League, the leading European club competition—with brilliant passing. At their best, they function both as their side’s main creator of goals and the main scorer of them.天赋是一方面。两人都是西甲联赛（西班牙顶级联赛）和欧冠（欧洲顶级俱乐部赛事）的历史最佳射手，同时他们还拥有过人的传球能力。在巅峰时期，他们既是球队的主要攻手，也是主要的得分手。The pair’s influence also reflects
globalisation, modern technology and football’s growing clout. When Mr Messi
played for Barcelona, he had a say in transfers and even managerial
appointments. 两人的影响力也反映了全球化、现代科技以及足球日益增长的影响力。当梅西为巴萨罗那效力时，他在球员转会甚至管理层任命上都有发言权。His sway was such that, when a club employee argued that Mr Messi “would not be as good” without the help of his team-mates, the staff member was quickly dismissed “for having publicly expressed a personal opinion that does not match that of the club”. Mr Messi’s salary—€555m ($577m) over his last four years—almost bankrupted Barcelona. 他的影响力如此之大，以至于当一名俱乐部员工称，如果没有队友的帮助，梅西“不会表现得这么好”时，这名员工很快就被解雇了，“因为他公开表达了与俱乐部看法不相符的个人观点”。梅西过去四年的薪资总共是5.55亿欧元（约合5.77亿美元），几乎让巴塞破产。When Mr Ronaldo moved from Real Madrid to Juventus in 2018, his new club gained a vast number of social-media followers while his old one lost hundreds of thousands. Traditionally, fandom means following a particular team regardless of its squad; for many in the age of Mr Messi and Mr Ronaldo, it has become about following players instead.2018年，当C罗从皇家马德里转会到尤文图斯时，他的新东家在社交媒体上收获了大量粉丝，而他的老东家却掉粉数十万。传统上，“球迷”是指追随某支球队的粉丝，而不关乎球员的更迭；但在梅西和C罗的时代，许多球迷只追随特定球员。From 2009 to 2018, when both men played
for Spanish teams, every clash doubled up as a referendum on which man was the
superior star. If Mr Messi—for his grace in playing the game and sense of
play—was football’s Roger Federer, then Mr Ronaldo was its Rafael Nadal: less
artistic, more physical, his career a triumph of sheer bloody-mindedness. 从2009年到2018年，两人都为西班牙的球队效力，每次对抗都成了一次关于谁是更优秀球星的公投。如果说梅西堪称足球界的罗杰·费德勒（因为他在比赛中所展现的优雅和纯真的快乐），那么C罗就是足球界的拉斐尔·纳达尔（少了一些艺术，多了一些对抗，他的职业生涯纯粹是血性的胜利）。Mr Messi has eschewed publicity and Mr Ronaldo has embraced it. (See the recent interview in which he criticised his current club, Manchester United.) But the authors argue that such contrasts overlook the players’ “mutual understanding”: “that their most important business partner is the other”. If there is no friendship between the two, neither is there real animosity.梅西一直回避公众的关注，而C罗欣然接受。（看看他最近批评曼联的采访吧。）但两位作者认为，这样的对比忽视了两位球员的“相互理解”，他们懂得“他们最重要的商业伙伴正是对方”。就算两人之间没有友谊，那么不会有真正的敌意。Aged 35 and 37, Mr Messi and Mr Ronaldo,
albeit a little diminished, continue to play on, apparently motivated less by
what they can achieve at their clubs than on the international stage, for
Argentina and Portugal. Both have won one major international tournament. The
weeks ahead offer the tantalising possibility that one of the pair might win
the prize both covet most: the World Cup.梅西和C罗今年分别是35岁和37岁，尽管状态略有下滑，但都还奔跑在绿茵场上，激励他们的显然不只是在俱乐部取得成就，而更多是分别代表阿根廷和葡萄牙征战国际舞台。两人都赢得过一次国家大赛。在接下来的几周里，他们中的一个人可能会赢得两人都最渴望的奖杯：世界杯。(红色标注词为重难点词汇)
relentless [rɪˈlentləs] adj. 不间断的；持续的；不留情面的；残酷无情的eschew [ɪsˈtʃuː] v. 避免使用；避开；回避animosity [ˌænɪˈmɑːsəti] n. 敌意tantalise [tæntəlaiz] vt. 使…干着急；逗弄
苏格拉底有一句名言：我知我无知。说的是，当你认识到的东西越多就越发现自己无知。苏格拉底认为，人对于客观世界的认识是有限的，且不可能完全认识客观世界，并且不应对客观世界刨根究底。神对于世界的规划自有安排，若人一意孤行地探索世界和自然的奥秘，则最终将亵渎甚至触怒神明。正因为人对神所构建的世界不可能实现完全认知，因此那些宣称自己能够认识和改造世界的人，本身便是无知的代言。尽管苏格拉底的关于“ 我知我无知”的观念的解读，在现在看来有失客观科学。但至少苏格拉底告诫人们，人的认知是有限的，现有的知识甚至可能存在错误和疏漏。同样地，我们在求学之路上也要报以我知我不知的心态，才能走得更远。最后，祝愿莘莘学子都能终有所成！