第15课 （268字 2分钟）

Passage Fifteen

（K4 level）

1.In the 1930s, a lot of people in the USA were out of work.

2.Among these people was a man named Alfred Butts，he always had an interest in word games and so, to fill his time, he planned a game which he called‘Lexico’.

3.However, he was not completely satisfied with the game, so he made a number of changes to it and, in time, changed its name from ‘Lexico’to‘Alph’ and then to ‘Criss Cross’.

4.He wanted to make some money from his new game but he didn't have any real commercial success.

5.In 1939, Butts happened to meet a man called Jim Brunot who showed an interest in the new game.

6.The two men worked together on developing the game and in 1948 it was offered for sale in the United States under its new name—'Scrabble'.

7.At first, it didn't sell very well，in the first year it sold just 2,250 sets and by 1951 it had only reached 8,500 sets a year.

8.Then, in 1952 the manager of Macy's department store in New York,Jack Strauss, happened to play ‘Scrabble’while he was on holiday.

9.He thought it was a wonderful game and,when he went back to work after his holiday,he insisted that Macy's should stock the game and make an effort to call the public's attention to it.

10.As a result,'scrabble' became a big success in the United States and it soon spreads to Australia and then to other English-speaking countries.

生词表（New Words）

1.people 人  

2. man 男子 interest 兴趣  

3. satisfied 满意 changes 修改 name 名字  

4. money 钱 success 成功  

5. meet 遇到 interest 兴趣  

6. worked 改进 developing 改进 offered 出售

together 一起  

7. sell 销售 sold 售出  

8. manager 经理 department store百货商店holiday 假期

thought 认为 wonderful 棒的  

9. insisted 坚持 attention 关注  

10. success 成功 spreads 传播 countries 国家

1. 在20世纪30年代，美国有许多人失业。

2. 其中有一位名叫阿尔弗雷德·巴茨的男子，他一直对文字游戏很感兴趣，因此，为了打发时间，他设计了一款游戏，并将其命名为“Lexico”。

3. 然而，他对这款游戏并不完全满意，所以对其进行了多次修改，并将名字从“Lexico”改为“Alph”，然后又改为“Criss Cross”。

4. 他希望能通过这款新游戏赚钱，但并没有取得真正的商业成功。

5. 1939年，巴茨碰巧遇到了一位名叫吉姆·布鲁诺特的男子，他对这款新游戏表现出了兴趣。

6. 两人一起改进了这款游戏，并在1948年以其新名字“Scrabble”在美国市场上出售。

7. 起初，它的销量并不好，第一年仅售出2,250套，到1951年每年的销量也只有8,500套。

8. 后来，在1952年，纽约梅西百货商店经理杰克·斯特劳斯在度假时偶然玩了“Scrabble”。

9. 他认为这是一款非常棒的游戏，假期结束后回到工作岗位时，他坚持要求梅西百货进货这款游戏，并努力吸引公众对它的关注。

10. 结果，“Scrabble”在美国大获成功，很快传播到澳大利亚，然后扩展到其他以英语为主的国家。