
If you were to examine the birth certificates ofevery soccer player in 2006's World Cuptournament, you would most likely find anoteworthy quirk:elite soccer players are mostlikely to have been born in the earlier months of theyear than in the later months.
【分析】复合句。if引导的条件句用了虚拟语气 (were);主句中冒号后的内容是对quirk的补充说明。
【译文】如果仔细查看一下2006年世界杯联赛每个足球运动员的出生证明,你很可能会发现一个值得注意的奇怪现象:出色的足球运动员大都在一年的头几个月出生而不是后几个月。
【点拨】certificate意为“证书;证明书;凭证”,birth certificate意为“出生证”。