【正文】 uch as foregrounding and whole features, such as the stylistic features or language characteristics. Few have paid attention to the study of specific details, including the words, tone and so on. Based on previous studies on English sports news, the thesis mainly focuses on the lexical features and its translation. Aim and Significance of Research Today, sport has bee an indispensable part of people39。s interests widely. The Introduction of English Sports News After making clear of what news is, we can prehend the meaning of sports news easily. Sports news is a type of news, transmitting related information about sports games and fitness activities. It also represents a kind of spirit, that is, challenging ourselves, surpassing ourselves, defeating ourselves and finally pursuing perfect. Sports news mainly report petitive sports games, and it focuses on entertainment and leisure. Moreover, sports news is international. Thus, as English is used around the world, English sports news tends to be more and more important. However, English sports news is different from the other kinds of news. It has its own lexical features and stylistics features, and the thesis will analyze its lexical features in chapter 3. The Theory of “Functional Equivalence” In 1964, Nida put forward the concept of “dynamic equivalence” in his book Toward a Science of Translation. Later at the end of 1980, he rendered his “dynamic equivalence” into “functional equivalence” and interpreted that the meaning of these two concepts are just the same. However, he prefers the concept of “functional equivalence” for the convenience of describing the degrees of adequacy of a translation. Definition of “Functional Equivalence” Functional equivalence implies different degrees of adequacy from minimal to maximal effectiveness. A minimal realistic definition and a maximal ideal definition could be stated respectively as follow:“The readers of a translated text should be able to prehend it to the point that they can conceive of how the original readers of the text must have understood and appreciated it.” “The readers of a translated text should be able to understand and appreciate it in essentially the same manner as the original readers did.” (Nida, 1998: 118) Main Contents of “Functional Equivalence”In his book Language, Culture, and Translating, Nida has distinguished degrees of his “functional equivalence” from the aspects of cognitive and experiential factors, namely, the minimal, realistic “functional equivalence” and the maximal, ideal “functional equivalence” that we have discussed above. Nida stresses that anything less than that minimal degree of equivalence should be unacceptable, while that “maximal level of equivalence is rarely, it never achieved except for texts have little or no aesthetic value and involving only routine information” (ibid.). “Functional equivalence” is the soul of Nida39。s minimal, realistic definition of “functional equivalence” is more definite, concrete and understandable. According to Nida39。s next skipper. (China Daily, September 26, 2006) Here, there are several meanings about the words “captain” and “skipper” in the dictionary. In order to determine the exact meaning, we should pay attention to the context. The piece of news talks about the topic that the person who is selected to be next leader of American team will go up against the leader of European team. Therefore, the words “captain” and “skipper” both mean“隊(duì)長(zhǎng)”. The kind of words has been collected in the professional sports dictionary. However, there are still a large amount of mon words, which can be deduced professional meanings in sports events. For instance, closemarking defense (盯人防守), slide tackle(鏟球), fare charge(合理沖撞), lock tackle(正面搶截), place kick(定位球). Abbreviations Abbreviation (from Latin brevis, meaning short) is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase. For example, Mass. is short for Massachusetts (馬塞諸塞州)。Athletics 田徑)， WR(Wrestling摔跤), VB(Volleyball 排球). RhetoricRhetoric refers to the art of speaking or writing so as to persuade people effectively. Sports news mainly reports the sports events and the changes in the sports area, so in order to show the fierce petition of players or the reporter39。s name or pet name instead. For instance, we choose “Rockets” to represent the team Huston Rockets, because NASA control center is located in Houston. Michael Jordan has led Chicago Bulls gain the NBA championships for six times, so his name is replaced by “flying man (飛人).” Sometimes, a unique feature of one place is used to represent the place. Look at the following example:(3) The samba star, billed as the next big thing to e out of samba football, is an established star back in Brazil. (China Daily, February 14, 2005) Here, samba(桑巴舞)substitutes Brazil or Brazil football, because samba is a kind of Brazil social dance originating from Africa, which is very popular in Brazil and has impressive national connotation. For the reason, samba has some attached links with Brazil, so it can be the replacement of Brazil. Slang Slang refers to informal language which consists of words and expressions that are not considered appropriate for formal occasions. Most sports enthusiasts are young people, and they are the main groups purchasing sports newspapers and magazines. In order to meet their needs, the sports news vocabulary tends to be more and more entertaining and colloquial. Since the mid 1960s, more and more slang or colloquial words have appeared in English sports news. With the increasing popularity of sports news in mass media, the news must link with the readers39。s similar cognition process. As for the vocabulary in English sports news, the sports terminology and the names or the abbreviations related to sports should be translated literally. Look at the