北京奧運會最受關注的兩個新建場館——國家體育場“鳥巢”和國家游泳中心“水立方”將在明年4月和2月分別正式亮相。今年8月在北京舉辦的“好運北京”系列賽事的首場比賽也即將打響。在42項比賽中，包括“鳥巢”和“水立方”在內的所有奧運場館都將揭開神秘面紗，同時有實力在明年奧運會上奪冠的選手也將在“好運北京”中預演。

The National Stadium under construction (File, May 1, 2007) Photo credit: XINHUA

The "Bird's Nest" and the "Water Cube," two major competition venues for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, will be unveiled in April and February 2008 respectively as they will host several "Good Luck Beijing" sports events at that time.

Among the 42 high-level sports events to be held ahead of the next summer's Olympics, 16 will be staged in the first five months of 2008. The National Stadium, dubbed the "Bird's Nest," will be the venue for the IAAF Race Walking Challenge from April 18-19 and the 2008 China Open Marathon on April 20.

On the other hand, the National Aquatics Center, also called the "Water Cube," will hold the China Open swimming event from February 1-5, the World Cup diving from February 19-24, and the Olympic qualification synchronized swimming from April 16-20.

Many other sports events such ascanoe-slalom, beach volleyball, tennis, handball and equestrian also have been arranged at the Olympic venues to test the preparations for next August's Olympic Games.

For that reason the new venues have become attractive to world's top level athletes. The international sport federations also want to use the pre-Games events to promote their sports. The champion hopefuls of the 2008 Olympics may appear in the venues if they participate in the "Good Luck Beijing" events.

The "Good Luck Beijing" events are the games of the different international sport federations so that their marketing bears "personalized" characteristics and the organizers must abide by the relevant rules and regulations in their marketing activities.

From December 13-19 theITTF Pro-Tour Grand Finalsare scheduled to be held in Peking University Gymnasium, an Olympic venue too. The ITTF has signed a sponsorship agreement with an enterprise which won the relevant market rights. As the organizer of the ITTF event, the Chinese Table Tennis Association must honor the ITTF marketing rules and regulations, BOCOG Executive Vice-President Yang Shu'an was quoted as saying.

Vocabulary:

canoe-slalom：激流劃船

ITTF Pro-Tour Grand Finals：國際乒聯職業巡回賽總決賽

（英語點津boeybb編輯）

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