Beijing unveils 2008 Olympic mascots 　 五福娃喜迎2008奥运会
Beijing unveiled a set of five doll mascots(1) for the 2008 Olympic Games Friday evening, exactly 1,000 days before the event's opening ceremony.
The long-anticipated(2) mascots, which embody the natural characteristics of four of China's popular animals -- the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope(3), the Swallow -- and the Olympic Flame, were presented at a televised grand ceremony inside the Workers' Gymnasium(4).
It is the first time more than three images share Summer Olympic mascot duty.
The 2000 Sydney Games featured three animal mascots -- Olly the Kookaburra(5), Syd the Platypus(6) and Millie the Spiny Anteater(7).
"We decided to produce five mascots instead of one, because we think no single figure can embody China's profound and diversified culture," said Han Meilin(8), chief of the mascot designers' group.
Each of the Beijing Olympic mascots has a rhyming(9) two-syllable(10) name -- a traditional way of expressing affection(11) for children in China. Beibei is the Fish, Jingjing is the Panda, Huanhuan is the Olympic Flame, Yingying is the Tibetan Antelope and Nini is the Swallow.
When these names are put together -- Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni.
The five elements of nature -- the sea, forest, fire, earth and sky -- can be found in their origins and headpieces(12), all stylistically(13) rendered(14) in ways that represent the deep traditional influences of Chinese folk art and ornamentation(15).
Each of the mascots also symbolizes a different blessing -- prosperity, happiness, passion, health and good luck.
The unveiling of the Beijing Olympic mascots also ended a year-long race of hundreds of candidates.
Since the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) launched a worldwide solicitation in August last year, competition was hot as a handful of areas were vying(16) to have their local symbols picked.
The country's western Qinghai province was pushing the endangered Tibetan antelope. Fujian province presented the South China tiger. Gansu favored the mythical dragon and Jiangsu promoted the legendary(17) Monkey King.
Dozens of artists and designers were called to cut the initial list of mascot entrants from 662 to 56 and finally to six, with the final choice selected by the BOCOG. The International Olympic Committee approved the choice in August.
The first mascot to appear at an Olympic Games was in the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble, France. But Schuss(18) the skier(19) was not official. The first official mascot was Waldi the Dachshund, who appeared at the Munich Summer Games in 1972.

周五晚—距离2008年奥林匹克运动会召开1000天—北京公开了一套5个奥运会福娃。
期待已久的吉祥物揭幕式在工人体育馆隆重举行，并通过电视直播。其中四个吉祥物是深受中国人喜爱的动物：鱼、熊猫、藏羚羊和燕子，另外一个则象征奥运圣火。
这是历史上首次使用三个以上的吉祥物来体现奥运精神。
2000年悉尼奥运会选用了笑翠鸟Olly，鸭嘴兽Syd和针鼹Millie三种动物作为吉祥物。
吉祥物设计小组组长韩美林说：“我们决定选用五个吉祥物而不是一个，因为我们认为没有任何单独的形象能够体现出中国深远而多样的文化。”
中国人习惯为孩子起叠名以表达喜爱之情，因此每个北京奥林匹克吉祥物都有一个上口的叠名。小鱼名叫贝贝，熊猫叫晶晶，奥运圣火叫欢欢，藏羚羊叫迎迎，燕子叫妮妮。
五个名字联在一起就是：北京欢迎你。
从这五个吉祥物的帽子上可以看出他们分别代表了大自然的五个元素—海、森林、火、大地和天空，体现出深厚的中国传统民族文化和传统装饰物。
每个吉祥物还分别蕴含了不同的祝福：繁荣、幸福、激情、健康和好运。
北京奥林匹克揭幕式结束了数百设计者长达一年的竞选。
去年八月，北京2008年奥运组织委员会开始向全世界征集吉祥物设计方案。一些地区十分希望自己地区的代表物可以被选中，因此竞争十分激烈。
中国西部的青海省推选濒危的藏羚羊。福建省推荐华南虎。甘肃推荐神话中的龙，江苏则大力推荐孙悟空。
几十位艺术家和设计师被召集筛选设计方案，他们从662份中挑选了56份，最后选出六份交给北京奥组委审查。今年八月，国际奥林匹克委员会做出了最终决定。
首次推出吉祥物是在1968年法国格勒诺布尔冬季运动会上。但是滑雪小人的形象并没有被官方承认。第一个被官方承认的吉祥物是1972年德国慕尼黑夏季奥运会上的短腿腊肠猎犬Waldi。

1. mascot：吉祥物，福神
2. long-anticipated：期待已久的
3. antelope：羚羊
4. gymnasium：体育馆，健身房
5. kookaburra：笑翠鸟，一种大翠鸟，原产于澳大利亚，其叫声象嘶哑的笑声。
6. platypus：鸭嘴兽产于澳大利亚和塔斯马尼亚的一种半水生产卵的哺乳动物，尾宽阔而扁平，脚有蹼，鼻子类似于鸭嘴。
7. anteater：食蚁兽一种美洲热带食蚁科哺乳动物，没有牙齿，以蚂蚁和白蚁为食，尤其是三趾食蚁兽属有长而细的鼻子，长而粘的舌头和长毛蓬松的尾巴。
8. Han Meilin：韩美林，1936年出生于山东省济南市，1960年毕业于中央工艺美术学院，1979年当选为
9. rhyming：押韵的
10. two-syllable：叠音的
11. affection：喜爱
12. headpiece：帽子，头盔
13. stylistically：在文体上
14. render：呈现，给予
15. ornamentation：装饰，装饰品
16. vie：竞争的
17. legendary：传说中的
18. schuss：高速直线滑雪
19. skier：滑雪的人