North and South Korean Teams to March as One at Olympics

① North and South Korea agreed on Wednesday to march their athletes together under one flag at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics next month and to field a joint women's ice hockey team. It was the most dramatic gesture of reconciliation between them in a decade.

② South Korea, host of the games, has said it hopes such a partnership in sports could contribute to a political thaw after years of high tensions. It came even as the prospect of war over the North's nuclear and missile tests has grown especially acute.

③ The Games will begin on Feb. 9 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and the women's ice-hockey squad will be the first combined Korean team for the Olympics. The two countries' delegations will march at the opening ceremony behind a "unified Korea" flag that shows an undivided Korean Peninsula, negotiators from both sides said in a joint news release after talks at the border village of Panmunjom.

④ The prospect of North and South Koreans cheering together offers a stunning contrast to the bombastic rhetoric of possible war from North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un and President Trump of the United States, South Korea's main ally.

▍生词好句

march /mɑːtʃ/: vi. 齐步走

joint /dʒɔɪnt/: adj. 联合的

hockey /ˈhɒki/: n. 曲棍球

gesture /ˈdʒɛstʃə/: n. 有意义的动作；手势

reconciliation /ˌrɛk(ə)nsɪlɪˈeɪʃ(ə)n/: n. 和解

decade /ˈdɛkeɪd, dɪˈkeɪd/: n. 十年

thaw /θɔː/: n. 解冻；关系缓和

acute /əˈkjuːt/: adj. 紧急严重的；敏锐的

squad /skwɒd/: n. 小队；运动队

delegation /dɛlɪˈɡeɪʃ(ə)n/: n. 代表团

Panmunjom: n. 板门店

bombastic /bɑmˈbæstɪk/: adj. 华而不实的

rhetoric /ˈretərik, ˈrɛtərɪk/: n. 夸张的言论；虚夸的言辞

ally /ˈalʌɪ, ˈælaɪ/: n. 盟友