Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Wendy H.]

This paragragh is talking about some of the advantages of hosting the quadrennial tournament.

And the sentence I cannot understand is here.

"Playing at home(it means in the player's country) is a remarkable advantage given the difficulty of navigating the tournament "

Please help me!I cannot wait to solve this problem.
It really bothers me.

Thank you so much for answering my Q.

PS If there is any grammar mistake in my message, could you please correct me as well?

[CP]

It probably means that when the tournament is in a foreign country, the players and coaches have to deal with a lot more problems than when it is at home. Transportation problems, the language barrier, unusual food, finding the places and correct times to practice, time differences, hostility of the local people -- all kinds of things can make the experience more difficult and troublesome.

In all sports, there is the home-field advantage. Look at the win-loss records of any professional team, and you will see that, most of the time, the team wins more home games than away games, even though all the games may be played in the same country. In the U.S., one sportscaster likes to say, "They love the home cooking."

The home-field advantage is magnified when it is a different country where the team plays. Your story probably focuses on the Olympics or the World Cup, events that occur every four years in one country. Those tend to be very tough for the athletes and coaches to navigate.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[Wendy H.]

yeah, your right
Now I've got the whole view of the sentence.

But what I still can't understand is the grammar :the structure of the sentence and some of the difficulty words. Even I have consult a dictionary. I still can't understand the meaning. It seems werid in this situation.Or I don't know the exact meaning(cause a English word has many definition sometimes)

espially the word 'navigating '

And why the remarkable advantage gives the difficulty?

[CP]

"Playing at home is a remarkable advantage given the difficulty of navigating the tournament."

Navigating: The word refers to finding one's way in the oceans and seas of the world, where there are no guideposts or landmarks. It is hard to do, and sailors have had to be clever to go from here to there without getting lost.

Here, "navigating" is used to mean finding one's way around the tournament in a foreign country. It is very hard.

Given: This is the past participle of "give," and it isn't used to mean that the advantage gives the difficulty.

In mathematics and logic, you start with the givens, the data and rules given as the starting point. Given that X is an even number and Y is a non-zero integer, solve this equation for X: [equation].

Given that it is very difficult for the visitors to find their way around the tournament / the foreign country, playing at home is a real advantage for the home players.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb