1. A record for stupidity. Olympic athletes set lots of records. World records. Olympic records. National records. The United States' women's 4x100-meter relay team broke a world record that had stood since 1985. But when the announcer said the women "set a new world record," he dropped the stick and lost any chance at a medal. According to Associated Press style, you cannot set a "new record"
because it's redundant. If you set a record, it's automatically new, right? I mean, you can't set an old record, can you? So when somebody sets a record, leave out the "new."2. Height rhymes with might. The pole vault is always fun to watch. But when NBC held tryouts for announcers, somebody should have made them pronounce the word "height." The announcer pronounced it "hithe" (long i followed by a -th sound) over and over. The word is pronounced "hite" (rhymes with might). It's similar to "weight." Many people mispronounce it. They must be confusing it with "depth" and "width." You'd only pronounce it "hithe" if it were spelled "heighth." See the extra h?
3. A team is singular. For some reason, American TV networks like to use British announcers for soccer. They always make teams into plural nouns. They say "Japan are doing well" instead of "Japan is doing well." Japan is one team, so it's singular. Therefore, it takes a singular verb -- is. This is true even when you say "United States is." Even though "States" is plural, it's still one country. And I am proud to say that the United States women's team is the gold medal winner in soccer.
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