Table tennis is a sport immediately associated① with the East. However， it was created by Europeans. The origins of Table Tennis are not very certain. It is a relatively new sport； a lot younger than lawn tennis but slightly older than basketball.
The earliest form of the sport was called indoor tennis and was played by British soldiers stationed in India and South Africa. Some of the best creations in the world arise out of boredom and it appears that the British soldiers in 19th Century outposts of their empire were very bored indeed. They used cigar tin lids as bats， wine bottle corks as balls and tables as courts. They fashioned a net by placing a row of books across the centre of a table.
In the early 20th Century improvements were made to the equipment and in 1921 a table tennis association was established in Britain. Table tennis organizations soon started to sprout② up in other European countries. The first world championship was held in London in 1927 and from then until the Second World War the sport was dominated by Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
After the war Asian stars began to rise and by the Fifties they had already started to dominate the sport. Asian players brought two important innovations to the game. The first was the introduction of the foam rubber paddle by Japan’s Horoi Satoh in 1952. This made the game faster and allowed players to put more spin on the ball. The second contribution that Asian players made was the “penholder” grip in which the paddle is held between the forefinger and the thumb. This grip improved player’s ability to maneuver③ the paddle.
In 1988， about one hundred years after bored soldiers goofed about with lids and corks， table tennis was accepted as an Olympic sport.
Table tennis is the official name of the sport but it was formerly known as ping pong. This name is credited to an English man by the name of Gibb. Back in 1900， when the sport was still in its infancy④， Gibb started to use celluloid balls to play and came up with the name “ping pong” from the sound they made when hit from the paddle to the table. In 1901， a British sports manufacturer called Jean Jacques registered⑤ “Ping Pong” as a trade name and sold the American rights to Parker Brothers. The Parker Brothers wouldn’t allow anyone to use the term without paying them a huge amount of money instead so the organizers of competitions started to use the name table tennis instead.
① associatev. 联想，把……联想在一起
② sproutv. 很快地成长
③ maneuverv. 巧妙地操纵(或处理)
④ infancyn. 初期，未发达阶段
⑤ registerv. 登记，注册，申报
乒乓球历史
乒乓球是一项每每言及便会联想到东方的运动。然而，它却发源于欧洲。而且乒乓球的起源并不确定。它是一项相对较新的运动；比草地网球要晚很多，但又比篮球要稍微早一点。
这项运动的最初形式被称为室内网球，玩耍者是驻扎在印度和南非的英国士兵。世界上某些最棒的发明竟是出于无聊而问世的，而且19世纪部署在前哨阵地上的英帝国士兵似乎真的很无聊。他们把雪茄烟的锡盒盖当球拍，葡萄酒的酒瓶塞当球，并把桌子当作了球场。他们还在桌子中间用一排书拉起了球网。
20世纪初，器械被加以改进，而1921年时，还在英国成立了一个乒乓球协会。不久之后，乒乓球组织便开始在欧洲各国涌现。1927年的时候，在伦敦举行了第一届世界锦标赛，从那时起到第二次世界大战，匈牙利和捷克斯洛伐克一直统治着这项运动。
战争结束后，亚洲明星开始崛起，到了50年代的时候，他们已经开始统治这项运动了。亚洲选手为这项运动带来了两项重要的革新。其一就是，日本人左藤博治在1952年时引入了海绵胶皮球拍。这就使该项运动的节奏变得更快，使选手们可以击出转速更快的球。亚洲选手做出的第二个贡献就是发明了用食指和大拇指握住球拍的“直拍”握法。这种握法提升了选手们对球拍的操控能力。
乒乓球于1988年被列为了奥运会运动项目，这距无聊士兵用盖子和瓶塞来打发时间的时代已有约100年的时间了。
“Table tennis”是这项运动的正式名称，但它之前却被称为“ping pong”。而这个名字是一个名叫基博的英国人给起的。在这项运动尚处在幼年时期的1900年，基博开始把赛璐珞材质的球作为比赛用球，并根据球体由球拍击出后到撞击球桌过程中所产生的声音，提出了“ping pong”这一名称。1901年，一家名为“让·雅克”的英国运动器械制造商注册了“Ping Pong”商标，并将美国地区的使用权出售给了帕克兄弟公司。而帕克兄弟公司不允许任何人使用这一名称，除非向其支付高额费用，所以比赛的组办者转而使用“table tennis”这个名称。