There is a saying that goes, "Big boys don't cry", but in Berlin at the "Spicy Food World Championship", there were more than one or two men with tears in their eyes.
The challenge of the competition is simple; competitors are set the task to eat all 14 dishes of a specially prepared menu that increased in spiciness with every dish consumed.
The competition started from a joke amongst a group of friends who set themselves the challenge to see who amongst them could eat the hottest chillies. The madcap idea took hold and grew in popularity till it became a serious contest.

有句話說“大男孩不哭”，但在柏林的“吃辣世界錦標賽”上，不止只有一兩個大男孩眼里噙著淚水。
比賽的挑戰(zhàn)項目很簡單，參賽者會拿到一份特別準備的任務菜單并依次吃下這份菜單上的14盤菜，而這14盤菜的辣度會逐盤遞增。
這項比賽起源于一群朋友之間開的一個玩笑——較量他們之間誰能吃下最辣的辣椒。這個瘋狂的想法慢慢流行開，人氣也逐漸增加，直至現(xiàn)在變成了一項認真的競賽。

【注解】
文中的Spicy Food World Championship就是“吃辣世界錦標賽”的意思，其中spicy是形容詞，解釋為“辛辣的，香的”，其名詞形式即第二段中出現(xiàn)的spiciness。文中第三段中的hot也解釋為“辣”，其反義詞可以是mild（味淡的）。
此外，文中的chilli解釋為“辣椒”，由它制成的“辣椒粉”稱為chilli powder或chilli。其他常見的辣味食材還有如pepper（胡椒）、mustard（芥末）等。