北师大版高二英语新教材选择性必修二课文及翻译(中英文Word)

Unit 4

Lesson 1 What’s So Funny?

第一课有趣的小故事

Story A

故事A

A famous art collector was walking through the city when he noticed a dirty cat lapping milk from a saucer in the doorway of a store. He did a double take.

一个著名的艺术品收藏家在穿过城市时看见一只脏猫在一家商店门口舔饮浅碟中的牛奶。他惊讶地又看了一眼。

He noticed that the saucer was an antique and very valuable, so he walked casually into the store and innocently offered to buy the cat for 20 dollars.

收藏家注意到浅碟是件古董，很值钱，于是他漫不经心地走进店里，假装不知情的样子，提出要花20美元买那只猫。

The store owner replied, “I’m sorry, but the cat isn’t for sale.”

收藏家注意到浅碟是件古董，很值钱，于是他漫不经心地走进店里，假装不知情的样子，提出要花20美元买那只猫。

The collector said, “Please, I need a hungry cat with a good appetite around the house to catch mice. I’ll pay you 200 dollars for that cat.”

收藏家说：“拜托了，我正需要一只又饿、胃口又好的猫帮我抓屋里的老鼠呢，我可以出200美元买那只猫。”

The owner said “sold” and handed over the cat.

店主说了声“成交”，就把猫给了他。

The collector continued, “Hey, for the 200 dollars I wonder if you could throw in that old saucer. The cat’s used to it and it’ll save me from having to get a dish.”

收藏家接着说：“嘿，200 美元的话能不能把那个破碟子也送给我。毕竟这猫已经习惯了用它，这样也省得我再去买猫食盆了。”

And the owner said, “Sorry my friend, but that’s my lucky saucer. So far this week I’ve sold 68 cats.”

店主说：“对不起，朋友，那可是我的幸运碟。到现在为止，这周我已经卖出去68 只猫了。”

Story B

故事B

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. After a good dinner and a bottle of wine, they retired for the night, and went to sleep.

就准备休息，去睡觉了。

Some hours later, Holmes woke up and asked his faithful friend, “Watson, look up at the sky and tell m e what you see.”

几小时后，福尔摩斯醒了，问他忠实的朋友：“华生，抬头看看天空，告诉我你看到了什么。”

“I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes,” replied Watson.

“福尔摩斯，我看到无数的星星，”华生回答。

“And what do you deduce from that?”

“那你从中推断出什么？”

Watson thought for a minute.

华生想了一会儿。

“Well, according to the studies on astronomy, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. According to the positions of the stars, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. According to the scientific measurement of time, I deduce that the time is probably a quarter past three. According to the current atmosphere, I forecast that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you, Holmes?”

“嗯，根据天文学研究推断，现在天空中有数百万的星系，可能还有数十亿颗行星。根据星星的位置判断，现在土星在狮子座。根据科学计时测算，我推断现在大概是三点一刻。根据目前的大气条件，我预测明天天气会很好。福尔摩斯，你推断出了什么？”

Holmes was silent for a moment. “Watson,” he said, “someone has stolen our tent!”

福尔摩斯沉默了一会儿。“华生，”他说，“有人偷了我们的帐篷！”

Story C

故事C

A middle-aged man was feeling very down. Everything had been going wrong for him. He had had problems at work and his wife had left him for another man. So, after he had been feeling depressed for over a month, he decided to go to the doctor. He had to wait for what seemed like ages in the doctor’s surgery. The bleeding man next to him was looking at his watch nervously; a

woman was coughing and sneezing badly; and a baby was screaming. Finally, after he had been waiting for about half an hour, he was called in for his consultation. The doctor was writing a note at her desk when he came in. “Sorry, I’m just fin ishing something. I’m afraid we’ve been very busy this morning.” She then turned to the man. “So, what’s the problem?” she asked.

子又跟别的男人跑了。在沮丧了一个多月后，他决定去看医生。他在诊室里等着，像是等了几个世纪。旁边的男人在流血，紧张地看着手表；一个女人使劲咳嗽、打喷嚏；还有个婴儿在哭闹。等了半小时后，终于叫到他了。他进去时医生正在办公桌上写便条。“抱歉，我刚忙完别的事，今天上午很忙。”之后她转向中年人问道，“你怎么了？”

“Well, I’ve been having a bit of a crisis, you know, lots of problems,” replied the man. “And I’ve been doing a lot of work.”

“是这样的，我最近遭遇了一点危机，嗯，是出现了很多问题，”那人回答道，“而且我工作一直很忙。”

“Mmm, you’re looking very pale.” The doctor started to examine him. “Well, everything is working OK,” she announced afterwards. “You have slightly high blood pressure and you’re breathing quite heavily, but otherwise everything’s fine.”

“嗯，你脸色很苍白。”医生开始给他检查。“不过一切正常，”她检查后说道。“除了血压有点高，呼吸有些沉重，其他方面都正常。”

“So what can I do?” asked the man. “I’m going on a trip soon. I will be working

in the United States for three months. This time next week, I’ll be arriving in New York.”

“那我该怎么办？”那人问道。“我很快就要出差了，要在美国连续工作三个月。下星期的这个时候，我就去纽约了。”

The doctor thought for a while. “I think what you need is a good laugh. That would do you a lot of good. A circus is performing in town. Why don’t you go to see it?

I hear there’s an amazing clown who’ll really make you laugh. His name’s Grock.”

医生想了一会儿。“我觉得你需要开怀大笑，笑出来对你很有好处。城里刚好有马戏团表演，你怎么不去看看呢？我听说马戏团里有个很棒的小丑，叫格罗克，他肯定能逗笑你。”

“I am Grock,” replied the man sadly.

“可我就是格罗克，”那人悲伤地回答。

Lesson 3 My Favourite Comedian

第三课我最喜欢的喜剧演员

TEXT 1 Mr Bean

憨豆先生

Mr Bean is an internationally recognised comedy character in films and TV series. He has a reputation for constantly encountering awkward situations, which greatly amuses audiences of all nationalities and cultures. His humour is always made clear through a series of simple and funny acts that rely purely on body language that is

憨豆先生是一个国际知名的影视喜剧人物。他的著名之处在于总是遇到尴尬的情境，使来自不同国家、不同文化背景的观众都觉得非常好笑。憨豆先生的幽默总是通过一连串简单、可笑的动作清晰地表达出来，完全依靠肢体语言这一全世界都能理解的方式。

One of my favourite episodes was Mr Bean in a fancy restaurant. After being seated at his table, Mr Bean takes out a card, writes a few words on it, puts it in an envelope and places it on the table. After a moment, he looks back at the envelope but this time he looks surprised, as if he did not know it was there. He opens it to find a birthday card and very happily puts it on the table for everyone to see.

我喜欢的一集是憨豆先生在一家高档餐厅用餐的故事。在餐厅里安排就座后，憨豆先生拿出一张卡片，在上面写了几个字，塞进信封，放在桌子上。过了一会儿，他再看那信封，露出惊讶的表情，好像完全不知道它在那里。打开信封后，发现是张生日贺卡，他便高兴地把贺卡放在桌上向大家炫耀起来。

When he looks at the menu, an astonished look quickly appears on his face. He takes all the money out of his wallet, counts it and puts it in a saucer. He then looks from the menu to the money with concern until he finds one thing that makes him smile. Then he orders a dish called “steak tartare”. When the dish arrives, he is shocked to d iscover that “steak tartare” is actually raw

hamburger. He makes an attempt to eat it, but it is clear from the look on his face as he is chewing that he finds the taste truly awful. He cannot hide his feelings, except when the waiters ask if everything is all right. When this happens, he smiles and nods, indicating that everything is fine. When the waiters are not looking, however, he busies himself hiding the raw meat anywhere he can reach—the sugar bowl, the tiny flower vase, inside a bread roll and under a plate. He becomes so desperate in the end that he even hides some inside the purse of a woman sitting near him and throws some down the trousers of the restaurant’s violinist!

看菜单时，憨豆先生脸上立刻露出震惊的表情。他把钱包里所有的钱都拿出来，数了数，放进碟子里。他担心地一会儿看看菜单，一会儿看看钱，最终找到了一种食物，脸上露出了微笑。然后他点了一道“鞑靼牛肉”。可上菜的时候，憨豆先生惊讶地发现“鞑靼牛肉”其实就是生肉馅。他尝了尝，从他那咀嚼的表情就能看出，这东西一点都不好吃。他无法掩饰自己的感觉，除了在服务员问他是否一切满意时。服务员问他的时候，他笑着点点头，装作一切都好的样子。然而，当服务员没有注意的时候，他却忙着把生肉藏到任何地方——糖碗、小花瓶、小面包卷里和盘子下面。最后他无计可施，居然把一部分生肉藏在旁边女士的钱包里，塞进餐厅小提琴手的裤子里！

I like to watch Mr Bean on TV but I wouldn’t want to meet someone like him in real life, and I certainly wouldn’t want to have dinner with him!

我喜欢看电视里的憨豆先生，却不希望在现实生活中遇到像他这样的人，更不想和他共进晚餐！

当代卓别林

Rowan Atkinson is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter. In Britain, Mr Atkinson is mostly famous for many successful TV shows but internationally we know him best as the awkward, clumsy, but always amusing Mr Bean. If you think that Rowan Atkinson is anything like his famous creation, then you are in for a surprise. On the contrary, he is nothing like Mr Bean.

罗温•艾金森，英国喜剧演员、编剧。艾金森先生在英国的名气主要源于他参演了很多著名影视剧。但在国际上，我们所熟悉的他是那个尴尬、笨拙，总能把人逗乐的憨豆先生。如果你认为罗温•艾金森和他扮演的憨豆先生角色一样，那你一定会感到惊讶。相反，他本人实际上一点也不像憨豆先生。

Rowan was born on 6 January, 1955. He grew up on a farm with his parents and three older brothers. His father was very strict and did not believe in the value of television.

罗温出生于1955年1月6日，随父母在农场长大，家中有三个哥哥。他的父亲非常严厉，不相信电视的价值。

Rowan had a very successful academic career. At the age of 13, he was awarded a scholarship to a boarding school. Later, he studied at Newcastle University where he attained the highest marks in his year. At Oxford, he obtained his master’s degree in electrical engineering. This may explain why he loves fast cars, of which he has many.

罗温的学生生涯非常成功。他13岁就获得了一所寄宿学校的奖学金，之后就读于纽卡斯尔大学，并以专业第一名的优异成绩毕业。随后，他又取得牛津大学电机工程硕士学位。这也许是他为什么那么喜欢跑车，而且收藏了很多跑车的原因吧。

When Rowan was young, he had a stutter and to make his speech clearer, he began to speak very carefully. This may be why some of his characters have unusual ways of speaking.

罗温小时候有口吃的毛病，为了讲话更清楚，他说话格外仔细。这也是他所塑造的一些角色讲话方式与众不同的原因。

As early as primary school, Rowan had already shown a talent for acting, but it was only later at university that he decided to become an actor. A key event occurred one day in 1976 when he was playing around and pulling a face in the mirror. “I discovered my face,” he said later.

早在小学时，罗温就表现出了表演天赋，但直到大学毕业，他才决定当一名演员。1976 年的一天发生了一件关键的事情，闲玩之中他对着镜子做鬼脸。后来他说，“那天，我发现了自己的另一副面孔。”

John Lloyd, who worked as a producer for BBC Television, says that one rarely meets someone with such genius, and that when he worked with Atkinson he

英国广播公司电视台的制片人约翰•劳埃德说，遇到这样的天才很难得，与罗温的合作使他相信罗温会比查理•卓别林更出名。

Unit 5

Lesson 1 Enlightening a Mind

第一课启迪心灵

Helen Keller was an exceptionally special girl. By the time she was seven years old, she still couldn’t speak, read or write and needed to have everything done for her. This was because she couldn’t see or hear. With these severe restrictions to her communica tion, Helen’s behaviour was often unbearable. She was sometimes troublesome, stubborn and angry, and had a tendency to break things when no one understood her.

海伦•凯勒是一个非常特殊的女孩。她七岁时，仍不会说话，不能读书也不会写字，一切都需要别人照顾。这是因为她看不见也听不见。这些严重的障碍限制了海伦的正常交流，也让她的行为常常令人难以忍受。海伦有时很烦人、很固执，而且很易怒。如果没有人能理解她的意思，她就会摔东西。

Helen’s parents got a superb teacher recommended to them, a woman named Anne Sullivan. Anne was a teacher and former student at a school for the blind in Boston. She’d had eyesight problems early in life as well so she could relate to Helen’s difficulties.

海伦的父母经人推荐，聘请了一位名叫安妮·莎莉文的优秀老师。安妮曾是波士顿一所盲人学校的老师，也曾在那儿上过学。她小时候也视力有障碍，所以更能理解海伦所面临的困境。

Anne’s technique to teach Helen language was simple and straightforward. Anne spelt words by writing on Helen’s hand so that Helen coul d get a mental picture of the words. She started with the word “doll”. She would let Helen play with the doll, and then spell the letters “D-O-L-L” on her hand. When they initially did this, Helen thought it was a game. She wrote about her excitement later in her book, The Story of My Life:

安妮教海伦学习语言的方法简单明了。她先在海伦手上拼写单词，使海伦联想到单词的画面。安妮给海伦拼写的第一个词是“doll”。她先让海伦和洋娃娃玩耍，然后在海伦的手上拼写“D-O-L-L”。刚开始海伦以为这是在玩游戏。后来在《我的人生故事》一书中，海伦描述了自己的兴奋之情：

“Running downstairs to my mother, I held up my hand and made the letters for ‘doll’. I did not know that I was spelling a word or even that words existed; I was simply making my fingers go in monkey-like imitation.”

不知道自己在拼写单词，甚至压根不知道词汇的存在。我仅仅是亦步亦趋地用手指模仿老师。”

When they were at the well one day, Anne p ut one of Helen’s hands under the stream of water. As the water flowed over Helen’s hand, Anne spelt out “W-A-T-E-R” into Helen’s other hand. As Anne wrote on Helen’s hand, Helen suddenly realised that the movement of the fingers meant the cool liquid flowing over her hand. This precious knowledge gave her hope and joy. Finally, she got the world of words opened up to her.

一天，她们在井边，安妮把海伦的一只手放在水流下。水缓缓流过海伦的手掌，安妮在她的另一只手上拼写“W-A-T-E-R”。安妮在海伦手上写的时候，海伦突然意识到，手指的动作代表的是流过自己手掌的清凉的液体。这宝贵的知识给她带来希望和快乐。终于，她打开了语言世界的大门。

Now that Helen grasped the key to language, she was very eager to learn more and use it as much as she could. Children who can see and hear learn language easily, but for Helen, it was a gradual and sometimes painful process. However, because Helen was so enthusiastic about learning, the results were amazing.

由于海伦理解了语言的关键，她非常渴望学习更多语言，并且尽可能运用它。正常的孩子能听、能看，学起语言来很容易。但对海伦来说，学习语言是个渐进的过程，有时会很痛苦。然而，因为海伦对学习极高的热情，学习成果令人吃惊。

As Helen’s knowledge and vocabulary expanded, she asked more and more questions. This soon led her to discover more complex words and changed her thinking process. Trying to learn the word “love” was an experience that she remembered well. This is how she described it in her book:

随着海伦知识和词汇量的不断扩大，她提出的问题也越来越多。这使她学会了更复杂的单词，从而改变了思维的过程。她很清楚地记得，学习“love”这个单词的难忘经历。在书中她这样描述道：

“I remember the morning that I first asked the meaning of the word ‘love’. This was before I knew many words. I had found a few early violets in the garden and brought them to my teacher ... Miss Sullivan put her arm gently round me and wrote on my hand, ‘I love Helen.’ ‘What is love?’ I asked. She drew me closer to her and said, ‘It is here,’ pointing to my heart ... Her words puzzled me very much because I did not then understand anything unless I touched it.”

“我记得有一天早上，我第一次问‘love’这个词的含义。那时我的词汇量还很有限。我在花园里发现了早开的紫罗兰，摘下一些带给老师……莎莉文老师温柔地搂着我，在我的手上写着：‘我爱海伦。’‘什么是爱？’我问道。她把我拉到身边，指着我的心脏说，‘爱在这里。’……她的话令我非常困惑，因为以往我只有触碰到实际物体，才能理解它的意思。”

Although the meaning of love was still not apparent to Helen, she kept on trying

signs, a question which meant, ‘Is love the sweetness of flowers?’ ‘No,’ said my teacher.’

尽管对海伦来说，爱的意义还不明确，但她一直试着理解。“我闻了闻她手里的紫罗兰，半拼写半比划地问了个问题，意思大概是‘爱是花朵的香味吗？’‘不，’我的老师回答道。”

When Helen and Anne were outside one day, Helen felt the warmth of the sun’s rays. She pointed up and asked if that was love. When her teacher said that it wasn’t, she was confused and disappointed. “I thought it strange that my teacher could not show me love.”

一天和老师在室外，海伦感受到了阳光的温暖。她指了指太阳，问老师那是不是爱，老师说不是，海伦感到更困惑了，而且有些失望。“我觉得很奇怪，因为我的老师不能给我表示什么是爱。”

The word “think” was also a difficult one for Helen because it is such an abstract concept. However, one day as she was working on a simple task, she had a breakthrough. She was making necklaces with the help of Anne when she noticed that she had made some mistakes. Because she was uncertain how to fix them, she stopped to think carefully. As she did this, Anne touched Helen’s forehead and wrote the word “think” on her hand.“In a flash I knew tha t the word was the name of the process that was going on in my head.”

“think”这个词对海伦来说也很难理解，因为它很抽象。然而有一天，在做一项简单的任务时，她取得了突破。她正在安妮的帮助下做项链，这时她发现自己犯了一些错。海伦不确定该如何解决，便停下来认真思考。在她思考的时候，安妮点了点海伦的额头，在她的手上写“think”这个词。“瞬间我就明白了，我头脑中进行的活动就是这个词的意思。”

It was the first time Helen had understood such a complex word—a word for something she couldn’t touch. At that moment, her mind returned to the word “love”. As she thought about its meaning again, the sun came out. She pointed to the sun and asked her teacher again if that was love. Anne answered Helen by explaining that love was like the sun and clouds in a way.

那是海伦第一次明白复杂词语的意思，她触摸不到的抽象词语。这时，海伦又想起了“love”。她再次思考“love”是什么意思，恰巧这时太阳出来了。海伦指着太阳又问老师那是不是爱。安妮解释道，爱在某种程度上就像太阳和云彩。

“You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain... You cannot touch love either; but you feel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Without love you would not be happy or want to play.”

“你知道吗，你摸不到云彩，但是你能感觉到雨……你也触摸不到爱，但是你能感觉到爱给万物带来的甜蜜。没有爱，你就不会快乐，也不会想玩耍。”

In that vivid moment, Helen finally understood the beautiful truth of the word

就在那个动人的时刻，海伦终于明白了“love”这个词语蕴含的美丽的真谛。Lesson 3 Understanding

第三课认识世界

It seems obvious now how we acquire knowledge and understanding. To start with, we need questions. Then, to find answers, we observe the world around us and study the facts. After that, we consider possible answers and test each to find the right ones. Although today we are more used to typing a few key words into a search engine and waiting for the Internet to give us an answer, modern scientists and thinkers are still solving the world’s problems with this type of analysis—luckily for us.

今天，如何获取知识、认识世界，人人皆知。首先，我们需要问题。然后，为了寻找答案，我们观察周围的世界并研究相关事实。之后，我们思考可能的答案并逐个验证，以找到正确答案。尽管我们现在更习惯于在搜索引擎中敲几个关键词，等待互联网为我们提供答案，但当代科学家、思想家仍采用这种分析方式来解决问题——我们应该为此感到庆幸。

However, in the 17th century when Francis Bacon (1561-1626) suggested that this type of thinking was the way to gain knowledge, he was going against the views of the day. Although Bacon held an important rank in King James’ royal court of England, his true interest was not the day-to-day, slow and inefficient working style

of the government, but the worthy search for knowledge. This was certainly not the interest of most people in his days. At that time, people believed more in the church than in facts, and people like Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who proved the idea that “the Earth is not the centre of the universe”, were often punished by the church with no one coming to their defence. The church and many people tended to ignore the facts and didn’t want to challenge what they had always comfortably believed. In fact, when Galilei proved that the Earth was not the centre of the universe, instead of believing him, people chose to believe views that were almost 2,000 years old!

17 世纪时，弗朗西斯•培根(1561—1626)提出用这种思考方式获取知识时，他的观点却与当时的观念背道而驰。尽管培根在英国国王詹姆斯的宫廷中位高权重，但他真正感兴趣的不是政府日复一日、拖拉、低效的工作作风，而是那些值得探索的知识。当然，探索知识并不是那个时代大多数人的兴趣所在。那时人们相信教会胜过相信事实，像伽利略•伽利莱(1564—1642)那样证明了“地球不是宇宙中心”的人物，往往会被教会惩罚，也没有人会为他们辩护。教会和多数人一样往往忽视事实，不愿意去挑战自己一直以来相信的东西。事实上，当伽利略证明地球不是宇宙的中心时，人们没有选择相信他，而宁愿相信2000年前的陈旧观点！

It is not surprising that people wanted to believe these primitive ideas as they

the Earth must be the centre of the universe because it felt like the Earth was standing still. Galilei disagreed. At first, people approved of his studies and urged him to continue, but later when he proved Aristotle wrong, they grew angry and put him in prison. They didn’t want to abandon what they’d always thought as true. An d this is still often true today. People make the assumption that if someone important and respected says that something is right, then it must be so. But even though Aristotle was a great man who inspired many great scientists and philosophers after him, he was wrong at times. And Galilei also made mistakes. He is now known as the father

of astronomy but he believed that the Earth moved round the sun in a perfect circle. He was wrong.

人们愿意相信伟大哲学家亚里士多德(公元前384—前322)提出的那些陈旧的观点，这一点并不奇怪。亚里士多德坚信地球是宇宙的中心，因为人们感觉地球是静止不动的。但伽利略却不同意。起初人们认可他的研究成果，催促他继续研究，但是当他证实亚里士多德有错时，人们生气了，并把他送进监狱。他们并不想放弃自己一直认为正确的知识。如今这种现象也很常见。如果一个重要的、受人尊敬的人说某件事是对的，那么人们就会认为这件事一定是对的。但即使是亚里士多德这样曾鼓舞了无数科学家和哲学家的伟大人物，有时也会犯错误。伽利略自己也犯过错误。虽然他现在被称为天文学之父，但他认为地球绕太阳旋转的轨迹是一个正圆。他错了。

Therefore, our understanding of the world around us is constantly growing and changing. In other words, we learn more every day and none of us can ever sit back and say, “We know it all.” We need to thank the great men of the past for their wisdom. They understood that we don’t know ever ything and probably never will, as this would mean a world with questions.

因此，我们对周围世界的认识在不断地增长、变化。换句话说，我们每天都在学习更多的知识，谁也不能停止学习并且说：“我什么都知道了。”我们需要感谢先辈伟人的智慧。他们早就知道，人不可能什么都懂，而且或许永远都不会知道所有的事情，也就是说世界总是充满问题的。

We owe so much of our knowledge and understanding of the world to people like Bacon and Galilei, who were brave enough to step out from the shadows of conventional thought in order to find the kingdom of knowledge that today’s civilisation is built upon. These men knew that

knowledge and understanding are things to fight for; more vital to a man, and more beneficial to mankind, some might say, than all the money in the world.

我们对世界的认识和理解，很大程度上要归功于培根和伽利略这样的人，正是他们勇敢地走出了传统思想的阴影，才帮我们找到了构建当今文明的知识王国。这些伟人懂得，知识和对世界的认识才是值得追求的；正如一些人所言，和全世界的金钱相比，这些对个人而言更重要，对全人类而言更有益。

文中名言：

Who questions much, shall learn much, and remember much. —Francis Bacon

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.—Galileo Galilei

(2)所有的真理一旦被发现，都很容易理解。最难的是发现真理。——伽利略• 伽利莱

Unit 6

Lesson 1 From Page to Screen

第一课从纸书到屏幕

Reading a book and watching a film are two very different experiences, but it’s normal to have high expectations when a film of a favourite book is made. There are many times I have been pessimistic or even disappointed by a film of a book I love. Although highly regarded books do not always make good films, it is safe to say that great films may be made from not particularly good books. (The

Godfather immediately springs to mind.)

读书和看电影是两种截然不同的体验。如果人们最喜欢的书籍被翻拍成电影，他们对电影的期待值自然更高，这种现象很正常。不止一次，我喜欢的书籍拍成电影，我都不看好，甚至很失望。尽管高质量的书并不总是能拍出好看的电影，优秀的电影也可能来自不是那么好的书，说的倒是没错。(这让我马上想到《教父》。)

The source material for a film may be taken from classic novels, short stories, comic books and stage plays, as well as non-fiction such as biographies and autobiographies, even those written by ghost writers. All can work well, but why do many adaptations and indeed remakes fail with both cinema audiences and critics? And why do some adaptations get lower ratings than others?

一部电影可以取材自经典小说、短篇小说、漫画书、舞台剧，也可以取自传记、自传等非小说作品，甚至是代笔人写的作品。这些素材都可以拍出很棒的作品，但为什么许多改编、翻拍的电影没能受到电影观众与评论家的好评呢？为什么有些改编作品的评分比其他作品低呢？

A key question is obviously how close to the original the film is. Since a typical film is only around two hours long, it becomes a question for screenwriters to decide what is appropriate for the screen and what to leave out. Screenwriters take creative liberty and sometimes there may be changes to the plot, additions, and even different endings to please producers, directors and test audiences. I, like many

p eople, have often left the cinema feeling “the film is not like the book”.

显而易见，一个关键的问题在于这部电影与原作接近程度如何。电影通常只有两小时左右，在有限的时间里，编剧要决定书中哪部分适合银幕，哪部分不适

部分情节，甚至演绎不同结局。和很多人一样，我也经常在看完电影后感叹“这部电影和原作不一样”。

Another problem area is the cast. Finding actors acceptable to film audiences can mean the difference between success and failure. Readers of the book use their imaginations to visualise characters and have very definite ideas about how characters should look and sound. This is where I think many film adaptations fall down.

另一个问题是演员阵容。找到电影观众所接受的演员，有时决定着电影的成败。读者会通过自己的想象，将书中的人物形象化，角色的外貌、声音他们都有明确的想法。我认为选择的演员不符合他们的想象，成为很多电影改编失败的原因。

Some books are just too difficult to be adapted for technical reasons, although films like The Life of Pi are changing this idea. CGI (Computer Generated Image) technology has had a huge

impact on the film industry. It allowed the previously unfilmable to become a reality.

一些书由于技术原因很难拍成电影，虽然《少年派的奇幻漂流》等电影的出现正在改变这一问题。电脑生成动画技术对电影产业有重大影响，让以前无法拍摄的内容成为现实。

One may think that it is the book writer who is in the best position to do film adaptations. In fact, sometimes authors are very involved in the process and may even be the screenwriter. This can actually be a disadvantage because they may be too close to the material and find it difficult to adapt to a new form. At other times they are not, and there are instances where writers have been very unsatisfied with the film versions of their work; Stephen King is an example of this. Even more extreme was novelist J. D. Salinger, who made sure no film versions of his popular novel A Catcher in the Rye could ever be made. In this situation, it is clear that viewers will not be disappointed! For me, anyway, it is always a bad idea to watch a film of a book you love.

人们可能会认为，最适合改编电影的人应该是书籍作者本人。事实上，作者有时的确会参与改编，甚至可能担任电影编剧。但这其实有局限性，因为作者本人可能过于忠于书中内容，很难将其改编成一种新的形式。有时作者本人并不是电影编剧，于是出现了作者对自己作品所拍摄的电影版本非常不满意的情况。史蒂芬•金就是这样。小说家杰罗姆•大卫•塞林格更为极端，他永远不准自己广受欢迎的小说《麦田里的守望者》被拍成电影版本。如果是这样，读者就永远不会失望！不管怎样，我认为去看自己钟爱的书籍翻拍成的电影不会是个好主意。

Despite the challenges, there have been some highly successful films made from popular books. For me, Jaws, Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings all fit this category. And possibly the best proof of a successful adaptation is the James Bond

Perhaps unusually, audiences seem to accept that the actors who have played James Bond have changed so often, although everyone seems to have their favourite. I know I do.

尽管挑战重重，还是有一些改编自畅销书的电影取得了极大成功，例如《大白鲨》《哈利波特》和《指环王》都是成功的案例。可能最好的例子是詹姆斯•邦德系列，该系列的大部分作品都改编自伊恩•弗莱明的《007》系列小说。系列影片中詹姆斯•邦德的扮演者经常换人，但观众们似乎也能接受，这让人难以相信。但我相信每位观众和我一样，都有自己最喜欢的那个扮演者。

Lesson 3 The Advertising Game

第三课广告竞赛

The advertising industry started with the fundamental purpose of promoting and selling goods to people who might need them. Advertising agencies would create a basic type of advertisement known as a commercial advertisement. Such advertisements have gone through a process of change over the years along with social, economic and technological developments.

广告业的根本目的是向潜在消费者推销商品。广告代理公司创造出一种基本的广告形式，也就是我们所熟知的商业广告。与社会、经济和技术发展过程同步，多年来这些广告经历了一个变化的过程。

Classic advertisements used to give information about finding certain products. It was likely to be the name of a company, part of which might include the name of the place from which the product originated. For example, it could be “Shanghai Sewing Machines”, or “Tsing Tao Beer Corporation”. From the name you would know what the company sells, where they are located, and the name of the product.

以前，经典的广告会给出识别产品的信息。这些信息可能是公司名，其中一部分可能包含产品的原产地，比如，“上海缝纫机厂”或“青岛啤酒公司”。一看名字，你就知道这些公司销售的具体产品、所在地点以及产品名称。

Advertising agencies used to create this kind of advertising and it could be very effective. But then they realised that it might not be suitable for a marketplace where products and services are in direct competition with each other. Particularly now, in modern times, advertisements need to attract and hold the attention of the public. For this reason, it’s now normal to see advertisements that consist of pict ures or words from experts to show people how good the product is. Others try to create advertisements that people simply enjoy looking at. As present-day advertisers often have large budgets, huge amounts of money are spent on applying modern design techniques to make these advertisements as visually attractive as possible. However, even this is often not enough to be noticed in a modern city.

广告代理公司过去常制作这种广告，而且效果很好。但后来他们意识到，在

广告需要吸引、保持公众的注意力。因此，现在的广告常常引用专家的图片、文字，向人们展示产品有多棒。还有一些广告代理公司尝试制作具有观赏性的广告。现在的广告客户通常预算充足，他们会花大笔的钱采用现代设计技术，让广告更具视觉吸引力。但即便是这种广告方式在现代城市中也不足以引起消费者的注意。

Because of the boost in advertising, people are used to seeing a high standard of visual design. Modern advertisements need something else to separate them from their competitors. To stand out in a world of competitive advertising, they must combine the highest standard of design with creative ways to make people believe that they “must have the product”. For example, some advertisements may suggest that buying a car can make you free. That is, they use the concept of freedom to sell the car. Other common ideas include happiness, wealth and success. In fact, in the world of advertisements, such content is as old as advertising itself.

因为广告业的迅速发展，人们早已对那些高水准的视觉设计习以为常。现代广告需要另外一些东西，以便将它们与其他竞争者区别开来。为了在竞争激烈的广告界凸显出来，他们必须将最高水准的设计与创造性的方法结合起来，使人们确信他们“必须购买这种产品”。例如，一些广告可能会暗示买车能让你自由。也就是说，广告代理公司借用自由的概念销售汽车。其他常见概念销售包括幸福、财富和成功。事实上，这些概念和广告业一样历史悠久。

For many of today’s advertisers, repeating old ideas is not a successful approac h. Ideas that would work in the past genuinely are not as effective now. They realise that it does not matter how attractive the idea linked with the product is—most people know and anticipate that the main purpose of the advertisement is to make customers buy the product. Instead, these advertisers look for other ways to make people notice their products. The top advertisers of today believe that using humour as well as new and unusual ideas to surprise people is important. Their aim is to create something that has never been seen before and that people find interesting. By doing this, they hope to make people forget that someone is trying to sell them something!

对很多今天的广告商而言，重复过去的广告并不会获得成功。过去可行的想法，放到现在并不一定有效。他们意识到与产品关联的概念有多么吸引人并不重要——大多数人都明白，广告的主要目的就是让客户购买产品。于是，广告商转而通过打广告，让更多的消费者注意到自己的产品。当今顶级广告商认为广告要用幽默、新颖、奇特的创意给人们带来惊喜。他们的目的是创造一些人们从未见过的东西，从而让人们觉得有趣，进而让消费者忘记有人在试图向他们推销商品！

However, not all advertising is about selling products and services for a profit. Some advertisements nowadays aim to make a contribution to society and welfare. For example, there are public advertisements, which encourage citizens to participate in improving their neighbourhood, protecting the environment, and helping other people. Over the last decade, the government has sponsored

giving up smoking, etc. These advertisements have helped to increase

public knowledge about topics that used to be ignored by most people, and this has made our society a better place for everyone.

然而，并非所有的广告都是以盈利为目的销售产品与服务，现在还有一些广告的目的在于为社会和福利作贡献，比如公益广告，它鼓励市民参与改善社区、保护环境和帮助他人的活动。过去的十多年里，政府赞助了一些公益广告，教育公众防治艾滋病，呼吁民众节约用水、帮助贫困人口、戒烟等。这些广告帮助公众增强对以往被忽视话题的公共认知，也让我们的社会更加美好。