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新浪首页 > 新浪教育 > 《英语学习》2002年11期 > 有个地方不想去

有个地方不想去
http://www.sina.com.cn 2002/12/26 11:39  《英语学习》

  政治正确“驼背”无理

  Political Correctness Rings Hunchback Death Knell

  A British theater company has dropped the word hunchback from its stage adaptation of the classic novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame to avoid offending disabled people, newspapers reported. Oddsocks Productions has renamed its touring production The Bellringer of Notre Dame after discussions with a disability adviser who raised the possibility of offending people with spina bifida or scoliosis. "We have not changed the novel in any way, we simply felt changing the title would cause less offence of people," producer Elli Mackenzie was quoted as saying by the Daily Mirror. French author Victor Hugo's classic 1831 novel, set in 15th century Paris around the cathedral of Notre Dame, tells the tragic story of a deformed bellringer Quasimodo and his love for a beautiful gypsy girl Esmeralda. The novel has been translatedsintos20 languages and adapted several times for the stage and screen--including a 1939 Hollywood film starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara. The original title of the novel was Notre Dame de Paris, but its name was changed when the book was translatedsintosEnglish and the hunchback has remained part of the title until now.

  * Political Correctness:政治正确。此词自上个世纪九十年代以来在西方颇为流行,是指一种在公共领域反对种族、性别等各种歧视的话语姿态。

  据报载,为避免冒犯残疾人,英国一家演出公司从改编自经典名著的《巴黎圣母院的驼背》的剧名中去掉了“驼背”一词。沃德索克斯演出公司咨询了一位残疾人事务顾问,觉得“驼背”一词可能会对患有脊柱裂或脊柱侧凸的人有所冒犯,于是将其巡回演出的戏剧更名为《巴黎圣母院敲钟人》。《每日镜报》援引制片人埃利-麦肯齐的话说:“我们未对原著作任何改动,我们只是觉得换个名字会减少对他人的不敬。”法国作家维克多-雨果的这部作于1831年的名著以15世纪的巴黎圣母院为背景,讲述了关于丑陋的敲钟人加西莫多以及他对美丽的吉普赛女郎埃斯梅拉达的爱慕的悲惨故事。这部小说被译成了20种语言并数次被搬上舞台和银幕——比如1939年出品的由查尔斯-劳顿及莫林-奥哈拉主演的好莱坞电影。小说原名《巴黎圣母院》,在被译成英文后名字有所改动,“驼背”一词从那时起就成了书名的一部分,直至今日。

  Remarks:我以为西方的这种“政治正确”有时候实在过犹不及了,其实尊重与否更多与语境以及说话者的态度、语气有关,词语本身有时并不重要。这种处心积虑的婉转有时候只是人性软弱与虚伪的表现。

  最蹩脚的诗人

  "World's Worst Poet" Wins Immortality

  A Scottish poet so bad he was often asked to perform just so the audience could laugh at him will have his verse etched in stone in the cityswhereshe worked. William Topaz McGonagall, who died in 1902, has gained posthumous recognition in the Scottish city of Dundee, which plans to mark the centenary of his death by engraving part of his poems on a walkway by the river Tay. "His poetry is so bad it's memorable," said Niall Scott, director of City of Discovery Campaign, the organization behind the plan. "Dundee has recognized the need to honor McGonagall as somebody absolutely dedicated to the art of awful poetry." McGonagall was a textile industry worker who began writing poetry at the age of 47 after a "muse" visited him in his Dundee apartment. "All of a sudden my body got inflamed, and instantly I was seized with a strong desire to write poetry, so strong, in fact, that in imagination I thought I heard a voice crying in my ears write! write!" the poet recounted in his autobiography. For the following 25 years, McGonagall chronicled events from battles to the opening of hotels in dreadful verse. "No one can surpass him for being the worst poet," said Mervyn Rolfe, chairman of City of Discovery Campaign and a member of the Dundee-based McGonagall Appreciation Society. "He doesn't care how many words there are in the line as long as the last words rhyme, so the meter is appalling."

  一位苏格兰诗人蹩脚到了人们经常要求他表演以取乐的地步,而他工作的城市将把他的诗作铭刻在石头上。威廉-托珀士-迈贡纳高于1902年去世后在苏格兰城市邓迪赢得了名声,该城市计划把他的部分诗作刻在泰河边的走道上,以此纪念他逝世100周年。发起这一计划的组织是“发现城市运动”,其主管尼亚尔-斯科特说:“他的诗糟到了值得纪念的程度,邓迪市已经意识到应当向这样一个全心投入蹩脚诗歌创作的人物致敬。”迈贡纳高是一个纺织工人,他47岁时一位“缪斯”造访了他在邓迪的公寓,随后他就开始写诗。这位诗人在自传中写道:“我的身体突然开始燃烧,顷刻之间我被写诗的强烈愿望所俘获。实际上,这种愿望是如此地强烈,以致我好似听到一个声音在耳边大声呼喊:写吧!写吧!”此后的25年中,迈贡纳高把从战役到旅店开业的各种事件写成了难以卒读的诗篇。“发现城市运动”主席及邓迪的迈贡纳高欣赏会成员默文-罗尔福说:“没有人比他更适合最蹩脚诗人这一称号。他不管一行诗里有多少个词,只要最后一个词合韵就行,因此他的诗几无韵律可言。”

  Remarks:这位先生一生都活在自以为是一个大诗人的美梦里,他的遭遇和当代许多“家”不同的原因在于他的同时代人比较清醒,因此他不幸在还活着时就成了小丑。

  生儿子的副作用

  Those Boys Really Will Be the Death of You, Mom

  Mothers who have complained through the centuries that their sons will be the death of them may be right--a study published in the journal Science showsshavingsboys shortens a woman's life span. Each son takes an average of 34 weeks off a woman's life span, evolutionary biologist Samuli Helle and colleagues at the University of Turku found. On the other hand,shavingsdaughters adds, but only very slightly, to a woman's life span. Helle and colleagues looked at birth and marriage records of Sami* people from 1640 to 1870. "Our results suggest that giving birth to sons had a higher relative long-term survival cost for mothers than giving birth to and raising daughters," they wrote. There could be biological reasons for this. Studies show boys are physiologically more demanding to produce--they grow bigger and faster in the womb, and some studies show it takes a woman longer to get pregnant again aftershavingsa son than aftershavingsa daughter. Testosterone produced by the fetus could suppress the mother's immune system and perhaps make her more susceptible to disease. There could be genetic or social differences among the Sami, who are distinct from their Finnish and Swedish neighbors, Helle said. But he does not think so. "There is no reason to believe that this effect would be only visible in Sami people," he said. "Generally, boys get on their mothers' nerves more than girls because they are running around, and girls are more willing to help their mothers."

  * Sami:拉普人(Lapp)的别称,指居住在北欧拉普兰地区(Lapland)的人。

  千百年来一直在抱怨儿子会让自己操心死的母亲们也许是对的——发表在《科学》杂志上的一篇论文显示生男孩会缩短妇女的寿命。土尔库(芬兰西南部港市)大学的进化生物学家萨缪尔-赫勒和他的同事们发现,平均每生一个儿子会使女人短寿34个星期。另一方面,生女孩会延长女人的寿命,不过幅度非常小。赫勒和他的同事研究了1640至1870年间拉普人的婚姻及生育记录。他们写道:“我们的研究结果表明,跟生养女儿相比,生儿子会给母亲带来较高的相对长期存活成本。”这里面也可能有生物学上的原因。研究表明生儿子在生理上有更大的难度——他们在子宫里长得更大也更快,一些研究显示妇女生了儿子以后再次怀孕所需的时间要比生女儿以后长。(男性)胎儿产生的睾丸激素会抑制母亲的免疫系统,这可能会使她更容易感染疾病。赫勒说,与其芬兰和瑞典邻居都大不相同的拉普人族群本身可能有遗传上或是社会文化上的差别。但他并不这样看。“没有理由认为只有拉普人当中才有这种效应,”他说。“一般来说,到处乱跑的男孩更让母亲操心,而女孩更愿意帮助母亲。”

  Remarks:“遂令天下父母心,不重生男重生女。”

  三百六十万假人

  Census Counted 3.6 Million Fake People

  Local authorities seeking to boost their budgets resulted in Turkey counting at least 3.65 million non-existent people in a national census in 2000. "It has been established so far that 3,651,000 people were recorded as imaginary population," Sefik Yildizeli, the country's chief statistician, told reporters. Officials acknowledge that the 2000 census, which reported a national population of 64,059,000, was distorted by fake counts at scores of municipalities, whose state budgets are tied to population size. Statisticians are trying to strip the results of the corrupted data and revise the figures. The census was also criticized by some local politicians for failing to count many people in shanty housing, particularly in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

  希望增加预算的地方政府使土耳其在2000年的全国人口普查中统计到了至少365万根本不存在的人口。土耳其的首席统计学家瑟菲克-伊尔迪兹利对记者说:“现在已经可以确定,登记在册的人口中有365万1千人纯属虚构。”人口多寡会影响地方政府的预算。2000年土耳其人口普查得到的总人口数是64,059,000,官员们承认这一结果因几十个地方政府虚报人口而大有水分。统计学家们正在努力消除错误数据的影响并修正人口数字。地方上的一些政客则指责这次普查没有统计到许多住在棚屋区的穷人,这样的疏漏在居民主要是库尔德人的东南部地区尤为严重。

  Remarks:综合两方面的意见,可以认为虚报的人口是对统计偏差的一种补充,只是地方政府应该把靠虚报增加的预算用在那些视线之外的“假人”身上。

  讲述自己的故事

  Man Makes Film Based on His Messy Divorce

  After a bitter divorce, a custody battle that resulted in total estrangement from his teenage daughter and a mid-life crisis, Steven Dworman decided to produce and direct a funny movie based on his troubles. The film depicts the wife asshavingsa lizard's face. And he premiered the movie in a theater five blocks from his ex-wife's Santa Monica, California, home. Now after selling half his infomercial and advertising consulting business to finance "Divorce, the Musical," Dworman hopes he will break even and maybe even make some money. "This certainly wasn't a revenge story. That was the farthest thing from my mind," said Dworman, 46.

  经历过一次痛苦的离婚、一场使得十多岁的女儿对自己形同陌路的监护权争夺战以及一次中年危机之后,斯蒂芬-德沃曼决定以自己遭遇的麻烦为原型制作并导演一部有趣的电影。影片中的妻子长有一张蜥蜴的面孔。他在加利福尼亚州圣莫尼卡市距前妻的住宅仅5个街区的一个电影院里首映了这部电影。德沃曼为筹拍《离婚,音乐喜剧》卖掉了他的商业电视及广告咨询生意的一半,现在他希望能够保本甚至赚点钱。46岁的德沃曼说:“这绝不是为了报复。我压根儿没有这种念头。”

  Remarks:说不是报复当然有点牵强,不过他的作为看起来还有点真性情,其铜臭味不像我们这里层出不穷的各种“不得不说的事”那般浓烈。

  崇拜圣母的夫妇

  Couple Hooked on Madonna

  Priests thought a young South American couple were devoted to a Madonna statue in their local church until they realized the pair were more interested in the effigy's electrical charge than its spiritual vibe. The young couple were regular visitors to the Milan church for more than a month and spent an hour sitting attentively in front of the Madonna before silently departing. Priests assumed they were seeking spiritual guidance until a cleaner noticed an electricity cable poking out from behind the statue. Closer examination revealed the visitors were using the electricity socket used to light up the Madonna to charge their mobile phone. However, parish priest Don Antonio Colombo said there was no question of the pair being barred entry in future. "They come here because they don't have a house. The church is their house and letting them charge their mobile phone is a bit like giving them a glass of water," he told a local newspaper.

  米兰一间教堂的牧师们发现一对南美夫妇对教堂里圣母雕像的兴趣在于电荷而不是其精神感应力,这才知道他们并非是为雕像所感召。一个多月以来,这对年轻夫妇定期来到这间教堂,全神贯注地在圣母像前坐上一个小时,然后默默地离开。牧师们以为他们在寻求精神指引,直到一名清洁工注意到有一根电线从雕像背后伸出来。仔细检查才弄清他们是在用照亮圣母像的电灯插座给手机充电。不过,教区牧师唐-安东尼奥-科伦坡说他们绝对不会就此不让这对夫妇进入教堂。他对当地一家报纸说:“他们到这儿来是因为他们没有房子。教堂就是他们的房子,而让他们给手机充电就像是给他们一杯水喝。”

  Remarks:每个人都只会注意自己想看的东西,所以牧师看见虔诚而清洁工人看见电线。

  有个地方你不想去……

  Someplace You May Not Want to Fly...

  Swaziland's international airport has no working control tower or radar system, and lighting for night time landings is so poor that pilots are forced to fly by memory, the government has been told. Transport Minister Titus Mlangeni told a shocked Swaziland Senate in closed session that lightning destroyed the airport's radio 18 months ago and had not been fixed. "The Senate expressed surprise at the unsafe state of the airport, and at a lack of security. The machine that screens baggage does not work," Senate deputy speaker Abadnego Dlamini told reporters. Jabu Ngubane, a senior air traffic controller, confirmed severe problems at Matsapha airport. "Instruments to record wind velocity and direction are inoperative, and with the radio broken there is no way for the control tower to communicate with aircraft," he said. The Transport Ministry has said it is aware of the problems, and intends to address them, but has given no timeframe. But carriers flyingsintosthe airport warn that the state of the airport makes it an accident waiting to happen. "Conditions are extremely dangerous in fog, rain and at night. It is just a matter of time before a plane crashes in Swaziland," said Dwayne Elderkin, operations manager of Stephen Air Charter Services, one of two regular operators flyingsintosthe airport.

  斯威士兰政府获悉,该国国际机场的指挥塔和雷达系统都已失灵,夜间降落的照明条件也很差,使得飞行员只能凭记忆飞行。运输部长泰特斯-姆兰格尼在秘密会议上告诉倍感震惊的斯威士兰参议院,机场无线电系统在18个月前被闪电破坏,迄今尚未修复。参议院副议长阿巴德尼戈-德拉米尼对记者说:“参议院对机场的危险状态和安全设施的缺乏表示惊讶。检查旅客行李的机器也坏了。”高级空中交通管制员贾布-恩古班证实马特萨法机场出了严重的问题,他说:“记录风速和风向的仪器不起作用。因为无线电坏了,指挥塔也无法与飞机联系。”运输部宣称他们已经意识到并准备解决问题,不过没有给出任何期限。但是,在这个机场有业务的运输公司警告说机场目前处于随时会发生事故的状态。斯蒂芬飞机租赁公司是在此机场有固定业务的两家公司之一,该公司业务经理德怀恩-埃德金说:“雾天、雨天和夜间的情况极度危险,迟早会有飞机在斯威士兰坠毁。”

  Remarks:按照逆境出英才的原理,这篇报道无疑为各航空公司提供了寻找优秀飞行员的线索。

  美丽的代价

  Fear of Fat Keeps Women Hooked on Smoking

  A national obsession with the body beautiful may be damaging Brazilian women's health. In a country renowned for its sexy supermodels and revealing beachwear, up to 90 percent of Brazilian women who smoke may be afraid of giving up the habit in case they put on weight, according to a medical study. The study, by the Sao Paulo Heart Hospital, showed many women choose to smoke to suppress their appetite. "What makes a person eat too much is anxiety and if she begins to smoke, the attention is diverted to the cigarette and away from food," said Silvia Cury Ismael, coordinator of the study. Brazilian women show more resistance to quit smoking than men. The National Cancer Institute found that the number of male smokers dropped by 14.7 percent in Rio de Janeiro between 1989 and 2000, while women smokers declined just 3.5 percent. Tais Thormann, a 23-year-old model from the same region as the world-famous beauty Gisele Bundchen, backed up the study's findings. "I know smoking is bad, but I don't want to stop because it makes me lose weight," said Thormann. "When I am hungry, I go for a cigarette and a little coffee."

  巴西国人对外表美丽的执着追求可能正在损害该国妇女的健康。根据一项医学调查,在这个以性感名模和清凉沙滩装闻名的国度,多达90%的吸烟妇女因为担心体重增加而不敢戒烟。圣保罗心脏病医院进行的这项调查显示许多妇女选择吸烟来抑制食欲。调查协调员席尔瓦-丘里-伊斯梅尔说:“焦虑使人饮食过度,而如果一名妇女开始吸烟,她的注意力就会从食物转移到香烟上来。”看起来,巴西妇女比男的更不愿意戒烟。国家癌症研究会发现,里约热内卢地区吸烟男子的数目在1989至2000年间下降了14.7%,而女性烟民只减少了3.5%。23岁的模特塔伊斯-索尔曼与闻名世界的美女吉塞尔-邦琴来自同一地区,她对调查的结论表示同意。“我知道抽烟不好,可我也不想戒烟,因为它能帮我减轻体重,”索尔曼说。“我饿了就抽支烟再喝点咖啡。”

  Remarks:身体是革命的本钱,以现时风气,在身体前面加上“美丽”二字可能更有说服力,难怪文中那位模特要选择“餐风饮露”的生活了。

  天价荔枝

  Single Lychee Sells for ,053 at Auction

  A single lychee from a tree that once produced fruit for Chinese emperors sold for a record 555,000 yuan (,053) at a weekend auction in China's affluent southern province of Guangdong, state media said. At last year's auction, a single lychee from the tree named Xiyuangualu fetched a price of 55,000 yuan, gaining entry to The Guinness Book of World Records, the official Xinhua news agency said. The 400-year-old tree yields only a few dozen lychees per year and was known as the "king of fruit" when its produce was served as imperial tributes in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), it said. A local textile firm called Xintang International Jeans Town bought this year's lychee, another nine lychees were sold for a combined total of 760,000 yuan at the auction in the city of Zengcheng, a major producer of subtropical fruit. The money from this year's auction would be invested in education and in tending the Xiyuangualu tree. It did not say what the company plans to do with its lychee, but it is becoming increasingly common for companies in Guangdong to buy expensive items at auctions to generate publicity.

  据中国官方媒体报道,在富裕的南方省份广东,一棵曾经出产贡品的荔枝树所结的一颗荔枝在一次周末拍卖中以创纪录的555,000元(67,053美元)售出。新华社报道,在去年的拍卖中,这棵名为“西园挂绿”的荔枝树所结的一颗果实卖得55,000元,被载入了《吉尼斯世界纪录大全》。报道称,这棵树龄400年的荔枝树每年只结几十个果实,在清朝(1644-1911)时作为进奉宫廷的贡品,被誉为“果中之王”。增城是亚热带水果的重要产地。今年,当地一家名为新塘国际牛仔城的纺织品公司买下了这颗荔枝,另外9颗以760,000元的总价拍出。今年的拍卖收入将被用于教育以及照料“西园挂绿”。报道中没有说明这家公司打算怎么处理买来的荔枝,但是企业通过竞买贵重物品来提高知名度的做法在广东省已经是越来越普遍了。

  Remarks:要是苏东坡生在这个时代,不知道他怎样才可以“日啖荔枝三百颗”?




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