2019年经济学人 记录别人的生活(1)

 

Books & arts

来源于《图书和艺术》版块

The lives of others

别人的生活

Bard¹ of Britain

英国诗人

Modern British television has founds its Dickens

现代英国电视找到了现代“狄更斯”

Jack² Thorne’s phone flashes with messages and alerts; he turns it face-down, swearing under his breath. With five baftas, an Olivier and a Tony award to his name, Mr Thorne is Britain’s most soughtafter scriptwriter. He is juggling³ several projects at once: his new play is in rehearsal⁴ ahead of its premiere at the Royal Court theatre in London on June 27th, while three television series that he wrote are in production. He is becoming to modern British tv what Charles Dickens was to the Victorian novel—a chronicler of the country’s untold⁵ stories and social ills, and the domestic dramas that encapsulate them.

杰克·索恩的手机闪烁着信息和警报；他脸朝下，低声咒骂着。索恩先生曾获5个英国电影学院奖，一个奥利维尔奖和一个托尼奖，是英国最受欢迎的编剧。他同时要处理好几个项目：他的新话剧正在排练，6月27日将在伦敦皇家宫廷剧院首演，而他写的三部电视剧正在制作中。他对现代英国电视的影响，就像查尔斯·狄更斯对维多利亚时代的小说的影响一样，查尔斯·狄更斯是一位记录者，记录了这个国家不为人知的故事和社会弊病，创作了概括这些问题的国内戏剧。

Much of Mr Thorne’s work is concerned with the challenges faced by ordinary Britons. The main character in “When You Cure Me”, his first major stage play, was a young woman incapacitated after a brutal⁶ sexual assault. Elsewhere he has written about the impact of local-council cuts, a couple mourning a stillborn child and the creation of a community playground out of scrap⁷ materials. His new play, “the end of history...”, is about tensions between the generations. Mr Thorne says it both “celebrates and castigates” baby-boomers.

索恩先生的大部分作品关注的是普通英国人所面临的挑战。在他的第一部主要舞台剧《当你治愈我》中，主角是一名年轻女子，她在遭受残忍的性侵犯后丧失了行为能力。他还在别的作品中描写过地方议会削减开支的影响，描绘过一对夫妇对一个死婴的哀悼，刻画过废弃材料建造的社区游乐场。他的新剧《历史的终结》，则是关于两代人之间的紧张关系。索恩先生表示，这是对婴儿潮一代的“庆祝和谴责”。

A keen interest in the travails⁸ of Everyman has defined his television career, too. It began in 2007 on the writing team of “Shameless”, a black comedy set in a working- class area of Manchester, and “Skins” (2007-09), a grim teen drama set in his home town of Bristol. He collaborated⁹ with Shane Meadows on the three seasons of “This is England” (2010-15), about skinhead, mod and rave¹⁰ subcultures in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and more recently on “The Virtues” (2019), which follows a man coming to terms with childhood abuse.

对普通人苦难的强烈兴趣也决定了他的电视事业。2007年，《无耻之徒》(一个以曼彻斯特工人阶级为背景的黑色喜剧)和《皮囊》(2007-09)的编剧团队开始着手创作，《皮囊》是一部以他的家乡布里斯托尔为背景的冷酷的青少年电视剧。他与谢恩·梅多斯合作了《这就是英格兰》(2010-15)的三季，讲述的是上世纪80年代末和90年代初光头党、摩登派青年和狂欢晚会亚文化，最近又合作了《德行》(2019)，讲述的是一个男人在童年受到虐待的故事。

1 bard   

n.吟游诗人

参考例句：

• I'll use my bard song to help you concentrate!我会用我的吟游诗人歌曲帮你集中精神！
• I find him,the wandering grey bard.我发现了正在徘徊的衰老游唱诗人。

2 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

3 juggling   

n. 欺骗, 杂耍(=jugglery) adj. 欺骗的, 欺诈的 动词juggle的现在分词

参考例句：

• He was charged with some dishonest juggling with the accounts. 他被指控用欺骗手段窜改账目。
• The accountant went to prison for juggling his firm's accounts. 会计因涂改公司的帐目而入狱。

4 rehearsal   

n.排练，排演；练习

参考例句：

• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。
• You can sharpen your skills with rehearsal.排练可以让技巧更加纯熟。

5 untold   

adj.数不清的，无数的

参考例句：

• She has done untold damage to our chances.她给我们的机遇造成了不可估量的损害。
• They suffered untold terrors in the dark and huddled together for comfort.他们遭受着黑暗中的难以言传的种种恐怖，因而只好挤在一堆互相壮胆。

6 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

7 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。

8 travails   

n.艰苦劳动( travail的名词复数 )；辛勤努力；痛苦；分娩的阵痛

参考例句：

• In the and travails of businesses you'll always need hometown help. 就算你的业务扩大到其他城市，也不要忘了你的发源地。 来自互联网
• Tata Motor's travails with Land Rover and Jaguar spring to mind as recent less-than-favorable examples. 印度塔塔汽车公司对陆虎和捷豹品牌的辛苦收购就是最近一个不如人意的例子。 来自互联网

9 collaborated   

合作( collaborate的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• We have collaborated on many projects over the years. 这些年来我们合作搞了许多项目。
• We have collaborated closely with the university on this project. 我们与大学在这个专案上紧密合作。

10 rave   

vi.胡言乱语；热衷谈论；n.热情赞扬

参考例句：

• The drunkard began to rave again.这酒鬼又开始胡言乱语了。
• Now I understand why readers rave about this book.我现明白读者为何对这本书赞不绝口了。