【英语听和读】朱莉·克里斯蒂

 Amber¹: Hello, I’m Amber and this is bbclearningenglish.com.

In Entertainment today, we listen to parts of an interview with a beautiful

British screen icon²! She talks about fame and good fortune – or as she calls it,

‘getting lucky’.

Julie Christie is famous for her roles in films like Dr Zhivago, way back in the

1960s, and in the 1970s, came films like Don’t Look Now with those famous

love scenes with Donald Sutherland. Then she turned her back on Hollywood

for a couple of decades, but now she’s back, playing the lead role in a new film

called Away From Her.

The film is about how Alzheimer’s disease changes the lives of a couple who

have been married for over 40 years. Julie Christie plays the wife, who realises

that Alzheimer’s disease is destroying not only her memory but also her

identity, and she makes the painful decision to go and live in a home for people

with the disease.

Julie Christie believes the film makes you think about ‘mortality’, about the

knowledge that people do not live forever. She says this is a ‘concept’, an idea

that ‘the western thought pattern’ – the way of thinking in the western world –

doesn’t include. Try to catch the first three words of her answer – ‘life is …’?

Julie Christie

‘Life is short and I think mortality is not a concept that is built into the western thought

pattern - it’s not dealt with on any level, I don’t think.’

Amber: Did you catch it? Julie Christie says ‘Life is short’. Notice too, the expression

‘to deal with something’, meaning to include something. 

Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007

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Julie Christie

‘Life is short and I think mortality is not a concept that is built into the western thought

pattern - it’s not dealt with on any level, I don’t think.’

Amber: Next, Julie Christie talks about how her glittering fame in the film world –

she won an Oscar by the time she was in her in her mid- 20s, for example –

isn’t part of her life now, nor is it important to her identity, her sense of self.

She says it was just good luck, good fortune, just ‘me getting lucky’.

Julie Christie

‘I sort of look back – none of that is relevant to me – my past. It’s absolutely irrelevant³. It was

me getting lucky and having all these terribly interesting things happening to me and sort of

experiencing fame and, you know, which not everybody does, and success, and in that

particular world, which again, not everybody does, and that was interesting – I’ve sort of put

it away in a drawer – it’s got nothing to do with anything.’

Amber: Notice too, Julie Christie uses both the word ‘relevant’ and its opposite,

‘irrelevant’. She also describes how she ignores her famous past; by saying

she’s ‘put it away in a drawer’ – which is a lovely figure of speech, isn’t it?

Julie Christie

‘I sort of look back – none of that is relevant to me – my past. It’s absolutely irrelevant. It was

me getting lucky and having all these terribly interesting things happening to me and sort of

experiencing fame and, you know, which not everybody does, and success, and in that

particular world, which again, not everybody does, and that was interesting – I’ve sort of put

it away in a drawer – it’s got nothing to do with anything.’

Amber: Finally, we asked if she thinks life has changed very much for film stars since

she began landing leading roles. She says it was extremely stressful for her

when she was young – she ‘got exhausted⁴ and anxious and awfully⁵ worried and

stressed’! But she wasn’t aware of how hard it was on her at the time, and she’s

horrified⁶ by the ‘concentration’, or attention, on celebrities⁷ today. 

Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007

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bbclearningenglish.com

Julie Christie

‘I mean, I wasn’t aware of how hard it was on me, personally. I just did it and got exhausted

and anxious and awfully worried and stressed, but now it has changed – God, yes, I’m so glad

I’m not plunged⁸ into that because the concentration on celebrity⁹ is so hideous¹⁰ – absolutely

hideous to have to deal with that, it must be.’

Amber: Now let’s revise the language we focussed on in the programme today.

‘mortality’ - the knowledge that people do not live forever

‘the western thought pattern’ - the way of thinking in the western world

‘to deal with something’ - to include something

 ‘to get lucky’ - to experience good fortune

‘relevant’ and its opposite, ‘irrelevant’

‘to put something away in a drawer’ - to forget about something 

1 amber   

n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的

参考例句：

• Would you like an amber necklace for your birthday?你过生日想要一条琥珀项链吗？
• This is a piece of little amber stones.这是一块小小的琥珀化石。

2 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。

3 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

4 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

5 awfully   

adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地

参考例句：

• Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
• I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。

6 horrified   

a.(表现出)恐惧的

参考例句：

• The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
• We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。

7 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

8 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

9 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

10 hideous   

adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的

参考例句：

• The whole experience had been like some hideous nightmare.整个经历就像一场可怕的噩梦。
• They're not like dogs,they're hideous brutes.它们不像狗，是丑陋的畜牲。