VOA标准英语2011--Kids Making Horror Movie Uncover Mystery

Kids Making Horror Movie Uncover Mystery in 'Super 8'

Writer-director J.J. Abrams teams up with producer Steven Spielberg for a sci-fi adventure set in the 1970's about kids who dream of making movies when they grow up. Things get exciting when their homemade production uncovers a top-secret military project. Here's a look at Super 8.
"I've got property damage, I've got theft and now I've got nine people missing. There are things happening around here that I can't explain."
The deputy sheriff in an Ohio town has a population in panic as military forces scramble¹ to cover up something...they won't reveal what ...that is stalking the streets. It all starts as the deputy's teenage son and his friends are out late one night at an unused train station. It's the perfect setting for a key scene in the homemade zombie movie they are shooting with a "Super 8" film camera.
The scenes of kids fumbling² their way as they learn to make a movie are familiar to writer-director J.J. Abrams. He did the same thing as a teenager, years before he created the TV hits Alias³ and Lost as well as the recent feature film of Star Trek⁴.
"Super 8 is inspired initially⁵ by the desire to go back in time and tell a story about being a kid making those movies on Super 8 that were often not quite as good as you wanted them to be," explains Abrams.
It also echoes the experience of producer Steven Spielberg, who got his start making amateur eight-millimeter movies.
"If you want to be a movie director, you've got to start somewhere," notes Spielberg. "It's a lot easier today because it's so easy to get a video camera, go out and make a movie and you can put it right on YouTube. In a sense, not only can kids today make their own movies, they've got distribution. We didn't have that in the eight-millimeter days. We had to lug⁶ a projector⁷, plug it in to somebody's wall, put up a screen and show it to someone patient enough to sit there for five minutes and watch..... J.J. began his career the same way."
"Production value! Gary, you put film in the camera, right?"
In Super 8, as the kids are making their movie, the young director spots a real train coming down the track toward them. They scramble and start their scene as the train roars by. But it jumps the tracks in a spectacular wreck⁸ that they inadvertently capture on film.
"Guys, watch out! Oh my God!"
J.J. Abrams pulls out all the stops, creating a frighteningly realistic disaster. He says it had to be a part of the story and not only big explosions.
"There's a weird⁹ thing that happens when you connect a person to an event," Abrams says. "Suddenly the event has different meaning. It's not just the event, which is maybe cool and interesting in itself, but suddenly it is relatable and it's a relative experience. So as the kids are running [from the train], I wanted it to be what they would remember the train crash being as opposed to technically¹⁰ how the train crashed."
It turns out the crash is not an accident, and the kids are the first to learn what's on the train and why the twisted wreckage¹¹ is sealed off by the military. Abrams would rather not reveal those secrets beforehand so audiences can see them as the characters in the film do.
"Between clips and trailers and commercials and magazines and online, it just feels like people are force-fed so much stuff. So to try to keep it a little surprising for the audience is part of the goal," Abrams explains.
However, it's science fiction and Abrams compares Super 8 to Spielberg films that he watched growing up, like E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
"They are all about suburban¹² American ordinary people going through something that was hyper-real," Abrams says. "There are fundamental and relatable relationships, broken families in some form, often friendships that are really critical and important, often kids at the center of the films, parent-child stories, first love ...and clearly a spectacle in a sense of something you never see in normal life that was happening; but there was a big heart."
Abrams scoured¹³ the country to find kids with no professional acting¹⁴ experience, like 14-year-old Joel Courtney of Idaho, who plays the central character. The exception is Elle Fanning, also 14, who has been on TV and in movies since she was two.

1 scramble   

v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料

参考例句：

• He broke his leg in his scramble down the wall.他爬墙摔断了腿。
• It was a long scramble to the top of the hill.到山顶须要爬登一段长路。

2 fumbling   

n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理

参考例句：

• If he actually managed to the ball instead of fumbling it with an off-balance shot. 如果他实际上设法拿好球而不是fumbling它。50-balance射击笨拙地和迅速地会开始他的岗位移动，经常这样结束。
• If he actually managed to secure the ball instead of fumbling it awkwardly an off-balance shot. 如果他实际上设法拿好球而不是fumbling它。50-50提议有时。他从off-balance射击笨拙地和迅速地会开始他的岗位移动，经常这样结束。

3 alias   

n.化名；别名；adv.又名

参考例句：

• His real name was Johnson,but he often went by the alias of Smith.他的真名是约翰逊，但是他常常用化名史密斯。
• You can replace this automatically generated alias with a more meaningful one.可用更有意义的名称替换这一自动生成的别名。

4 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

5 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

6 lug   

n.柄，突出部，螺帽；(英）耳朵；（俚）笨蛋；vt.拖，拉，用力拖动

参考例句：

• Nobody wants to lug around huge suitcases full of clothes.谁都不想拖着个装满衣服的大箱子到处走。
• Do I have to lug those suitcases all the way to the station?难道非要我把那些手提箱一直拉到车站去吗？

7 projector   

n.投影机，放映机，幻灯机

参考例句：

• There is a new projector in my office.我的办公室里有一架新的幻灯机。
• How long will it take to set up the projector?把这个放映机安放好需要多长时间？

8 wreck   

n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难

参考例句：

• Weather may have been a factor in the wreck.天气可能是造成这次失事的原因之一。
• No one can wreck the friendship between us.没有人能够破坏我们之间的友谊。

9 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

10 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

11 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

12 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

13 scoured   

走遍（某地）搜寻（人或物）( scour的过去式和过去分词 )； （用力）刷； 擦净； 擦亮

参考例句：

• We scoured the area for somewhere to pitch our tent. 我们四处查看，想找一个搭帐篷的地方。
• The torrents scoured out a channel down the hill side. 急流沿着山腰冲刷出一条水沟。

14 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。