美国国家公共电台 NPR Inside The Winchester Mystery House

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

The new movie "Winchester" is a paranormal horror film about one of the largest haunted houses in America. The story is based on the life of Sarah Winchester, heiress to the company that created the Winchester rifle series. Helen Mirren stars as the eccentric woman who built and rebuilt her vast and ever-changing mansion¹ from 1884 until her death in 1922. NPR's Mandalit del Barco visited the house that's now a popular tourist attraction in San Jose, Calif.

(SOUNDBITE OF WOODEN STAIRS CREAKING)

MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE²: At the famous Winchester Mystery House, tour guide Nicole Calande (ph) leads us up the wooden stairs.

NICOLE CALANDE: The house just creaks on its own. You check the area, and no one's there.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR CREAKING)

DEL BARCO: The Queen Anne revival-style mansion has staircases that lead to nowhere, doors that open to a two-story drop, a witch's cap with strange acoustics³. The house historian, Janan Boehme, says tour guides refuse to go up to the third floor after dark.

JANAN BOEHME: Because you will actually hear footsteps coming down the hallway, and you think someone whispered your name. And you're looking around like, who's messing with me? And there's nobody there.

DEL BARCO: House marketing⁴ director Tim O'Day says some people report seeing a handyman named Clyde stoking the fireplace or carrying coal. He died long ago.

TIM O'DAY: He appears as an apparition⁵ in his white overalls⁶ and his mustache, and he'll just kind of blankly look at you. And if you look away, he disappears.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WINCHESTER")

HELEN MIRREN: (As Sarah Winchester) Do you believe in ghosts, Doctor?

DEL BARCO: In the movie, Sarah Winchester's sanity⁷ is questioned by a psychologist hired by the company to push her out. Legend has it Winchester conducted seances to communicate with the dead.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WINCHESTER")

MIRREN: (As Sarah Winchester) I can feel it in the air, in the walls.

DEL BARCO: Winchester remained in mourning for her baby daughter and late husband. She had workers build and rebuild her home nonstop day and night for nearly 40 years. Helen Mirren says in the movie, Winchester did so to placate⁸ the spirits of those who died at the hands of the weapon whose fortune she inherited.

MIRREN: She felt the weight of the effect of the Winchester rifle, what it had done, what it had achieved. It must be like being the inheritor of a fortune that was made on the back of the atomic bomb.

DEL BARCO: On the final day of filming on location last May, Mirren sat in one of the many rooms of the Winchester mansion and marveled.

MIRREN: Really, really extraordinary. It's the work of an artist, a huge imagination. There's something so eccentric and out of the ordinary about it. You know, you can only sort of be in awe⁹ of it, really.

DEL BARCO: Michael Spierig, who wrote and directed the movie with his brother Peter, says the notoriously reclusive Winchester spared no expense to innovate¹⁰ her architectural wonder.

MICHAEL SPIERIG: I never saw Sarah Winchester as a crazy person. She was more of a progressive thinker. She was apparently¹¹ one of the first people to have a telephone. I think her number was 1-2-3-4. She was one of the first people to have a shower. She invented an irrigation system in the house that was ahead of its time.

DEL BARCO: Much of the mansion was destroyed by the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. It's now a California landmark¹² that still has peculiar¹³ goings on.

Nothing, like, strange has happened while you were shooting here?

SPIERIG: No. There hasn't been anything.

DEL BARCO: What about that? What was that?

SPIERIG: Well, I mean, if you classify doors slamming and - maybe that's a ghost. It might be the wind. Who knows?

DEL BARCO: The Winchester House remains¹⁴ a mystery. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.

1 mansion   

n.大厦，大楼；宅第

参考例句：

• The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
• The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 acoustics   

n.声学，(复)音响效果，音响装置

参考例句：

• The acoustics of the new concert hall are excellent.这座新音乐厅的音响效果极好。
• The auditorium has comfortable seating and modern acoustics.礼堂里有舒适的座椅和现代化的音响设备。

4 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

5 apparition   

n.幽灵，神奇的现象

参考例句：

• He saw the apparition of his dead wife.他看见了他亡妻的幽灵。
• But the terror of this new apparition brought me to a stand.这新出现的幽灵吓得我站在那里一动也不敢动。

6 overalls   

n.（复）工装裤；长罩衣

参考例句：

• He is in overalls today.他今天穿的是工作裤。
• He changed his overalls for a suit.他脱下工装裤，换上了一套西服。

7 sanity   

n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确

参考例句：

• I doubt the sanity of such a plan.我怀疑这个计划是否明智。
• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。

8 placate   

v.抚慰，平息(愤怒)

参考例句：

• He never attempts to placate his enemy.他从不企图与敌人和解。
• Even a written apology failed to placate the indignant hostess.甚至一纸书面道歉都没能安抚这个怒气冲冲的女主人。

9 awe   

n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧

参考例句：

• The sight filled us with awe.这景色使我们大为惊叹。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

10 innovate   

v.革新，变革，创始

参考例句：

• We must innovate in order to make progress.我们必须改革以便取得进步。
• It is necessary to innovate and develop military theories.创新和发展军事理论是必要的。

11 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

12 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。

13 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

14 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。