VOA慢速英语2013 《斯大林格勒》在票房争夺战中一举夺魁

 

AS IT IS 2013-11-30 Stalingrad Wins Battle at the Box Office 《斯大林格勒》在票房争夺战中一举夺魁

Hello, I’m June Simms! Welcome to As It Is from VOA Learning English.

Today we travel to South Sudan to hear about bracelets¹ made from bullets. Old shell casings have been easy to find there after years of civil war. Now local artists  have begun making jewelry² from the objects.

But first up, Mario Ritter tells us about the runaway³ success of a new movie about the Battle of Stalingrad.

Stalingrad Wins Battle at the Box OfficeSeventy years have passed since the Battle of Stalingrad, a fierce battle between Adolf Hitler’s Germany and Joseph Stalin’s  Russia. Yet a new generation of Russians is now going out to see the latest film called Stalingrad.

Ksenia Kuznetsova has just seen the movie at a theater in a Moscow shopping mall.

“Thankfully I was born after that period and I didn't have to experience it. But the characters in the film give you the feeling that you're living it with them.”

The movie Stalingrad began showing in theaters in October. It has become Russia’s biggest selling movie since the collapse⁴ of the Soviet⁵ Union more than 20 years ago.

In March, it will be Russia’s entry for an Oscar award for best foreign-language movie.

The real Battle of Stalingrad was a Soviet victory. But, it came at a huge cost. Historians say it was the bloodiest⁶ battle in human history, with close to two million  deaths.

Film critic Sergei Levrentev says that Stalingrad’s success reflects Russia’s lasting⁷ respect for the sacrifices of World War Two.

“For the youngsters, who are the main spectators in the cinema now, it's totally unusual. They never saw such Soviet films about war. They haven't even some feeling  how bad was that war for the Russian people, for the Soviet people.”

Stalingrad is Russia’s first movie filmed in 3D for IMAX. Moviegoer Katya liked the special effects.

“I really liked the movie. It was filmed and produced very well. The actors did a great job, and of course it grabs you by the heart because it reflects all of our  strength and history.”

Russia’s government financed the film's $30 million budget as part of a drive to make modern movies that show Russian history in a positive light.

Today, the city of Stalingrad is called Volgograd. The government completely rebuilt the city, after it was destroyed during the war.

A patriotic⁸ statue there known as the Motherland Calls was the largest in the world when Soviet officials first displayed it in 1967. However, the 8,000-ton monument  is built on clay, and it has started to lean.

City residents are hopeful that, after spending millions on a Hollywood-style movie, Russia’s government will invest in repairing the monument to the real war dead of  Stalingrad. I’m Mario Ritter in Washington. Thanks to VOA’s James Brooke for his reporting on this story.

You are listening to As It Is, from VOA Learning English. I’m June Simms in Washington.

Making Art Out of War in South SudanAfrica’s longest civil war left South Sudan in ruins when it split from the north in 2011. Now the country’s artists are making  jewelry out of old shell casings from artillery⁹ fire that once terrorized the population. Hannah McNeish recently visited the town of Rumbek to speak with some of the  locals.

Just outside of Rumbek, the capital of South Sudan’s Lakes state, a song of smashes and clashes and clangs rings out from dusk until dawn. It is the sound of  blacksmiths hammering away at old metal shells and turning them into works of art.

John Panchol has been making things from bullet and artillery casings for years. He says before he began making bracelets he used to make traditional weapons used in  cattle raids. Raiders now use deadlier, modern guns.

But, Panchol has found that there is a growing demand for art and jewelry made from bullets. He says these so-called “bullet bangles” have become his main source of  business. And some of his best customers are Rumbek's cows.

This is cattle country, where cows outnumber humans. Many people are named after their father’s favorite bull or best milking cow.

“I’m not just making bracelets,” he says. “I’m producing bells for the cows and some spears that are luxury. People love these things.”

South Sudanese fashion designer Akuja de Garang is trying to increase support for the new nation’s struggling artists.

Like many others, Akuja de Garang fled Sudan’s civil war. The 22-year conflict killed an estimated 2 million people. She spent most of her life in Britain where she  studied anthropology¹⁰.

In her house, she displays some of the beautiful objects made by almost 600 ethnic¹¹ groups spread across South Sudan.

They include pipes of wood covered in smoothed bullets and razor-sharp spears traditionally carried by tribal¹² “wise men.”

Akuja de Garang says she wants people to recognize South Sudan for something other than its violent past. She is trying to support artists like the metalworkers by  providing small loans, a market for buyers in the capital, and advice on prices that will reflect the blood, sweat and tears of their works.

“What I’m trying to do with the organization I’ve set up is to offer an opportunity to access the market, basically. So what I’m trying to do is to set up a  network of artists around the 10 states.”

She says “bullet bangle” artists also are helping¹³ to clean up a country littered with bullets, shell casings and other remains¹⁴ from years of war.

The business of making art and jewelry out of scraps¹⁵ of military metal is likely to die out if this new nation can maintain peace with Sudan. That will result in a  lack of raw materials. Until then, these artists will continue turning pieces of war into pieces of art.

1 bracelets   

n.手镯，臂镯( bracelet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The lamplight struck a gleam from her bracelets. 她的手镯在灯光的照射下闪闪发亮。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• On display are earrings, necklaces and bracelets made from jade, amber and amethyst. 展出的有用玉石、琥珀和紫水晶做的耳环、项链和手镯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。

3 runaway   

n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的

参考例句：

• The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
• He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。

4 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

5 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

6 bloodiest   

adj.血污的( bloody的最高级 )；流血的；屠杀的；残忍的

参考例句：

• The Russians were going to suffer their bloodiest defeat of all before Berlin. 俄国人在柏林城下要遭到他们的最惨重的失败。 来自辞典例句
• It was perhaps the bloodiest hour in the history of warfare. 这也许是战争史上血腥味最浓的1个小时。 来自互联网

7 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

8 patriotic   

adj.爱国的，有爱国心的

参考例句：

• His speech was full of patriotic sentiments.他的演说充满了爱国之情。
• The old man is a patriotic overseas Chinese.这位老人是一位爱国华侨。

9 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

10 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

11 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

12 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

13 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

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。

15 scraps   

油渣

参考例句：

• Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
• A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。