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珍妮是班上最优秀的学生,家里一心指望她考上牛津大学,珍妮自己则希望上大学以后可以摆脱现在这种枯燥乏味的生活。一个下雨天,珍妮赶回家时遇到大卫。两人在随后的交往中情愫渐生。五光十色的成人世界令珍妮心生向往,最终决定离开学校,和大卫结婚——就在此时,珍妮无意中发现大卫竟然是有妇之夫……
这部电影被无数评论誉为“2009年最优秀的英国片”,不但在全球各大影展中多次获得“最佳影片”、“最佳女主角”等重要提名,更一举捧红了新生代英伦“潮女”凯芮·穆里根,为她戴上了2010年英国电影和电视艺术学院奖(BAFTA)的影后桂冠。有人说,英国作品不是极端保守就是极端开放,《成长教育》显然就是这句话的真实写照——故事并不新颖,刻画的却是非常敏感的洛丽塔式主题;其思想并不深刻,珍妮的遭遇却是警示年轻人的钟声——到头来,生活除了一步一步踏实前进以外,别无出路……
Jack: So the only sound I want to hear coming through the ceiling is the sound of sweat dripping[滴下] onto textbooks.
Jenny: Cello[大提琴]?
Jack: No cello.
Jenny: I thought we agreed that cello was my interest or hobby.
Jack: Well, it already is your interest or hobby. So when they ask you at the Oxford interview, “What is your interest or hobby?” You can say, “The cello,” and you won’t be lying. Look, you don’t have to practice a hobby. A hobby is a hobby.
Jenny: Can I stop going to the youth orchestra[管弦乐团] then?
Jack: No! No. No. The youth orchestra is a good thing. That shows you’re a joiner[爱参加社团活动的人]-inner.
Jenny: Yes. But I’ve already joined in, so now I can stop.
Jack: No! No, well, that…that just shows the opposite, don’t you see? No, that shows you’re a rebel. They don’t want that at Oxford.
Jenny: No, they don’t want people who can think for themselves[自己动脑子].
Jack: Of course they don’t.
杰克:我希望从楼上传下来的只有你的汗水滴到课本上的声音。
珍妮:大提琴呢?
杰克:不准拉大提琴。
珍妮:我以为我们说好了——我可以把大提琴当作兴趣爱好。
杰克:喔,它已经是你的兴趣爱好了,所以当你去牛津大学面试时,他们问你:“你的兴趣爱好是什么?”你可以说“拉大提琴”——那可不是说谎哦。你瞧,兴趣爱好是不需要练习的,爱好只是一个爱好。
珍妮:那我可以不去青年管弦乐团了吧?
杰克:那可不行!不不,去青年管弦乐团是件好事儿,显示你爱参加社团活动,是团体的一份子。
珍妮:是的。但既然我已经是一份子,现在就不用去了。
杰克:不对!不行,喔,那……那只会适得其反,你不明白吗?不行,那会让你看起来太叛逆。牛津可不收离经叛道的
家伙。
珍妮:是啊,他们不会录取善于独立思考的人。
杰克:那当然。
口语锦囊
喜欢英音的同学这次可以大饱耳福啦!本文为正常语速的纯正英音,语音语调和我们平时经常接触的美音有挺大差别,对同学们来说可是一个不小的挑战哦!想训练英式发音的同学要注意在一边听一边跟读,模仿各段对话里的不同语气,体会文中多处充满讽刺意味的英式幽默;语音偏美式的同学也应该多听几遍,锻炼耳朵对英音的反应能力,好好利用这些材料进行辨音练习吧。
Jenny: I bought this for you.
Miss Stubbs: That’s very kind of you, but I can’t
accept it.
Jenny: Why not?
Miss Stubbs: It’s because of people like you that I plough through[费劲地阅读] illiterate[无知的] essays by Sandra Lovell about her pony[马驹]. But I know where this came from, Jenny. And if I took it, I feel I would be betraying both of us. (Jenny is leaving.) Jenny, you can do anything you want, you know that. You’re clever and you’re pretty. Is your boyfriend interested in clever注1, Jenny?
Jenny: I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to tell me.
Miss Stubbs: I’m telling you to go to Oxford, no matter what, because if you don’t, you’ll break my heart.
Jenny: Where did you go?
Miss Stubbs: Cambridge.
Jenny: Well, you’re clever and you’re pretty, so
presumably[大概] clever Miss Stubbs won, and here you are with your pony essays. I don’t know. These last few months, I’ve eaten in wonderful restaurants, and went to jazz clubs, and watched wonderful films, heard beautiful music. Maybe all our lives are going to end up with pony essays or housework. And yes, maybe we’ll go to Oxford. But if we’re all going to die the moment we graduate, isn’t it what we do before that counts?
Miss Stubbs: I’m sorry you think I’m dead.
Jenny: I don’t think you’re dead. I just...
Miss Stubbs: I think you’d better go to your next class.
珍妮:这是我给您买的礼物。
斯塔布斯小姐:你太客气了,但我不能
收下。
珍妮:为什么?
斯塔布斯小姐:因为你是我读完一堆白痴作文才找到的好苗子——比如桑德拉·洛弗尔就只会写自己的小马驹。我知道这香水哪来的,珍妮,如果收下了,我觉得那是对我们两个人的背叛。(珍妮准备离开。)珍妮,你也知道,无论你想做什么,你一定可以做到。你很聪明,样子也漂亮。你的男友在乎你的聪明才智吗,珍妮?
珍妮:我不明白您想说什么。
斯塔布斯小姐:我希望你无论如何都要去牛津上学,因为如果你考不上的话,那实在太让人难过了。
珍妮:您在哪里念大学?
斯塔布斯小姐:剑桥。
珍妮:噢,您也挺聪明漂亮的,想必聪明的斯塔布斯小姐顺利考上了吧,然后现在只能在这里批改小马驹的作文。我不太确定。最近几个月里,我在一流的餐厅吃饭,去爵士乐俱乐部玩,看了好些精彩的电影,享受美妙的音乐。或许我们的人生最终都只会剩下小马驹作文或者家务活儿。没错,又或许我们最后都会去牛津。不过,倘若我们在毕业的那一刻死去,难道不是毕业前经历的一切才能体现人生价值吗?
斯塔布斯小姐:真遗憾,看来你认为我已经死了。
珍妮:我没这么想,我只是……
斯塔布斯小姐:我想你应该去上下一节课了。
口语锦囊
除了最常见的“数,计数”这个义项以外,“count”还经常用来表示“有价值,有影响,有重要性”,例如:
It is not what you say but what you do that counts. (重要的不是你的言词,而是你的行动。)
That goal doesn’t count – the player was out of bounds. (那个进球无效,因为球员在界外。)
注1:此处为说话人口误,应为名词形式的“cleverness”。
Jenny: What if I got married instead of going to college?
Jack: Married?
Jenny: Married.
Jack: Well, it would depend on who it was, of course.
Jenny: Would it? That’s interesting.
Jack: Of course it would. I wouldn’t want you married off just for the sake of it.
Jenny: Thanks.
Marjorie: Has somebody asked you?
Jenny: Yes.
Jack: Who? David?
Jenny: No. A man I just met walking his dog.
Marjorie: What did you tell him?
Jenny: Nothing yet.
Marjorie: Do you have a choice? Or is it too late?
Jack: Of course she’s got a choice. An interesting one too, eh?
Jenny: This is where you’re supposed to say, “But what about Oxford?”
Jack: Well, look at it another way. You wouldn’t really need to go now, would you?
Jenny: “I wouldn’t need to go.” Would you like to
expand on that?
Jack: You’d be looked after.
Jenny: All that Latin! All those essays! What was the point? Why didn’t you just send me prowling[徘徊]
round nightclubs?! It would have been less trouble, and I might have had more fun!!
Jack: I don’t know about nightclubs; I know about education. Anyway, looks like it might have turned out for the best.
Jenny: How?
Jack: He wouldn’t want you if you were thick[(英)笨的], now, would he?
珍妮:如果我不上大学而是结婚会怎样?
杰克:结婚?
珍妮:结婚。
杰克:哦,这当然要取决于和谁结婚。
珍妮:是这样吗?真有意思。
杰克:当然是这样,我可不希望你单纯为了结婚而结婚。
珍妮:你真好。
玛乔丽:有人向你求婚?
珍妮:是的。
杰克:是谁?大卫吗?
珍妮:不,是一个刚刚碰面的溜狗路人。
玛乔丽:你怎么回答他?
珍妮:我还没答复。
玛乔丽:有选择的余地吗?还是已经太晚了?
杰克:她当然可以选择,还是一个有趣的选择呢,不是吗?
珍妮:这时候你应该说:“那牛津怎么办?”
杰克:噢,你应该这么想——现在你不是非去不可了,对吧?
珍妮:“不是非去不可”——你能说得明白点儿吗?
杰克:现在有人罩着你。
珍妮:所有那些拉丁文!所有那些作文!那到底是为了什么?你干嘛不直接让我去泡夜店?!那不但省事多了,我还会过得更快活呢!!
杰克:我对夜店不了解,可我懂教育。不管怎样,看来教育还是会有好果子。
珍妮:何以见得?
杰克:如果你是个笨蛋,他就不会喜欢上你了,对吧?
口语锦囊
“eh”是英式英语中一个非正式的语气词,相当于美式英语里的“huh”,表示惊讶、疑问、征求对方同意或者要求对方重复一遍,例如:
Let’s have another drink, eh? (我们再喝一杯好吗?)
Going oversea again, eh? It’s a nice life for some! (你又要出国吗?生活真惬意啊!)
Headmistress: Nobody does anything worth doing without a degree.
Jenny: Nobody does anything worth doing with a
degree. No woman, anyway.
Headmistress: So what I do isn’t worth doing? Or what Miss Stubbs does, or Mrs. Wilson, or any of us here? Because none of us would be here without a
degree, you do realise that, don’t you? And yes, of course studying is hard, and boring...
Jenny: Boring!
Headmistress: I’m sorry?
Jenny: Studying is hard and boring! Teaching is hard and boring! So what you’re telling me is to be bored, and then bored, and finally bored again, but this time for the rest of my life! This whole stupid country is bored! There’s no life in it, or color, or fun! It’s probably just as well the Russians are gonna drop a nuclear bomb on us any day now, so my choice is to do something
hard and boring, or to marry my Jew, and go to Paris and Rome, and listen to jazz, and read, and eat good food in nice restaurants, and have fun! It’s not enough to educate us any more, Ms. Walters! You’ve got to tell us why you’re doing it!
Headmistress: It doesn’t have to be teaching, you know? There’s the civil service.
Jenny: I don’t wish to be impertinent[无礼的], Ms.
Walters, but it is an argument worth rehearsing[预演]. You never know. Someone else might want to know the point of it all one day.
校长:没有学位的人做不成大事。
珍妮:有学位的人也做不成大事。反正女人做不成大事。
校长:那么我在做的是无用功吗?斯塔布斯小姐、威尔逊夫人还有其他老师都在浪费时间吗?因为如果没有学位,我们当中没有人可以在这里教书,你也意识到这一点吧?没错,学习确实是辛苦乏味的……
珍妮:无聊极了!
校长:你说什么?
珍妮:学习既辛苦又无聊!教书也很辛苦很无聊!所以您现在要我做的事情就是变得乏味无趣,然后百无聊赖,最后还是无所事事,就这样过完我的一生!这个愚蠢的国家无聊透顶!这里没有生机,没有色彩,也没有乐趣!即使俄国佬随时往我们这儿扔一颗核弹,一切都不会发生变化,所以我的选择是要么净做些辛苦无聊的事情,要么嫁给我的犹太男友,然后去巴黎和罗马玩,听爵士乐,尽情阅读,在宜人的餐馆品尝美味佳肴,享受人生乐趣!单纯的教育已经不能满足我们了,沃尔特斯女士!您得告诉我们教育的目的到底是什么!
校长:念书的出路并不是只有教学,你知道吧?你还可以去当公务员。
珍妮:无意冒犯,沃尔特斯女士,但这样的争论你得有所准备。谁知道呢,总有一天,其他人也会想知道教育到底意义何在。
口语锦囊
这段对话性格鲜明,语音清晰,感情变化幅度大,练习英音的同学可以重点跟读,熟悉材料之后和搭档进行role-play,注意语速语调的变化如何体现说话人的不同语气。
Marjorie: Did you see her?
Jenny: Yes, I saw her. I didn’t talk to her. There wasn’t any need.
Jack: We have to have this out. Well, if you won’t do it, I will. I’m still your father.
Jenny: You’re my father again now, are you? What were you when you encouraged me to throw my life away? Silly schoolgirls are always getting seduced[诱惑] by glamorous[迷人的] older men, but what about you two?!
(Jenny locks herself inside her room.)
Jack: (knocking the door) Jenny? Jenny? Jenny, I’m sorry. I know...I know I’ve made a mess of everything.
All my life I, I’ve been scared. And I didn’t want you to be scared. That’s why I wanted you to go to Oxford. And then along came David. He knew famous writers; he knew how to get to classical music concerts. But he wasn’t who he said he was. He wasn’t who you said he was, either.
The…the other day, your mother and I were listening
to a...a program on the radio about C. S. Lewis注2, and they said that he’d moved to Cambridge in 1950. I, I said, “Well, they’ve got that wrong. Our Jenny wouldn’t have his name in her book if he’d moved to Cambridge.”
There’s a cup…a cup of tea and some biscuits out here.
玛乔丽:你见到她了吗?
珍妮:是的,我去见她了。我没和她说话,没有必要这么做。
杰克:我们必须告诉她。你不说,我说。我始终是你的爸爸。
珍妮:现在你又是我的爸爸了吗?那你鼓励我自毁前程的时候算什么?傻傻的小女生总是容易迷上魅力十足的年长男人,但你们俩又是怎么回事?!
(珍妮将自己反锁在房间。)
杰克:(敲门)珍妮?珍妮?珍妮,我很抱歉。我知道……我知道我搞砸了。
我的一生都在担惊受怕,我不希望你也这样,所以我想让你去牛津念书。然后大卫出现了。他认识名作家,他知道怎么去古典音乐会。但他名不副实,其实并不是你说的那么完美。
有……有一天,你妈妈和我在听广播,那是一个关于C·S·刘易斯的节目。节目上说,他在1950年就搬去剑桥了。我……我说:“喔,他们肯定搞错了。如果他搬去剑桥了,我们家珍妮的书上就不会有他的签名。”
门外有杯……有一杯茶和几块饼干哦。
口语锦囊
听完全文,还在念书的你是否有所触动?你从珍妮身上明白到了什么?用英语和你的搭档互相交流一下自己的感受和想法。再听一遍全文,边听边做笔记,然后用2分钟的时间向搭档复述整个故事吧。
注2:英国著名作家,一直任职于牛津大学和剑桥大学,代表作为《纳尼亚传奇》(The Chronicles of Narnia)系列小说。此处指的是
大卫为了带珍妮去玩,对杰克表示他会带珍妮去牛津找刘易斯,并在珍妮的书上冒充刘易斯的签名。
这部电影被无数评论誉为“2009年最优秀的英国片”,不但在全球各大影展中多次获得“最佳影片”、“最佳女主角”等重要提名,更一举捧红了新生代英伦“潮女”凯芮·穆里根,为她戴上了2010年英国电影和电视艺术学院奖(BAFTA)的影后桂冠。有人说,英国作品不是极端保守就是极端开放,《成长教育》显然就是这句话的真实写照——故事并不新颖,刻画的却是非常敏感的洛丽塔式主题;其思想并不深刻,珍妮的遭遇却是警示年轻人的钟声——到头来,生活除了一步一步踏实前进以外,别无出路……
Jack: So the only sound I want to hear coming through the ceiling is the sound of sweat dripping[滴下] onto textbooks.
Jenny: Cello[大提琴]?
Jack: No cello.
Jenny: I thought we agreed that cello was my interest or hobby.
Jack: Well, it already is your interest or hobby. So when they ask you at the Oxford interview, “What is your interest or hobby?” You can say, “The cello,” and you won’t be lying. Look, you don’t have to practice a hobby. A hobby is a hobby.
Jenny: Can I stop going to the youth orchestra[管弦乐团] then?
Jack: No! No. No. The youth orchestra is a good thing. That shows you’re a joiner[爱参加社团活动的人]-inner.
Jenny: Yes. But I’ve already joined in, so now I can stop.
Jack: No! No, well, that…that just shows the opposite, don’t you see? No, that shows you’re a rebel. They don’t want that at Oxford.
Jenny: No, they don’t want people who can think for themselves[自己动脑子].
Jack: Of course they don’t.
杰克:我希望从楼上传下来的只有你的汗水滴到课本上的声音。
珍妮:大提琴呢?
杰克:不准拉大提琴。
珍妮:我以为我们说好了——我可以把大提琴当作兴趣爱好。
杰克:喔,它已经是你的兴趣爱好了,所以当你去牛津大学面试时,他们问你:“你的兴趣爱好是什么?”你可以说“拉大提琴”——那可不是说谎哦。你瞧,兴趣爱好是不需要练习的,爱好只是一个爱好。
珍妮:那我可以不去青年管弦乐团了吧?
杰克:那可不行!不不,去青年管弦乐团是件好事儿,显示你爱参加社团活动,是团体的一份子。
珍妮:是的。但既然我已经是一份子,现在就不用去了。
杰克:不对!不行,喔,那……那只会适得其反,你不明白吗?不行,那会让你看起来太叛逆。牛津可不收离经叛道的
家伙。
珍妮:是啊,他们不会录取善于独立思考的人。
杰克:那当然。
口语锦囊
喜欢英音的同学这次可以大饱耳福啦!本文为正常语速的纯正英音,语音语调和我们平时经常接触的美音有挺大差别,对同学们来说可是一个不小的挑战哦!想训练英式发音的同学要注意在一边听一边跟读,模仿各段对话里的不同语气,体会文中多处充满讽刺意味的英式幽默;语音偏美式的同学也应该多听几遍,锻炼耳朵对英音的反应能力,好好利用这些材料进行辨音练习吧。
Jenny: I bought this for you.
Miss Stubbs: That’s very kind of you, but I can’t
accept it.
Jenny: Why not?
Miss Stubbs: It’s because of people like you that I plough through[费劲地阅读] illiterate[无知的] essays by Sandra Lovell about her pony[马驹]. But I know where this came from, Jenny. And if I took it, I feel I would be betraying both of us. (Jenny is leaving.) Jenny, you can do anything you want, you know that. You’re clever and you’re pretty. Is your boyfriend interested in clever注1, Jenny?
Jenny: I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to tell me.
Miss Stubbs: I’m telling you to go to Oxford, no matter what, because if you don’t, you’ll break my heart.
Jenny: Where did you go?
Miss Stubbs: Cambridge.
Jenny: Well, you’re clever and you’re pretty, so
presumably[大概] clever Miss Stubbs won, and here you are with your pony essays. I don’t know. These last few months, I’ve eaten in wonderful restaurants, and went to jazz clubs, and watched wonderful films, heard beautiful music. Maybe all our lives are going to end up with pony essays or housework. And yes, maybe we’ll go to Oxford. But if we’re all going to die the moment we graduate, isn’t it what we do before that counts?
Miss Stubbs: I’m sorry you think I’m dead.
Jenny: I don’t think you’re dead. I just...
Miss Stubbs: I think you’d better go to your next class.
珍妮:这是我给您买的礼物。
斯塔布斯小姐:你太客气了,但我不能
收下。
珍妮:为什么?
斯塔布斯小姐:因为你是我读完一堆白痴作文才找到的好苗子——比如桑德拉·洛弗尔就只会写自己的小马驹。我知道这香水哪来的,珍妮,如果收下了,我觉得那是对我们两个人的背叛。(珍妮准备离开。)珍妮,你也知道,无论你想做什么,你一定可以做到。你很聪明,样子也漂亮。你的男友在乎你的聪明才智吗,珍妮?
珍妮:我不明白您想说什么。
斯塔布斯小姐:我希望你无论如何都要去牛津上学,因为如果你考不上的话,那实在太让人难过了。
珍妮:您在哪里念大学?
斯塔布斯小姐:剑桥。
珍妮:噢,您也挺聪明漂亮的,想必聪明的斯塔布斯小姐顺利考上了吧,然后现在只能在这里批改小马驹的作文。我不太确定。最近几个月里,我在一流的餐厅吃饭,去爵士乐俱乐部玩,看了好些精彩的电影,享受美妙的音乐。或许我们的人生最终都只会剩下小马驹作文或者家务活儿。没错,又或许我们最后都会去牛津。不过,倘若我们在毕业的那一刻死去,难道不是毕业前经历的一切才能体现人生价值吗?
斯塔布斯小姐:真遗憾,看来你认为我已经死了。
珍妮:我没这么想,我只是……
斯塔布斯小姐:我想你应该去上下一节课了。
口语锦囊
除了最常见的“数,计数”这个义项以外,“count”还经常用来表示“有价值,有影响,有重要性”,例如:
It is not what you say but what you do that counts. (重要的不是你的言词,而是你的行动。)
That goal doesn’t count – the player was out of bounds. (那个进球无效,因为球员在界外。)
注1:此处为说话人口误,应为名词形式的“cleverness”。
Jenny: What if I got married instead of going to college?
Jack: Married?
Jenny: Married.
Jack: Well, it would depend on who it was, of course.
Jenny: Would it? That’s interesting.
Jack: Of course it would. I wouldn’t want you married off just for the sake of it.
Jenny: Thanks.
Marjorie: Has somebody asked you?
Jenny: Yes.
Jack: Who? David?
Jenny: No. A man I just met walking his dog.
Marjorie: What did you tell him?
Jenny: Nothing yet.
Marjorie: Do you have a choice? Or is it too late?
Jack: Of course she’s got a choice. An interesting one too, eh?
Jenny: This is where you’re supposed to say, “But what about Oxford?”
Jack: Well, look at it another way. You wouldn’t really need to go now, would you?
Jenny: “I wouldn’t need to go.” Would you like to
expand on that?
Jack: You’d be looked after.
Jenny: All that Latin! All those essays! What was the point? Why didn’t you just send me prowling[徘徊]
round nightclubs?! It would have been less trouble, and I might have had more fun!!
Jack: I don’t know about nightclubs; I know about education. Anyway, looks like it might have turned out for the best.
Jenny: How?
Jack: He wouldn’t want you if you were thick[(英)笨的], now, would he?
珍妮:如果我不上大学而是结婚会怎样?
杰克:结婚?
珍妮:结婚。
杰克:哦,这当然要取决于和谁结婚。
珍妮:是这样吗?真有意思。
杰克:当然是这样,我可不希望你单纯为了结婚而结婚。
珍妮:你真好。
玛乔丽:有人向你求婚?
珍妮:是的。
杰克:是谁?大卫吗?
珍妮:不,是一个刚刚碰面的溜狗路人。
玛乔丽:你怎么回答他?
珍妮:我还没答复。
玛乔丽:有选择的余地吗?还是已经太晚了?
杰克:她当然可以选择,还是一个有趣的选择呢,不是吗?
珍妮:这时候你应该说:“那牛津怎么办?”
杰克:噢,你应该这么想——现在你不是非去不可了,对吧?
珍妮:“不是非去不可”——你能说得明白点儿吗?
杰克:现在有人罩着你。
珍妮:所有那些拉丁文!所有那些作文!那到底是为了什么?你干嘛不直接让我去泡夜店?!那不但省事多了,我还会过得更快活呢!!
杰克:我对夜店不了解,可我懂教育。不管怎样,看来教育还是会有好果子。
珍妮:何以见得?
杰克:如果你是个笨蛋,他就不会喜欢上你了,对吧?
口语锦囊
“eh”是英式英语中一个非正式的语气词,相当于美式英语里的“huh”,表示惊讶、疑问、征求对方同意或者要求对方重复一遍,例如:
Let’s have another drink, eh? (我们再喝一杯好吗?)
Going oversea again, eh? It’s a nice life for some! (你又要出国吗?生活真惬意啊!)
Headmistress: Nobody does anything worth doing without a degree.
Jenny: Nobody does anything worth doing with a
degree. No woman, anyway.
Headmistress: So what I do isn’t worth doing? Or what Miss Stubbs does, or Mrs. Wilson, or any of us here? Because none of us would be here without a
degree, you do realise that, don’t you? And yes, of course studying is hard, and boring...
Jenny: Boring!
Headmistress: I’m sorry?
Jenny: Studying is hard and boring! Teaching is hard and boring! So what you’re telling me is to be bored, and then bored, and finally bored again, but this time for the rest of my life! This whole stupid country is bored! There’s no life in it, or color, or fun! It’s probably just as well the Russians are gonna drop a nuclear bomb on us any day now, so my choice is to do something
hard and boring, or to marry my Jew, and go to Paris and Rome, and listen to jazz, and read, and eat good food in nice restaurants, and have fun! It’s not enough to educate us any more, Ms. Walters! You’ve got to tell us why you’re doing it!
Headmistress: It doesn’t have to be teaching, you know? There’s the civil service.
Jenny: I don’t wish to be impertinent[无礼的], Ms.
Walters, but it is an argument worth rehearsing[预演]. You never know. Someone else might want to know the point of it all one day.
校长:没有学位的人做不成大事。
珍妮:有学位的人也做不成大事。反正女人做不成大事。
校长:那么我在做的是无用功吗?斯塔布斯小姐、威尔逊夫人还有其他老师都在浪费时间吗?因为如果没有学位,我们当中没有人可以在这里教书,你也意识到这一点吧?没错,学习确实是辛苦乏味的……
珍妮:无聊极了!
校长:你说什么?
珍妮:学习既辛苦又无聊!教书也很辛苦很无聊!所以您现在要我做的事情就是变得乏味无趣,然后百无聊赖,最后还是无所事事,就这样过完我的一生!这个愚蠢的国家无聊透顶!这里没有生机,没有色彩,也没有乐趣!即使俄国佬随时往我们这儿扔一颗核弹,一切都不会发生变化,所以我的选择是要么净做些辛苦无聊的事情,要么嫁给我的犹太男友,然后去巴黎和罗马玩,听爵士乐,尽情阅读,在宜人的餐馆品尝美味佳肴,享受人生乐趣!单纯的教育已经不能满足我们了,沃尔特斯女士!您得告诉我们教育的目的到底是什么!
校长:念书的出路并不是只有教学,你知道吧?你还可以去当公务员。
珍妮:无意冒犯,沃尔特斯女士,但这样的争论你得有所准备。谁知道呢,总有一天,其他人也会想知道教育到底意义何在。
口语锦囊
这段对话性格鲜明,语音清晰,感情变化幅度大,练习英音的同学可以重点跟读,熟悉材料之后和搭档进行role-play,注意语速语调的变化如何体现说话人的不同语气。
Marjorie: Did you see her?
Jenny: Yes, I saw her. I didn’t talk to her. There wasn’t any need.
Jack: We have to have this out. Well, if you won’t do it, I will. I’m still your father.
Jenny: You’re my father again now, are you? What were you when you encouraged me to throw my life away? Silly schoolgirls are always getting seduced[诱惑] by glamorous[迷人的] older men, but what about you two?!
(Jenny locks herself inside her room.)
Jack: (knocking the door) Jenny? Jenny? Jenny, I’m sorry. I know...I know I’ve made a mess of everything.
All my life I, I’ve been scared. And I didn’t want you to be scared. That’s why I wanted you to go to Oxford. And then along came David. He knew famous writers; he knew how to get to classical music concerts. But he wasn’t who he said he was. He wasn’t who you said he was, either.
The…the other day, your mother and I were listening
to a...a program on the radio about C. S. Lewis注2, and they said that he’d moved to Cambridge in 1950. I, I said, “Well, they’ve got that wrong. Our Jenny wouldn’t have his name in her book if he’d moved to Cambridge.”
There’s a cup…a cup of tea and some biscuits out here.
玛乔丽:你见到她了吗?
珍妮:是的,我去见她了。我没和她说话,没有必要这么做。
杰克:我们必须告诉她。你不说,我说。我始终是你的爸爸。
珍妮:现在你又是我的爸爸了吗?那你鼓励我自毁前程的时候算什么?傻傻的小女生总是容易迷上魅力十足的年长男人,但你们俩又是怎么回事?!
(珍妮将自己反锁在房间。)
杰克:(敲门)珍妮?珍妮?珍妮,我很抱歉。我知道……我知道我搞砸了。
我的一生都在担惊受怕,我不希望你也这样,所以我想让你去牛津念书。然后大卫出现了。他认识名作家,他知道怎么去古典音乐会。但他名不副实,其实并不是你说的那么完美。
有……有一天,你妈妈和我在听广播,那是一个关于C·S·刘易斯的节目。节目上说,他在1950年就搬去剑桥了。我……我说:“喔,他们肯定搞错了。如果他搬去剑桥了,我们家珍妮的书上就不会有他的签名。”
门外有杯……有一杯茶和几块饼干哦。
口语锦囊
听完全文,还在念书的你是否有所触动?你从珍妮身上明白到了什么?用英语和你的搭档互相交流一下自己的感受和想法。再听一遍全文,边听边做笔记,然后用2分钟的时间向搭档复述整个故事吧。
注2:英国著名作家,一直任职于牛津大学和剑桥大学,代表作为《纳尼亚传奇》(The Chronicles of Narnia)系列小说。此处指的是
大卫为了带珍妮去玩,对杰克表示他会带珍妮去牛津找刘易斯,并在珍妮的书上冒充刘易斯的签名。