The 'plastic' princess?

 　　Finn: Hello, I'm Finn, welcome to 6 Minute English. With me in the studio today is Neil.

　　Neil: Hi there, Finn.

　　Finn: Hello Neil. Today we have a royal story about Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge - or as she is still often known - Kate Middleton.

　　Neil: Yes, Prince William's wife has been in the news this week after a well-known British novelist compared her to a "shop-window mannequin with no personality of her own".

　　Finn: Now, the novelist in question is a woman called Hilary Mantel. She has won a number of awards for her books set during the rule of Henry VIII - he's an English king from the Tudor period.

　　Neil: The Tudor period - that's the 16th Century, well from 1485-1603 to be precise!

　　Finn: Very good, Neil, and as a history graduate I'm not surprised you knew that! But can you tell me, how many wives Henry VIII had? Was it:

　　a) four

　　b) five

　　c) six

　　Neil: Well I took my degree a long time ago but I can still remember, I'm pretty sure, the answer is 'c' - six.

　　Finn: Ok, well let's find out if you are right at the end of the programme. Going back to Hilary Mantel, her quotes are from a long speech she made - the London Review of Books Lecture - on the subject of royal women.

　　Neil: We're going to listen to three clips from the speech itself. In the first, just pay attention to the descriptive language you hear.

　　Author Hilary Mantel Kate Middleton, as she was, appeared to have been designed by a committee, and built by craftsmen¹, with the perfect, plastic smile, and the spindles of her limbs hand-turned and gloss²-varnished⁴.

　　Finn: We hear a number of interesting phrases here: Kate is "designed by a committee" - which means designed by a group of people who all have an interest in the outcome.

　　Neil: Yes, it's a negative phrase. She is then "built by craftsmen" with the "perfect, plastic smile".

　　Finn: And it goes on to say that the "spindles of her limbs are hand-turned and gloss varnished". A spindle is a thin, wooden rod - and so this is a description you would expect of a beautiful doll: lovingly hand-made and then covered in shiny, protective varnish³.

　　Neil: Indeed - the language used is quite imaginative, as we'd expect from an award-winning novelist, and it uses the vocabulary of craft or craftsmanship⁵. It is what we might call an extended metaphor⁶, we might say, - a long comparison.

　　Finn: But when the long comparison is to a doll - to an object - you can see why it has caused controversy⁷.

　　Neil: That's right, which is the interesting point: by comparing Kate Middleton to an object, Hilary Mantel is really describing how she is portrayed⁸ by the media.

　　Finn: We call this process objectification - becoming an object.

　　Neil: Let's listen to a bit more of the speech.

　　Author Hilary Mantel: Machine-made, precision-made: so different from Diana, whose human awkwardness and emotional incontinence showed in every gesture.

　　Neil: Again we hear the language of manufacture - Kate is "precision-made", "machine-made" - made according to precise plans, as if by machine.

　　Finn: Unlike Diana who was very human. She talks about Diana's "emotional incontinence". Incontinence is when you can't control yourself when you need the toilet.

　　Neil: So emotional incontinence is when you can't stop your emotions from showing - they showed "in her every gesture" - in each gesture or movement of her body.

　　Finn: Although Mantel says she may have had more personality, as we know, things ended badly for Diana:

　　Author Hilary Mantel: We don't cut off the heads of royal ladies these days but we do sacrifice them, and we did memorably⁹ drive one to destruction a scant¹⁰ generation ago.

　　Finn: Hilary Mantel suggests that the media and public drove Diana to destruction - the constant attention on her private life was what caused Diana's death.

　　Neil: And this happened "a scant generation ago" - which means "barely a generation ago" - not long at all.

　　Finn: Now, as I'm sure many people will know Diana died in a car crash, but many royals in history died by one particular means - as Mantel says - they had their heads cut off.

　　Neil: Which brings us back to the question at the beginning of the programme. I know that two of Henry VIII's wives had their heads cut off, or were beheaded, but you asked how many he had in total.

　　Finn: Yes, was it:

　　a) four

　　b) five

　　c) six

　　Neil: And I said 'c' - six.

　　Finn: And you were absolutely right so well done there.

　　Neil: My memory is good.

　　Finn: Very good. Before we go, Neil, could you remind us of some of the words we learned today?

　　Neil: Yes. We heard:

　　shop-window mannequin

　　objectification

　　machine-made

　　emotional incontinence

　　gesture

　　scant

　　beheaded

　　Finn: Thanks Neil. Well, that's it for today, let's behead the programme. Please join us again soon for 6 Minute English from bbclearningenglish.

　　Both: Bye.

1 craftsmen   

n. 技工

参考例句：

• rugs handmade by local craftsmen 由当地工艺师手工制作的小地毯
• The craftsmen have ensured faithful reproduction of the original painting. 工匠保证要复制一幅最接近原作的画。

2 gloss   

n.光泽，光滑；虚饰；注释；vt.加光泽于；掩饰

参考例句：

• John tried in vain to gloss over his faults.约翰极力想掩饰自己的缺点，但是没有用。
• She rubbed up the silver plates to a high gloss.她把银盘擦得很亮。

3 varnish   

n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰

参考例句：

• He tried to varnish over the facts,but it was useless.他想粉饰事实，但那是徒劳的。
• He applied varnish to the table.他给那张桌子涂上清漆。

4 varnished   

浸渍过的，涂漆的

参考例句：

• The doors are then stained and varnished. 这些门还要染色涂清漆。
• He varnished the wooden table. 他给那张木桌涂了清漆。

5 craftsmanship   

n.手艺

参考例句：

• The whole house is a monument to her craftsmanship. 那整座房子是她技艺的一座丰碑。
• We admired the superb craftsmanship of the furniture. 我们很欣赏这个家具的一流工艺。

6 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

7 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

8 portrayed   

v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim. 在审讯过程中，他始终把自己说成是受害者。
• The author portrayed his father as a vicious drunkard. 作者把他父亲描绘成一个可恶的酒鬼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 memorably   

难忘的

参考例句：

• The book includes some memorably seedy characters and scabrous description. 这本书包含了一些难忘下流的角色及有伤风化的描述。 来自互联网
• Horowitz could play Chopin memorably. 霍洛维茨可以把肖邦的作品演奏得出神入化。 来自互联网

10 scant   

adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略

参考例句：

• Don't scant the butter when you make a cake.做糕饼时不要吝惜奶油。
• Many mothers pay scant attention to their own needs when their children are small.孩子们小的时候，许多母亲都忽视自己的需求。