美国国家公共电台 NPR Royal Wedding Reflects A Changing Britain

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Tomorrow morning, millions across the globe are expected to tune¹ in for the royal wedding. There will be the pageantry that the British do oh-so well. As NPR's Frank Langfitt reports, there's another story behind this royal wedding, that of a changing Britain and the redemption of a wayward prince.

FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE³: This is Windsor Castle, where tomorrow Prince Harry⁴ and former American actress Meghan Markle will wed². Now, right now it's a carnival⁵ atmosphere on the streets here. Some people have been sleeping out for several days so they can get a view of the carriage when the couple rides by. Harry, though, he's just sixth in line to the throne. And what's been interesting about this wedding is that his unconventional choice of a bride - Markle is biracial and divorced - has kind of struck a nerve in parts of Britain where normally the royals don't really resonate.

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LANGFITT: Like here in Peckham. It's a mixed-income London neighborhood with a big Afro-Caribbean population. Emma Jones sits in a salon⁶ having her hair done. Her dad came here from Trinidad in the '60s. And she says having the royals welcome someone of black heritage into the family means a lot.

EMMA JONES: If you look at royal history, and you look at how things are changing in terms of diversity, you know, the fact that Meghan Markle is - you know, she is going to be married to one of the princes, that's massive. At the end of the day, I think it's important for me as a woman of color to be able to identify with the leadership in this country.

LANGFITT: Down the street at the barbershop, Mike Oke says he's especially interested in the wedding because he loves Prince Harry, who, along with the queen, is one of the most popular royals. Oke sees Harry as cool and approachable.

MIKE OKE: He's wicked, just like - it's a free air. It's like a wind. It blows, cool you down. If you're upset, it cools you down. Harry's - he's fun guy.

LANGFITT: Prince Harry has come a long way. He lost his mother, Princess Diana, in a car crash in Paris when he was just a kid. As a young man, he loved to party but sometimes embarrassed the royals.

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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It happened in Vegas. Britain's Prince Harry photographed here in the nude⁷ after a reported game of strip pool in...

LANGFITT: But by all accounts, Harry, who's now 33, has grown up. He served as a soldier in Afghanistan and began promoting a most un-royal cause, mental health. He came clean about his own pain on a podcast last year for London's Telegraph newspaper.

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PRINCE HENRY WINDSOR: I can safely that losing my mom at the age of 12 and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years has had a quite serious effect. All of a sudden, all of this grief that I've never processed has come to the forefront. I was like, there's actually a lot of stuff here I need to deal with.

LANGFITT: The arc of his life seems only to have endeared him more to people here.

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LANGFITT: Mary Brazier is meeting with her neighbors in suburban⁸ London to organize a block party to celebrate the royal wedding. Given Harry's past struggles, which include his mother's disastrous⁹ marriage to Prince Charles, Brazier says marrying another aristocrat¹⁰ would have made no sense.

MARY BRAZIER: It was never going to happen because he has emotions, and he's not interested in an aloof¹¹, cold relationship. He wants to live his life.

LANGFITT: The wedding plans have been marred¹² by last-minute drama in Markle's family. Her estranged¹³ half-brother wrote an open letter to Prince Harry telling him not to marry her. Markle's father, Thomas, has decided¹⁴ not to attend, reportedly because of heart surgery and embarrassment¹⁵ over selling photos to the paparazzi, whom the royal family hate. But that hasn't affected¹⁶ Mary Brazier's opinion of her.

BRAZIER: It's normal, isn't it? You've got some embarrassing members of your family. I think it's been sadly sensationalized.

LANGFITT: The last two years have been tough here in the United Kingdom. The country suffered a series of terror attacks and remains¹⁷ bitterly divided over Brexit. Tomorrow, some people are just looking forward to the spectacle of a British royal wedding. Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Windsor.

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1 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

2 wed   

v.娶，嫁，与…结婚

参考例句：

• The couple eventually wed after three year engagement.这对夫妇在订婚三年后终于结婚了。
• The prince was very determined to wed one of the king's daughters.王子下定决心要娶国王的其中一位女儿。

3 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。

4 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

5 carnival   

n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演

参考例句：

• I got some good shots of the carnival.我有几个狂欢节的精彩镜头。
• Our street puts on a carnival every year.我们街的居民每年举行一次嘉年华会。

6 salon   

n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室

参考例句：

• Do you go to the hairdresser or beauty salon more than twice a week?你每周去美容院或美容沙龙多过两次吗？
• You can hear a lot of dirt at a salon.你在沙龙上会听到很多流言蜚语。

7 nude   

adj.裸体的；n.裸体者，裸体艺术品

参考例句：

• It's a painting of the Duchess of Alba in the nude.这是一幅阿尔巴公爵夫人的裸体肖像画。
• She doesn't like nude swimming.她不喜欢裸泳。

8 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。

9 disastrous   

adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的

参考例句：

• The heavy rainstorm caused a disastrous flood.暴雨成灾。
• Her investment had disastrous consequences.She lost everything she owned.她的投资结果很惨，血本无归。

10 aristocrat   

n.贵族，有贵族气派的人，上层人物

参考例句：

• He was the quintessential english aristocrat.他是典型的英国贵族。
• He is an aristocrat to the very marrow of his bones.他是一个道道地地的贵族。

11 aloof   

adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的

参考例句：

• Never stand aloof from the masses.千万不可脱离群众。
• On the evening the girl kept herself timidly aloof from the crowd.这小女孩在晚会上一直胆怯地远离人群。

12 marred   

adj. 被损毁, 污损的

参考例句：

• The game was marred by the behaviour of drunken fans. 喝醉了的球迷行为不轨，把比赛给搅了。
• Bad diction marred the effectiveness of his speech. 措词不当影响了他演说的效果。

13 estranged   

adj.疏远的，分离的

参考例句：

• He became estranged from his family after the argument.那场争吵后他便与家人疏远了。
• The argument estranged him from his brother.争吵使他同他的兄弟之间的关系疏远了。

14 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

15 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。

16 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

17 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。