英语听力：Beethoven 贝多芬 - 04

 "Vienna at that time was a marvelous place for young musicians to go to. It has always been a city of pleasure or frivolity¹ right back to the middle ages. The city was the most crowded city in Europe at the time. It had a population of probably around a quarter of a million, and that is about 25 times the size of Bonn. At the top society there would be endless balls, and then musical concerts, and then for the ordinary people in the streets there would be juggling² acrobats³, street music, puppeteers⁴, but there was another side to it, as some one described it as a city of frivolity but despairing frivolity."

 

The rulers of Europe were terrified that the French Revolution would spread. In Vienna, the emperor tightened⁵ censorship and gave extra powers to the secret police, but instrumental music, the most abstract and least censorable of the arts, flourished.

 

“I think it was recognized from the beginning the extent to which Beethoven was within the whole influence of Mozart and, of course, Haydn, but I think it was also shocking from the beginning what he was doing to that and people really hated it, I mean there was… there is no question about the fact that from the beginning, Beethoven’s style of playing the piano and his style of composing were repellent.”

 

“Comments such as Beethoven’s music was hairbrained, ah, that, it was bizarre that it was really complex, that it jolted⁶ the listener out of transports. All of these comments came from musicians.”

 

“The openings of Op(Opus). 10 No.2. As a kind of Haydness quality I mean even that, is sort of more humorous than Haydn's, slightly more rough than Haydn would do but and you know that a little coarser than Haydn, but it still has the Haydn thing, but later in the piece--I mean all that, there was the basic keep going up, I mean that is the real Beethoven trick of, the middle years but he's already using when he was quite young and this sort of tremendous surge of energy that you get in there and this was something that people already complained about in Beethoven, this kind of violence that he was doing.”

1 frivolity   

n.轻松的乐事，兴高采烈；轻浮的举止

参考例句：

• It was just a piece of harmless frivolity. 这仅是无恶意的愚蠢行为。
• Hedonism and frivolity will diffuse hell tnrough all our days. 享乐主义和轻薄浮佻会将地狱扩展到我们的整个日子之中。 来自辞典例句

2 juggling   

n. 欺骗, 杂耍(=jugglery) adj. 欺骗的, 欺诈的 动词juggle的现在分词

参考例句：

• He was charged with some dishonest juggling with the accounts. 他被指控用欺骗手段窜改账目。
• The accountant went to prison for juggling his firm's accounts. 会计因涂改公司的帐目而入狱。

3 acrobats   

n.杂技演员( acrobat的名词复数 )；立场观点善变的人，主张、政见等变化无常的人

参考例句：

• I was always fascinated by the acrobats at the circus. 我总是着迷于马戏团里的杂技演员。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The acrobats' performance drew forth applause from the audience. 杂技演员的表演博得了观众的掌声。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 puppeteers   

n.操纵木偶的人，操纵傀儡( puppeteer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

5 tightened   

收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧

参考例句：

• The rope holding the boat suddenly tightened and broke. 系船的绳子突然绷断了。
• His index finger tightened on the trigger but then relaxed again. 他的食指扣住扳机，然后又松开了。

6 jolted   

（使）摇动， （使）震惊( jolt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
• She was jolted out of her reverie as the door opened. 门一开就把她从幻想中惊醒。