2007年VOA标准英语-This Year's Oscars Have International Flair

By Mike O'Sullivan
Los Angeles
21 February 2007

Sunday, the eyes of the world will be on Hollywood, where the Academy Awards, or Oscars, will be presented. VOA's Mike O'Sullivan reports, this year's movie honors have an international flavor.

 
Peter O'Toole 
Peter O'Toole, Irish-born and raised in Britain, is an acting¹ nominee² for his leading role in the film Venus. Helen Mirren will compete for the best-actress award for her role as the British monarch³ Elizabeth II in The Queen. Mirren is British herself, but the task of portraying⁴ a well-known figure was formidable, and critics have called the depiction⁵ uncannily accurate.

How did she do it? Reporters asked her at a recent luncheon⁶ for Oscar nominees⁷.

"It is called imagination," she said. "And that is what we do as actors. We imagine. You know, you are never in the real, real world of the film or the play that you are doing. You have to imagine and put yourself there."

 
Meryl Streep
Just one nominee in the Best Actress category is American this year, Meryl Streep for the fashion-industry satire⁸ The Devil Wears Prada. Two nominees are British, Judi Dench for Notes on a Scandal and Kate Winslet for Little Children, and Spain's Penelope Cruz is a nominee for the comedy-drama Volver.

"It is a huge honor to be nominated, to be in the company of these amazing actresses," Cruz said. "This is such a strong year. And it is even more special, the fact that I got the nomination⁹ with a movie that is Spanish-speaking."

African-born Djimon Hounsou is nominated for best supporting actor for Blood Diamond. The film starring best-actor nominee Leonardo DiCaprio is a tale of conflict and greed in Sierra Leone of the 1990s. American Forest Whitaker is best-actor nominee for his role as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland.

 
Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt in Babel
Japan's Rinko Kikuchi and Mexico's Adriana Barraza are nominees for their supporting roles in the international thriller¹⁰ Babel.

Babel's Mexican director, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, will compete for the Oscar for best director. The film's Mexican screenwriter, Guillermo Arriaga, is an Oscar nominee for his original screenplay, and Guillermo del Toro is a double nominee for another Mexican entry, Pan's Labyrinth¹¹. That fantasy film is nominated in six categories.

Babel and The Queen will compete for the Oscar for best picture, along with the Japanese-language war film Letters from Iwo Jima from American director Clint Eastwood. Other nominees in the best-picture category are the crime thriller The Departed and the comedy Little Miss Sunshine.

The Oscars are presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and academy president Sid Ganis says this year's event will have an international flavor.

"Isn't that brilliant, that there are movies from all over the world? The art of film was never meant to be an American phenomenon," he said. "It is art. So it is for the world, and artists all over the world are scoring in a big way. It is very great, wonderful."

The Oscar telecast is also international. Viewers in more than 100 countries can watch the Hollywood ceremony.

1 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

2 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

3 monarch   

n.帝王，君主，最高统治者

参考例句：

• The monarch's role is purely ceremonial.君主纯粹是个礼仪职位。
• I think myself happier now than the greatest monarch upon earth.我觉得这个时候比世界上什么帝王都快乐。

4 portraying   

v.画像( portray的现在分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The artist has succeeded in portraying my father to the life. 那位画家把我的父亲画得惟妙惟肖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ding Ling was good at portraying figures through careful and refined description of human psychology. 《莎菲女士的日记》是丁玲的成名作，曾引起强烈的社会反响。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

5 depiction   

n.描述

参考例句：

• Double rhythms, resounding through the lyric depiction and connecting with each other, indicate the thespian place of mankind and the cognition of the writer to this thespian place. 这双重旋律互为表里，表明了人类的某种悲剧性处境以及作家对这种悲剧性处境的感受和认识。
• A realistic depiction of scenes from everyday domestic life. 日常家居生活的写实画。

6 luncheon   

n.午宴，午餐，便宴

参考例句：

• We have luncheon at twelve o'clock.我们十二点钟用午餐。
• I have a luncheon engagement.我午饭有约。

7 nominees   

n.被提名者，被任命者( nominee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She's one of the nominees. 她是被提名者之一。 来自超越目标英语 第2册
• A startling number of his nominees for senior positions have imploded. 他所提名的高级官员被否决的数目令人震惊。 来自互联网

8 satire   

n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品

参考例句：

• The movie is a clever satire on the advertising industry.那部影片是关于广告业的一部巧妙的讽刺作品。
• Satire is often a form of protest against injustice.讽刺往往是一种对不公正的抗议形式。

9 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

10 thriller   

n.惊险片，恐怖片

参考例句：

• He began by writing a thriller.That book sold a million copies.他是写惊险小说起家的。那本书卖了一百万册。
• I always take a thriller to read on the train.我乘火车时，总带一本惊险小说看。

11 labyrinth   

n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路

参考例句：

• He wandered through the labyrinth of the alleyways.他在迷宫似的小巷中闲逛。
• The human mind is a labyrinth.人的心灵是一座迷宫。