英国新闻听力 美著名主播因不实报道被停职

Good morning. The most watched news anchor on American TV, Brian Williams, has now been suspended for six months without pay from NBC after admitting his story of being in a helicopter hit by a rocket in Iraq wasn’t true.

We all love a good story – so it’s natural not to let the facts get in the way. But Mr Williams is a journalist – one of the most trusted in America – and his role demanded much greater responsibility and self-censorship.

Perhaps, we each have a favourite embellished² story we roll out. Mine is the claim to be the first person – by a fraction of a second - to hear Led Zeppelin play Stairway to Heaven live. It’s true I was at its debut³ in Belfast in ‘71 taking close-up photos of the band on stage.

But, was I really the nearest to the speakers during that particular song? Maybe. I can’t remember.

On Tuesday’s Newsnight, Professor Christopher French commenting on Brian Williams’ lapse⁴, explained that, as we retell an incident, we embellish¹ the details and the new account may become a false memory – one, we sincerely believe is true.

The Hindu texts offer a similar warning that in general, humans are prone⁵ to four mental foibles: we have imperfect and limited senses that often don’t give us a true or complete picture; we make mistakes; we confuse one thing for another; and we have a tendency to cheat.

Despite being infected by these failings ourselves, we rely on journalists, politicians, educators and others we trust to transcend⁶ them and present honest-to-goodness truth.

However, the Vedas are more concerned how the trickery of the mind affects our understanding of reality. In particular, it suggests that the story we tell ourselves about who we are is the biggest “false memory” of all. This, it says, is the delusion⁷ of thinking: “I am this body” – the mistaken idea that the self and the body are one and the same. Hinduism contends that this powerful illusion contributes hugely to both the extent of suffering we endure in this world and to our tendency to cause pain to others. But, says the Gita: we are not flesh and blood, we are the spirit soul, the life force seated within the machine of the body.

Rather than focus on sin, the Vedas emphasise⁸ curbing⁹ ignorance of our spiritual identity and purpose as the key means of uplifting human society. The Hindu prayer “om asato ma sadgamaya” translates as: Lead me from ignorance to what is real and true. When Brian Williams completes his six months’ suspension, it will be interesting to see if the American public trust that he has made that journey from delusion to truth-teller.

早上好。美国电视台收视率最高的新闻主播布莱恩·威廉姆斯被NBC电视台无薪停职六个月。此前，他承认讲述的自己乘坐的直升飞机在伊拉克被火箭弹击中的消息不实。

我们都喜欢好故事——自然不希望真实性阻碍这一点。但是威廉姆斯是一位记者——美国最受信任的记者之一——他的角色要求更多的责任感和自我审查。

或许，我们都讲述过经过润色的故事。我的故事就是，我是第一个听齐柏林飞船现场演奏Stairway to Heaven的人。确实，他们当初在贝尔法斯特初次亮相时我确实在场，并且近距离拍摄了乐队在舞台上的照片。但是当他们唱那首歌时我是否离他们最近？或许吧。我不记得了。

在周二的新闻之夜节目中，Christopher French教授对布莱恩·威廉姆斯的行为作出了评论。他解释说，当我们重新讲述一个事件时，我们会对细节进行润色，新的讲述或许会形成错误的记忆，这会让我们真切地相信这就是真的。

印度教教义提出了类似的警告，总的来说，人类倾向于四种精神怪癖：我们有不完美和有限的感觉，通常不能让我们真实或完整地了解某件事；我们会犯错误；我们会把一件事错认为另一件事；我们有欺骗的倾向。

尽管我们自己都受这些缺点影响，我们却依赖记者，政客，教育家和我们信任的其他人能战胜自己，讲述事实真相。

然而，吠陀经更担忧思想的欺诈性会如何影响我们对事实的理解。尤其是，我们告诉自己的关于我们是谁的故事是其中最错误的记忆。它说，这是思维的错觉：“我就是这具躯体”——这种错误的想法就是，本我和身体是一样的。印度教辩论称，这种强大的幻觉不仅对我们遭遇的痛苦程度有很大影响，也影响着我们对他人带来的痛苦。

但是，吉塔说：我们并非血肉之躯，我们是灵魂，是位于身体的机器内的生命本源。

吠陀并不关注罪恶，而是强调遏制灵魂身份的无知和目的性，作为提升人类社会的关键方式。印度教信徒om asato ma sadgamaya将这句话解释为：将我从无知引导到真实。当布莱恩·威廉姆斯结束六个月的停职之后，美国公众是否信任他已经完成了从欺骗到真相讲述者的转变？这将非常有趣。

1 embellish   

v.装饰，布置；给…添加细节，润饰

参考例句：

• I asked him not to embellish the truth with ideas of his own.我要他不对事实添油加醋。
• Can you embellish your refusal just a little bit?你可以对你的婉拒之辞略加修饰吗？

2 embellished   

v.美化( embellish的过去式和过去分词 )；装饰；修饰；润色

参考例句：

• The door of the old church was embellished with decorations. 老教堂的门是用雕饰美化的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The stern was embellished with carvings in red and blue. 船尾饰有红色和蓝色的雕刻图案。 来自辞典例句

3 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

4 lapse   

n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效

参考例句：

• The incident was being seen as a serious security lapse.这一事故被看作是一次严重的安全疏忽。
• I had a lapse of memory.我记错了。

5 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

6 transcend   

vt.超出，超越(理性等)的范围

参考例句：

• We can't transcend the limitations of the ego.我们无法超越自我的局限性。
• Everyone knows that the speed of airplanes transcend that of ships.人人都知道飞机的速度快于轮船的速度。

7 delusion   

n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑

参考例句：

• He is under the delusion that he is Napoleon.他患了妄想症，认为自己是拿破仑。
• I was under the delusion that he intended to marry me.我误认为他要娶我。

8 emphasise   

vt.加强...的语气，强调，着重

参考例句：

• What special feature do you think I should emphasise? 你认为我该强调什么呢？
• The exercises heavily emphasise the required readings.练习非常强调必须的阅读。

9 curbing   

n.边石，边石的材料v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Progress has been made in curbing inflation. 在控制通货膨胀方面已取得了进展。
• A range of policies have been introduced aimed at curbing inflation. 为了抑制通货膨胀实施了一系列的政策。