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【英语听和读】恶作剧

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    (单词翻译:双击或拖选)

Amber1: Hello, I’m Amber and this is bbclearningenglish.com.

In Entertainment today, we listen to a review of a new film called ‘The Hoax2’.

(A hoax is a deception3 – a trick to make people believe something is true when

it is not.)

‘The Hoax’ is based on a true story – how, in 1971, a struggling writer called

Clifford Irving persuaded a leading American publishing house that he had

obtained a series of unprecedented4 interviews with the ultra-reclusive,

immensely powerful, superstar billionaire Howard Hughes and that he was

sitting on the book of the century – Howard Hughes’s memoirs5. There was a

huge amount of interest in the book because Howard Hughes was also a

Hollywood producer, aviator6, industrialist7 and playboy and he had been a

recluse8 for 15 years. A million-dollar deal was struck and the book printing

began. But then, Howard Hughes broke his silence to reveal that he’d never

even heard of Clifford Irving, and that the book was not genuine – it was ‘a

fake’!

Clifford Irving is played by the actor Richard Gere, who has a star track record

for playing attractive but extremely dishonest characters. Critics agree that

Gere is great, and so is his co-star, Alfred Molina, but what about the rest of

the movie?

Here’s the film critic Nigel Andrews who says the film is fairly clever and

convincing – he says ‘this is the film that you almost think does the trick, but

doesn’t quite!’ If something ‘does the trick’, it has the necessary or desired

effect. He says there are some ‘spurious’ – some not genuine - things 

Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007

Page 2 of 3

bbclearningenglish.com

happening in the film, ‘to amp it up’ – to amplify9 the story, to make it make it

more exciting and meaningful than it really is.

As you listen, try to catch any of the ways the film links to – is ‘plugged into’ –

the Zeitgeist, the ideas of a particular time and place – in this film – that’s

America in the 1970s.

Nigel Andrews

‘This is the film that you almost think does the trick, but doesn’t quite! There are a whole lot

of specious10 and rather spurious attempts to amp it up into a kind of greater resonance11 than

arguably the particular story has. I mean, for instance, it’s plugged into the Watergate

Zeitgeist in order to give an extra charge of kind of epochal paranoia12 because we’re in the 70s.

And there’s a whole lot of stuff with sort of secret agents and so on, which doesn’t quite add

up. The strength is Richard Gere’s performance.’

Amber: So Nigel Andrews says ‘The Hoax’ is plugged into ‘Watergate’, a huge

political scandal, and to the fears and ‘paranoia’ of the time, of the ‘epoch’. But

he says that none of this makes the film believable or convincing - he says it

‘doesn’t quite add up’, it doesn’t quite make sense.

Listen again.

Nigel Andrews

‘This is the film that you almost think does the trick, but doesn’t quite! There are a whole lot

of specious and rather spurious attempts to amp it up into a kind of greater resonance than

arguably the particular story has. I mean, for instance, it’s plugged into the Watergate

Zeitgeist in order to give an extra charge of kind of epochal paranoia because we’re in the 70s.

And there’s a whole lot of stuff with sort of secret agents and so on, which doesn’t quite add

up. The strength is Richard Gere’s performance.’

Amber: Nigel Andrews goes on to say that the film is almost too accurate when it

comes to creating the 1970s – it’s like watching ‘a museum record’ he says!

Then he jokes about how someone – a very clever researcher using the internet

– has noticed … what? 

Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007

Page 3 of 3

bbclearningenglish.com

Nigel Andrews

‘I think he doesn’t get it wrong – I think that’s part of the problem! I think it’s like watching a

museum record of what someone thinks is the 1970s and you can’t fault the individual details.

Some absolutely ingenious burrower13 into the internet exposed the fact that every time Gere

and Molina go into town, the same cars are parked in the same place! And it has that feel!’

Amber: So there are the same 1970s cars parked in the same place throughout different

scenes – and this makes the film seem a little stiff, like a ‘museum record’.

Nigel Andrews

‘I think he doesn’t get it wrong – I think that’s part of the problem! I think it’s like watching a

museum record of what someone thinks is the 1970s and you can’t fault the individual details.

Some absolutely ingenious burrower into the internet exposed the fact that every time Gere

and Molina go into town, the same cars are parked in the same place! And it has that feel!’

Amber: Now let’s recap the language we focussed on.

 

a hoax – a deception

if something ‘does the trick’, it has the necessary or desired effect

‘to amp it up’ – to amplify something, to make something more exciting and

meaningful than it really is

the Zeitgeist - the ideas of a particular time and place

to add up – to make sense

More entertainment news stories and language explanations next time at

bbclearningenglish.com 


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 amber LzazBn     
n.琥珀;琥珀色;adj.琥珀制的
参考例句:
  • Would you like an amber necklace for your birthday?你过生日想要一条琥珀项链吗?
  • This is a piece of little amber stones.这是一块小小的琥珀化石。
2 hoax pcAxs     
v.欺骗,哄骗,愚弄;n.愚弄人,恶作剧
参考例句:
  • They were the victims of a cruel hoax.他们是一个残忍恶作剧的受害者。
  • They hoax him out of his money.他们骗去他的钱。
3 deception vnWzO     
n.欺骗,欺诈;骗局,诡计
参考例句:
  • He admitted conspiring to obtain property by deception.他承认曾与人合谋骗取财产。
  • He was jailed for two years for fraud and deception.他因为诈骗和欺诈入狱服刑两年。
4 unprecedented 7gSyJ     
adj.无前例的,新奇的
参考例句:
  • The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
  • A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。
5 memoirs f752e432fe1fefb99ab15f6983cd506c     
n.回忆录;回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数)
参考例句:
  • Her memoirs were ghostwritten. 她的回忆录是由别人代写的。
  • I watched a trailer for the screenplay of his memoirs. 我看过以他的回忆录改编成电影的预告片。 来自《简明英汉词典》
6 aviator BPryq     
n.飞行家,飞行员
参考例句:
  • The young aviator bragged of his exploits in the sky.那名年轻的飞行员吹嘘他在空中飞行的英勇事迹。
  • Hundreds of admirers besieged the famous aviator.数百名爱慕者围困那个著名飞行员。
7 industrialist JqSz4Y     
n.工业家,实业家
参考例句:
  • The industrialist's son was kidnapped.这名实业家的儿子被绑架了。
  • Mr.Smith was a wealthy industrialist,but he was not satisfied with life.史密斯先生是位富有的企业家,可他对生活感到不满意。
8 recluse YC4yA     
n.隐居者
参考例句:
  • The old recluse secluded himself from the outside world.这位老隐士与外面的世界隔绝了。
  • His widow became a virtual recluse for the remainder of her life.他的寡妻孤寂地度过了余生。
9 amplify iwGzw     
vt.放大,增强;详述,详加解说
参考例句:
  • The new manager wants to amplify the company.新经理想要扩大公司。
  • Please amplify your remarks by giving us some examples.请举例详述你的话。
10 specious qv3wk     
adj.似是而非的;adv.似是而非地
参考例句:
  • Such talk is actually specious and groundless.这些话实际上毫无根据,似是而非的。
  • It is unlikely that the Duke was convinced by such specious arguments.公爵不太可能相信这种似是而非的论点。
11 resonance hBazC     
n.洪亮;共鸣;共振
参考例句:
  • Playing the piano sets up resonance in those glass ornaments.一弹钢琴那些玻璃饰物就会产生共振。
  • The areas under the two resonance envelopes are unequal.两个共振峰下面的面积是不相等的。
12 paranoia C4rzL     
n.妄想狂,偏执狂;多疑症
参考例句:
  • Her passion for cleanliness borders on paranoia.她的洁癖近乎偏执。
  • The push for reform is also motivated by political paranoia.竞选的改革运动也受到政治偏执狂症的推动。
13 burrower 7497a978961795b3ebb23ef70c3dbf45     
借钱人; 借用人,剽窃者
参考例句:
  • The borrower defaulted, and the bank instituted a foreclosure suit. 借贷人违约,银行就制定了一个取消赎回权的诉讼。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
  • Book and borrower numbers are encoded on to bar-coded labels. 图书和借书者的编号编到了条形码标记上。
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TAG标签:   英语听力  听力教程  英语学习
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