【英语语言学习】创新与进步的黑暗面

RENE MONTAGNE, HOST:

 

Let's hear, now, from Tina Brown, with us once again for Word of Mouth. Of course, that's our regular feature where Tina offers some reading recommendations. Today, three picks looking at the notion of progress and innovation and its dark side, and one tale of a circus animal may even be hard for some to listen to. Tina, good morning.

 

TINA BROWN: Good morning, Rene.

 

MONTAGNE: So you've got a new book, to begin with, by Michael Daly. It features some great American innovators, including P.T. Barnum and Thomas Edison. The book is called "Topsy." And just briefly¹, who was Topsy?

 

BROWN: Well, Topsy was the famous, tragic² elephant who was electrocuted in 1903 at Coney Island, as part of a horrible demonstration³ of the power of electric current, administered and overseen⁴ by no less than Thomas Edison. So she's a kind of great cultural figure, in a sense, and a tragic one.

 

MONTAGNE: Topsy was an elephant who, as a baby, was captured in Asia, brought to America to perform in the circus. And this apparently⁵ simple story opened a window onto these two competitions; and the one lead to a really horrible story, when Topsy gets executed. Just tell us that story, Thomas Edison trying to prove that his version of electricity was the best.

 

BROWN: Absolutely. Well, he had this endless kind of rivalry⁶ and competition with Westinghouse about direct current versus⁷ alternative current. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: AC is alternating - not alternative - current.] And he wanted to show that direct current was actually the way to go. Well, in fact, he was wrong about that. And one of the ways that he wanted to show it was by using this poor elephant who was going to be executed for supposedly being a killer⁸ of men - although frankly⁹, Topsy only became violent at the end because she was so baited, so tortured, so tormented¹⁰, so horribly, horribly treated that eventually she did kill a trainer who fed her a cigarette, a lighted cigarette - this poor elephant who was so benevolent¹¹ and such a sweet-natured creature.

 

And so the decision came to execute the elephant, and Edison then filmed this execution to show the power of electric current. And it's a really tragic story because this elephant, throughout the book, really is the only decent individual, in a sense, in this endless competition between, first, the showmen Barnum and Forepaugh, and then these two other showmen, you know, high testosterone, you know, high-wire innovators, Edison and Westinghouse.

 

And so you see this climax¹² of the book is the execution of Topsy by electric current. And we know they buried her head in a spot there. And what was amazing was for years to come, elephants would stop, and they refused to pass the spot where Topsy's head was buried. So it's a kind of repudiation¹³ of the awful cruelty that was inflicted¹⁴ upon Topsy as some kind of grotesque¹⁵ pop culture experiment, and an equally grotesque experiment between the two innovators.

 

MONTAGNE: Of course, that story is especially shocking, I think, because we think of Thomas Edison as bringing great good, that his inventions transformed human existence for the better and also allowed for much of the innovation that followed. So you have brought us a piece about one man who thinks that the continual growth and progress that we've seen for centuries is just about over. Tell us what he says.

 

BROWN: Well, it's very interesting. This was a piece in New York Magazine; a very interesting piece by Benjamin Wallace-Wells, who describes how Robert Gordon, a 72-year-old economist¹⁶, is something called a declinist, and he's at Northwestern. And he's a man behind the increasingly popular view of America's economic future, which is that the improved quality of life is never going to return; that this is not a blip - as this piece is called - but is, in fact, the new turn of the dial because we have had two industrial revolutions - first in the U.K., then in really what is the long, long cultural memory of America - which have been about constant innovation, constant leap and bound innovation - in electric light, as you say with Edison; the invention of the engine; all of these things which made such an extraordinarily¹⁷ quantum leap in the improvement of life; and that those things are over. They're not going to return, and we are not going to be able to have the kind of growth that we have seen.

 

I mean, he talks about four- or five-fold reasons: the aging of the American population, stagnation¹⁸ in educational achievement, fiscal¹⁹ tightening²⁰ to fix our debt, the cost of health care and energy, and the pressures of globalization and growing inequality.

 

The combination of all of those things means that we're not going to see the kind of robust²¹, boisterous²² growths that Americans are used to thinking of as the American dream. So it's, in that sense, a very dour²³ portrait; something that P.T. Barnum certainly didn't feel when he was, you know, at the dawn of the Great American century, when the book of Michael Daly - really is all about the 100-year anniversary of America. And now as we head for the next millennium²⁴, it looks pretty dark, according to this professor, Robert Gordon.

 

MONTAGNE: Although, could not this last two and a half centuries be looked at as an adolescent growth spurt²⁵ in the march of civilization and that at a certain point, you can't just do that over and over again?

 

BROWN: Well, that's exactly right, but it's not very pleasant to live through because, I think, Americans expect everything to keep improving. But we are seeing a period where things are not improving. This is going to be the first generation where the next generation will be less well-off and probably less well-educated.

 

MONTAGNE: There are, of course, countries and regions that are growing. Brazil, in these last few years, has turned into a huge economic power. And your final pick brings us to the underbelly of growth, the dark side of growth. There always is one, it seems, and in this case, it starts in the hillside slums known as favelas.

 

BROWN: Yes. It's a wonderful piece by the great chronicler of cities, Suketu Mehta. And this piece is his description of the attempts by the Brazilian government to pacify²⁶ the favelas. The favelas of Brazil are so violent that cop helicopters don't even want to fly over many of them because they're afraid of being shot down by the drug dealers²⁷. So it's a really violent world - so violent that the government really is treating this now as almost like pacifying²⁸ an insurgency²⁹. They go in, and they have to deal with not just the drug gangs, but also the militias³⁰ that have grown up on the other side; always at constant war. The homicide rate is absolutely astronomical³¹. And they go in and pacify it, and take it over. They literally³² take back the streets.

 

He describes what that process is like, going into these villages. You know, the incredible thing is that, you know, Brazil's middle class grew from 40 million to 105 million in the last five years and ye, at the same time, its violence is absolutely prodigious³³. And what he says - which I think is a fascination³⁴ conclusion - he says that, you know, the juntas³⁵ that ran Brazil for so long destroyed democracy, and that now Brazil, of course, is a democratic nation, and that process has changed.

 

But he says that in the favelas, there was no democracy. The traffic has continued with their own dictatorship. The people of the favelas still had great trouble getting access to the courts or casting a vote. Pacification³⁶, says Mehta, is an attempt to interrupt a despotic process. It is - for the construction workers and ladies who sell black bean stew³⁷ in the slums - the final fall of the dictatorship. So this is the last attempt, in a sense, of Brazil to take back those streets before the World Cup.

 

MONTAGNE: Talk about competition - Brazil's been very successful in competing and winning the next summer Olympics.

 

BROWN: Yes, indeed. I mean, there's so much growth, and so much excitement, in Brazil. And it's a time of great unrest in Brazil at the same time as great progress. So it's a very interesting social study, and Suketu Mehta is a fantastic writer to do so.

 

MONTAGNE: OK. And that article, in the New York Review of Books; the article on Robert Gordon is in New York Magazine; and the book "Topsy" is by Michael Daly. Tina, thanks very much.

 

BROWN: Thank you so much, Rene.

 

MONTAGNE: Tina Brown is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Beast, and she joins us regularly for our feature Word Of Mouth.

1 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

2 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

3 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

4 overseen   

v.监督，监视( oversee的过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was overseen stealing the letters. 他被人撞见在偷信件。 来自辞典例句
• It will be overseen by ThomasLi, director of IBM China Research Laboratory. 该实验室由IBM中国研究院院长李实恭(ThomasLi)引导。 来自互联网

5 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

6 rivalry   

n.竞争，竞赛，对抗

参考例句：

• The quarrel originated in rivalry between the two families.这次争吵是两家不和引起的。
• He had a lot of rivalry with his brothers and sisters.他和兄弟姐妹间经常较劲。

7 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

8 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

9 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

10 tormented   

饱受折磨的

参考例句：

• The knowledge of his guilt tormented him. 知道了自己的罪责使他非常痛苦。
• He had lain awake all night, tormented by jealousy. 他彻夜未眠，深受嫉妒的折磨。

11 benevolent   

adj.仁慈的，乐善好施的

参考例句：

• His benevolent nature prevented him from refusing any beggar who accosted him.他乐善好施的本性使他不会拒绝走上前向他行乞的任何一个乞丐。
• He was a benevolent old man and he wouldn't hurt a fly.他是一个仁慈的老人，连只苍蝇都不愿伤害。

12 climax   

n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点

参考例句：

• The fifth scene was the climax of the play.第五场是全剧的高潮。
• His quarrel with his father brought matters to a climax.他与他父亲的争吵使得事态发展到了顶点。

13 repudiation   

n.拒绝；否认；断绝关系；抛弃

参考例句：

• Datas non-repudiation is very important in the secure communication. 在安全数据的通讯中，数据发送和接收的非否认十分重要。 来自互联网
• There are some goals of Certified E-mail Protocol: confidentiality non-repudiation and fairness. 挂号电子邮件协议需要具备保密性、不可否认性及公平性。 来自互联网

14 inflicted   

把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They inflicted a humiliating defeat on the home team. 他们使主队吃了一场很没面子的败仗。
• Zoya heroically bore the torture that the Fascists inflicted upon her. 卓娅英勇地承受法西斯匪徒加在她身上的酷刑。

15 grotesque   

adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物）

参考例句：

• His face has a grotesque appearance.他的面部表情十分怪。
• Her account of the incident was a grotesque distortion of the truth.她对这件事的陈述是荒诞地歪曲了事实。

16 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

17 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

18 stagnation   

n. 停滞

参考例句：

• Poor economic policies led to a long period of stagnation and decline. 糟糕的经济政策道致了长时间的经济萧条和下滑。
• Motion is absolute while stagnation is relative. 运动是绝对的，而静止是相对的。

19 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

20 tightening   

上紧，固定，紧密

参考例句：

• Make sure the washer is firmly seated before tightening the pipe. 旋紧水管之前，检查一下洗衣机是否已牢牢地固定在底座上了。
• It needs tightening up a little. 它还需要再收紧些。

21 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

22 boisterous   

adj.喧闹的，欢闹的

参考例句：

• I don't condescend to boisterous displays of it.我并不屈就于它热热闹闹的外表。
• The children tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play.孩子们经常是先静静地聚集在一起，不一会就开始吵吵嚷嚷戏耍开了。

23 dour   

adj.冷酷的，严厉的；（岩石）嶙峋的；顽强不屈

参考例句：

• They were exposed to dour resistance.他们遭受到顽强的抵抗。
• She always pretends to be dour,in fact,she's not.她总表现的不爱讲话，事实却相反。

24 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

25 spurt   

v.喷出；突然进发；突然兴隆

参考例句：

• He put in a spurt at the beginning of the eighth lap.他进入第八圈时便开始冲刺。
• After a silence, Molly let her anger spurt out.沉默了一会儿，莫莉的怒气便迸发了出来。

26 pacify   

vt.使(某人)平静(或息怒)；抚慰

参考例句：

• He tried to pacify the protesters with promises of reform.他试图以改革的承诺安抚抗议者。
• He tried to pacify his creditors by repaying part of the money.他为安抚债权人偿还了部分借款。

27 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

28 pacifying   

使（某人）安静( pacify的现在分词 )； 息怒； 抚慰； 在（有战争的地区、国家等）实现和平

参考例句：

• The papers put the emphasis on pacifying rather than suppressing the protesters. 他们强调要安抚抗议者而不是动用武力镇压。
• Hawthorn products have the function of pacifying the stomach and spleen, and promoting digestion. 山楂制品，和中消食。

29 insurgency   

n.起义；暴动；叛变

参考例句：

• And as in China, unrest and even insurgency are widespread. 而在中国，动乱甚至暴乱都普遍存在。 来自互联网
• Dr Zyphur is part an insurgency against this idea. 塞弗博士是这一观点逆流的一部分。 来自互联网

30 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

31 astronomical   

adj.天文学的，（数字）极大的

参考例句：

• He was an expert on ancient Chinese astronomical literature.他是研究中国古代天文学文献的专家。
• Houses in the village are selling for astronomical prices.乡村的房价正在飙升。

32 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

33 prodigious   

adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的

参考例句：

• This business generates cash in prodigious amounts.这种业务收益丰厚。
• He impressed all who met him with his prodigious memory.他惊人的记忆力让所有见过他的人都印象深刻。

34 fascination   

n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋

参考例句：

• He had a deep fascination with all forms of transport.他对所有的运输工具都很着迷。
• His letters have been a source of fascination to a wide audience.广大观众一直迷恋于他的来信。

35 juntas   

n.以武力政变上台的军阀( junta的名词复数 )

参考例句：

36 pacification   

n. 讲和，绥靖，平定

参考例句：

• Real pacification is hard to get in the Vietnamese countryside. 在越南的乡下真正的安宁是很难实现的。
• Real pacification is hard to get in the Vietnamese countryside(McGeorge Bundy) 在越南的乡下真正的安宁是很难实现的（麦乔治·邦迪）

37 stew   

n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑

参考例句：

• The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
• There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。