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(单词翻译)

VOICE ONE:

I'm Bob Doughty1.

VOICE TWO:
 
Paul Newman

And I'm Shirley Griffith with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the award-winning actor Paul Newman. He was known for his striking good looks and clear blue eyes. Newman starred in over sixty-five movies during his more than fifty-year career. Some of his most famous roles were in the movies "The Hustler", "Hud", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Verdict." Paul Newman was also a social activist2, racecar driver and businessman.

(MUSIC)

COOL HAND LUKE: "I know I'm a pretty evil fellow. Killed people in the war and I got drunk and chewed up municipal property and the like. I know I got no call to ask for much, but even so you gotta admit, you ain't dealt me no cards in a long time. It's beginning to look like you got things fixed3 so I can't never win out. Inside, outside… all them rules and regulations and bosses. You made me like I am! And just where am I supposed to fit in?"

VOICE ONE:

That was a scene from the nineteen sixty-seven movie "Cool Hand Luke." In this movie set in a jail, Paul Newman plays the role of Luke Jackson, a smart but rebellious4 prisoner who gets in trouble for doing things his own way.

VOICE TWO:

The movie gives a good example of Paul Newman's intelligent style of acting5. He was known for playing characters who were imperfect but very likeable. He expressed an emotional complexity6 and thoughtfulness in his characters that seemed effortless.

VOICE ONE:

Paul Leonard Newman was born in Cleveland, Ohio in nineteen twenty-five. His father, Arthur Newman, ran a successful sporting goods store. His mother, Theresa Newman, loved the theater. She influenced her son Paul to act in school plays. During World War Two, Newman served as an airplane radio operator. He later studied at Kenyon College in Ohio. There, he played football and continued performing in plays.

VOICE TWO:

Arthur Newman did not think that acting was a sensible kind of job. But, he agreed to support his son for a year while Paul performed with small theater companies.

In nineteen fifty, Paul Newman returned to Cleveland with his new wife, Jacqueline, to manage the family store after his father's death. But the couple soon left Cleveland so that Paul Newman could study theater at Yale University in Connecticut.

VOICE ONE:

A few years later, Paul Newman received a role in the Broadway play "Picnic." The play ran for fourteen months. It was while working on this play that he met the actress Joanne Woodward.

During this period, Paul Newman also found roles on television shows. He studied at the Actors Studio in New York with actors who would also become famous, including James Dean and Marlon Brando.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Paul Newman's first movie, "The Silver Chalice," came out in nineteen fifty-four. He later said that it was the worst movie ever made. Critics agreed. But his nineteen fifty-six movie, "Somebody Up There Likes Me," was a success that brought him increased public attention. Newman made many movies during the late nineteen fifties. These include "The Rack", "The Left-Handed Gun" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", which starred Elizabeth Taylor.

VOICE ONE:
 

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward on their wedding day

Paul Newman married Joanne Woodward in nineteen fifty-eight after divorcing his first wife the year before. They made ten movies together. The first was "The Long, Hot Summer." The movie is based on stories by the American writer William Faulkner.

Newman plays a strong, good-looking, young man named Ben Quick. He arrives in a small town in Mississippi after being kicked out of another town because he is accused of burning a barn. He gets a job with Will Varner, who owns just about everything in the town. Varner likes Quick so much that he arranges for him to marry his daughter, Clara, a schoolteacher. But Clara, played by Joanne Woodward, has other ideas.

CLARA: " I gave up on him when I was nine years old and I gave up on you the first time I ever looked in those cold, blue eyes."

BEN: "You got the color right."

CLARA: "I've got everything right, Mister Quick."

BEN: "Well, I can see you don't like me, but you're gonna have me. It's gonna be you and me."

CLARA: "Not the longest day I live."

BEN: "Yes, sir. They're gonna say, 'There goes that poor old Clara Varner, whose father married her off to a dirt-scratching, shiftless, no-good farmer who just happened by.' Well, let 'em talk. I'll tell you one thing, you're gonna wake up in the morning smiling."

VOICE TWO:

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward decided7 not to live in Hollywood, California like most other film stars. They lived a very private life in Westport, Connecticut. They would remain married for fifty years. They raised three daughters. Newman had three other children with his first wife.

Paul Newman continued making successful movies. "The Hustler" came out in nineteen sixty-one.

EDDIE:" How should I play that one, Bert? Play it safe? That's the way you always told me to play it, safe, play the percentage. Well, here we go, fast and loose. One ball, corner pocket. Yeah, percentage players die broke too, don't they, Bert?"

In this movie, Newman plays a pool player named Fast Eddie Felson who competes for money against the expert player Minnesota Fats.

EDDIE: "I'm mean, it's not enough that you just have talent, you gotta have character too. Four ball."

VOICE ONE:

Two years later, he played the title role in "Hud." The movie is about a man who lives and works on his father's cattle farm. Newman said people were supposed to hate his character, Hud. But instead he said he created a folk hero. Paul Newman starred with Robert Redford in two very popular movies, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting."

He directed his wife, Joanne Woodward, in several movies that were praised by critics. These include "Rachel, Rachel" which came out in nineteen sixty-eight and "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds" four years later.

VOICE TWO:

Over his career, Newman was nominated for ten Academy Awards. He won for his performance in the nineteen eighty-six film, "The Color of Money". This movie continues the story of Fast Eddie that began with "The Hustler." In nineteen eighty-two, Newman starred in "The Verdict".

FRANK GLAVIN: "You know, so much of the time we're just lost…"

The movie is about an alcoholic8 lawyer named Frank Galvin who finds a chance to make up for his failing career in a medical case. Newman's performance during his character's closing argument to the jury is very powerful.

FRANK GLAVIN: "But today you are the law. You are the law, not some book, not the lawyers, not a marble statue, or the trappings of the court. See, those are just symbols of our desire to be just."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Paul Newman was not only a movie star. He was a political activist who fought for liberal causes. In nineteen sixty-eight, he campaigned for the Democratic Party presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy. Newman protested the Vietnam War in front of the American Embassy in London. He expressed great pride that he was named on President Richard Nixon's list of enemies.

VOICE TWO:

Paul Newman also worked on social issues important to him. In nineteen seventy-eight, his twenty-eight year old son Scott died of an accidental overdose of drugs and alcohol. In response, Paul Newman created the Scott Newman Center to help educate children and families on preventing drug abuse.

VOICE ONE:

In the nineteen eighties, Newman decided to start selling a salad dressing9 he had created and given to many friends as gifts. The "Newman's Own" company he started with his friend A. E. Hotchner became a huge success selling different food products. Over the years, more than two hundred fifty million dollars in company profits have been donated to social causes and organizations.

VOICE TWO:

One of these is the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, started by Paul Newman in nineteen eighty-eight. Its aim is to provide a free summer camp experience to children with cancer and other serious diseases. There are now camps in the United States and several other countries. Newman said that he started the organization as a way to honor the role that luck has played in his life. He said that the camps are a way to help children who are unfairly affected10 by luck's cruelty.

VOICE ONE:
 

Paul Newman and wife, Joanne Woodward, at Lime Rock race track in Connecticut in 1983

Paul Newman discovered his love of racing11 cars while making the nineteen sixty-nine movie "Winning." He even began racing professionally. In nineteen ninety-five, at the age of seventy, Newman competed and won at the Daytona races in Florida. The Guinness Book of World Records listed him as the oldest winner in his race class.

VOICE TWO:

In the nineteen nineties he continued to act in movies, including "Mister And Missus Bridge", "Message in a Bottle" and "Nobody's Fool." And, in two thousand two he returned to Broadway one last time to perform in "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder.

Paul Newman died in two thousand eight of cancer. He was eighty-three years old. He was a true star both as an actor and a human being.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. You can learn more about famous Americans on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 doughty Jk5zg     
adj.勇猛的,坚强的
参考例句:
  • Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质:脾气倔强,性格刚强。
  • The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。
2 activist gyAzO     
n.活动分子,积极分子
参考例句:
  • He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
  • He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。
3 fixed JsKzzj     
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的
参考例句:
  • Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗?
  • Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定,我们就不应该随意改变。
4 rebellious CtbyI     
adj.造反的,反抗的,难控制的
参考例句:
  • They will be in danger if they are rebellious.如果他们造反,他们就要发生危险。
  • Her reply was mild enough,but her thoughts were rebellious.她的回答虽然很温和,但她的心里十分反感。
5 acting czRzoc     
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。
6 complexity KO9z3     
n.复杂(性),复杂的事物
参考例句:
  • Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
  • The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。
7 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
8 alcoholic rx7zC     
adj.(含)酒精的,由酒精引起的;n.酗酒者
参考例句:
  • The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
  • Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。
9 dressing 1uOzJG     
n.(食物)调料;包扎伤口的用品,敷料
参考例句:
  • Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
  • The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。
10 affected TzUzg0     
adj.不自然的,假装的
参考例句:
  • She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
  • His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。
11 racing 1ksz3w     
n.竞赛,赛马;adj.竞赛用的,赛马用的
参考例句:
  • I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
  • The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

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