第七部分 SELF EXPRESSION

全文链接：http://dipan.kekenet.com/blog-911842-67460

下面是美国某演员对自身生活、工作感受的表述。该篇文章的重点：一、掌握道地的美国口语表达，包括句型和文字背后的感觉、激情、情绪等；二、掌握美国普通人在表达自己经历时所采用的一些逻辑顺序，包括对故事细节的描述。学习此篇的方法是在老师指导下，反复诵读充满感觉和激情的句型，把自己的感情加进去，使之成为自己的表述方式。最后试将全文翻译成口语化的汉语。

要从本篇文章中学习：

1.语言表达的情绪和人性的表达方式；

2.如何描述一个故事。

中美在描述上的差异：

1. 中国人注重时间顺序和事情发展的自然顺序；point往往放在最后；

2. 美国人把point放在最前面，细节分析紧跟其后。

逻辑思维结构：

1. background information: who, when, where

2. 故事主题：what happened

3. 细节描述

4. 讲述故事的原因：why

Actor

I did this commercial in ‘64. A thing called Byrrh on the Rocks. I have a citation. They have festivals for commercials. Isn’t that laughable? It won five international awards—in Cannes, in Dublin, in Hollywood, in New York, in London. The goddamn thing was a local commercial. I walk in the bar and ask for Byrrh on the rocks. Every body turns and laughs and looks at me. The bartender…it was played in every station, day and night.

l Goddamn 粗话，他妈的；一般美语用粗口都是在玩世不恭的态度下或者非常生气的时候。

l Give a damn for someone = care 照顾，照看；它通常不用在肯定句中； I won’t give a damn for you! 愤怒下说的话

l What is bartender? ( 调酒员)

A kind of person who serve you the drinks in the bar, usually it is a guy who can perform and show you how do cocktail or something like that.

This commercial became so successful that I couldn’t walk down the street. I now know what it’s like to be famous, and I don’t want it. I couldn’t walk down the street. I’d be mobbed. People would grab me,” hey, Byrrh on the rocks! You’re the guy!” They’d pin me against the wall and the guy would say to his wife,” Hey, look whom I got here!” I once got out of the subway at Times Square and a guy grabbed me and slammed me against the wall. Crowds of people gathered around. My wife was terrified. They were all screaming,” Byrrh on the rocks!” because of that little TV box.

l Mob 围攻

They don’t know your name but once they see your face, you’re so familiar, you belong in their home. It really was terrifying, but I enjoyed it very much. It was great. It was like being a short Rock Hudson. Sure, there’s a satisfaction. I like a certain amount of it. I enjoy having people say complimentary things. I’m a gregarious person. I stop and tell them anything they want to know about making commercial, about the business and so on. But at times it does interfere with your life.

l gregarious adj. 社交的，群居的 = people person 口语，好热闹的人

I took a vacation. I went down to San Juan. There’s nobody in San Juan but New Yorkers. I wouldn’t go to the beach. The minute I stepped out, somebody would say,” Hey! Hey! Don’t I know you? Ain’t you the guy…?” In the early days of live TV they couldn’t figure out where they knew you from. Some guy would say, “Hey, you from Buffalo?” I’d say,” No.”“ Well, goddamn, there’s a guy in my home town looks just like you.” I’d say,” Did you ever watch” T Men in Action” or” the Big Story” on TV?”“ Oh yeah! You’re the guy!”

I came out of a movie house one day. I hadn’t gone more than few feet when two guys moved in on me, pushed me against the wall. I thought I was being held up. They flashed badges. They were detectives. One said,” Would you mind coming back into the lobby?” I said,” What for?”“ We’d like to talk to you.” So they moved me back and there was a woman, screaming.” That’s him, he’s the one!” Somebody had stolen her purse in the movie house and she fingered me. I played a gangster on TV in those days. The boss would say,” Hey, Shorty, do this.” And I’d say, “Yeah boss.” They were all alike. I asked the women if she had seen” T Men in Action” on Thursday. This was Saturday.” Oh, my God,” she said,” That’s where I saw you.”

l hold up 抢劫

l What for? 为什么？

l 文中用了很多直接引语来增加文章的精彩程度

l shorty n. 矮子，穷鬼（贬义）

People still come up to me, even to this day. They’re generally very polite. They say,” Excuse me, I don’t mean to impose, I just want to tell you that I enjoy your commercials very much.” Every once in a while I run into somebody who says,” I saw you in The Great Sebastian,” or,” I saw you in Cactus Flower.” But everybody doesn’t go to the theater. Everybody has television. People ask for my autograph on the street, anywhere. Quite often someone will say he saw me in such and such a play. But it’s really the commercials.

l run into 碰巧碰见某人,相当于happen to see；

l I ran into my old flame on the street. 我在街上看到了我的前男/女朋友。

l autograph n. 亲笔签名

l such and such 某某

I’m a working actor. If you want to work, you have to do everything. To me, acting is a craft, a way of life. I have never been obsessed with the sickening drive inside to become a star. Possibly it’s because I came into it very late in life. I was thirty-seven years old when I became a professional actor. I was a little more realistic about life. I knew the percentage of somebody who is five feet six and a half inches tall, who is dark and ethnic looking. The chances of becoming a star were quite remote. I’ve conditioned myself not to want it, because the odds against it are too great.

l working actor 忙于工作的演员； big wig 大腕 （wig，假发，在英国假发越大，地位越高）

l a way of life 生活方式；My way of life has nothing to do with you.

l sickening 令人讨厌的

l the odds 差异

Since I came to New York, I’ve never been out of work. I’ve had only one relatively poor period, because my face became too familiar in television commercials. Where it got kinds lean, you begin to wonder if maybe you’ve gotten too old or whether you’re worn-out. Through all these years, I went from one thing into another. I’d finish a play; there’d be a movie. In-between there’d be TV plays, there’d be commercials. I’ve signed with an office; all they do is TV commercials. Financially I’m not concerned. I have a little better than a hundred grand in the market. I want to go live in Mexico, but who wants to stop working?

l out of work 失业，离开工作，相当于unemployed

l kinds 有点，有些

l worn-out 旧的，破的，累的

l in-between 在此期间

l grand 千，口语中相当于thousand

If you’re not a star, there is humiliation and degradation—if you allow it to happen to you. People who do the hiring can be very rude at times. You don’t find that too much in the theater, because the theater still has a certain nicety to it. You find it in TV commercial casting. They’re deluged. Many people, having seen the commercial, say,” Hell, I could do that.” You take a guy playing a truck driver. So a truck driver says,” Hell, I can do that.” It’s always been an overcrowded field simply because there was never enough work for actors. Residuals, that’s the thing that’s kept actors going through the years when there wasn’t any work.

l humiliation n. 羞辱，蒙耻

l hell 见鬼去吧 go to hell 去一边儿吧

l residual adj. 剩余的，残留的

I recently auditioned for a thing I’ll know about Monday. We go to Florida to shoot. It’s a comedy thing. He’s the king of gypsies and he’s talking about this particular rent-a-car system of trucks. There was a fella ahead of me who had a great handlebar mustache and a big thick head of hair. He looked like the most gorgeous gypsy in the world. My only hope is that this guy couldn’t read—and he couldn’t. So I went in there with all the confidence in the world, ‘cause I do all these cheesy accents. My agent called that they were all exited. I’ll know on Monday.

l audition 试演，试听

l shoot 拍摄 shoot a movie; shoot a photo

l handlebar n. 浓重的胡子

l fella n. 俚语，伙伴，伙计，小伙子（fellow）

l 竞争的时候，美国人很愿意把自己的强项展现出来。

l 竞争使美国人很外向，很aggressive

I have one I’m shooting Tuesday for a bank. They called up and said.” Do you happen to have a derby?” I have one but I’ve never had the nerve to wear it. So I went to the audition with the derby on. And I had a pinstriped gray suit with a weskit. I was exactly what they wanted. I vacillate from little French or Italians, little Maitre d’s to an elegant banker to a wild gypsy. These accents—in radio they called it” Continental.”

l derby 黑色的圆形礼帽

l had the nerve to do something = have the guts to do something

l pinstripe 细条纹的礼服

Thursday I went up to Syracuse, another fella and I. We did a commercial for a little home snowplow. We’re out in this freezing, bitter cold. We spent from eight in the morning till five at night out in the snow. We were neighbors. He was shoveling snow and I came out of my garage, very dapper, with a derby on. I flip up the garage door and bring out my little machine and push the button and it starts. I do a debonair throw with the scarf. As I pass him with my little motorized snow cleaner, he looks up and I give him an up-yours, one-upman-ship. And that’s the commercial. We had a hell of a good time all day long. You would think it’d be murder in the cold snow, but we enjoyed it very much. The difference between this and theater is it’s over in one day and it’s more pinpointed. But it’s still acting.

l dapper adj. 整洁的，整齐的，短小精悍的

l up-yours 绅士的招手

l had a hell of a good time 过得真痛快，真愉快

l pinpointed 针对性很强

I used to think to myself. This is not a life. A man ought to be something more important, ought to be a doctor or a lawyer or something that does something for other people. To be an actor is to be a selfish person. It’s a matter of ego. I think. Many actors make the mistake of thinking this is life. I have in recent years found my work somewhat meaningful. So many people have stopped me on the street and said,“ I can’t tell you how much I enjoy what you’ve done.” If, for a moment or two, he can turn on his TV set and see you in a show or a commercial and it makes him a little happier—I think that’s important.

l a matter of ego 自我的事情

I think of myself as someone who’s rational, who isn’t wild—except when I get certain comedic things to do. It is something bigger than life, it’s still rooted in truth, but it’s just a little bit larger. Rather than play comedy with a capital C. I love to find the qualities in a person, in a character, that are alive and human—even in a commercial.

l C． 指戏剧的时候都会打上C.

l 同学们注意：1. 将老师口语化的东西成为自己的表达方式； 2. 在描述故事时的逻辑思维状态。