【外研版高中英语新教材必修二】Unit 4 随身课本-Developing ideas.docx

Good Book, Bad Movie?好书坏电影？1 They say that “a picture is worth a thousand words”, but the briefest look at books and the movies based on them would have anyone questioning this common saying. All too often, great words end up being turned into cinematic “turkeys”.人们常说“一图胜千词”，但是简单对照一下书籍和由之而改编的电影，就会让人们开始质疑 这一说法。很多时候，优秀的文字作品最终却变成电影中的失败之作。2 Good movies need good stories. If so, why has one of the earliest and greatest works in Western storytelling, Homer's The Odyssey, never had an equally great movie based on it? Movies need strong characters. So why have the movies based on The Great Gatsby never been praised as “great"？ Movies of course need impressive images, so why has Alice in Wonderland only resulted in movies best described as “interesting”？好的电影需要好的故事。假设是如此，那为什么西方叙事文本中最早且最优秀的作品之一 荷马的奥德赛从未产生过同样优秀的改编电影呢？电影中需要个性鲜明的人物。那 为什么基于了不起的盖茨比改编的电影从未被称赞为“优秀”呢？电影当然需要令人印象 深刻的画面，那为什么由爱丽丝梦游仙境改编的电影顶多被称为“有点意思”呢？3 One of the key reasons behind this is that while a book usually takes a few days to read, a movie typically lasts under two hours, This means that great books can lose plot details and characters when they move to the big screen. This is something that even the highly successful Harry Potter movies can't escape from, with fans of the books disappointed not to see some of their favourite characters in the movie versions.这背后的一个重要原因是，一本书通常需要花几天的时间来阅读，而一部电影通常不会超过 两小时。这就意味着优秀的书籍被搬上大银幕之后，会删减一些情节和人物。这是连大获成 功的“哈利波特”系列电影也无法防止的事情，有些书迷因为在电影中没看到自己最喜欢的 一些角色而感到失望。4 Movies also disappoint us when things don't look the way we imagined them in the books. Take, for example, the epic movie Troy, which is in part based on Homer's The Iliad and was met with mixed reviews from the audience. The most questionable issue was the actress chosen to play the part of Helen. Many people thought she didn't live up to Helen's title of “the most beautiful woman in the world”, influencing opinions of the movie to some extent.电影呈现出的事物与我们读书时的想象的有落差时，我们也会备感失望。以史诗电影特洛 伊为例，该电影局部改编自荷马的伊利亚特，观众对它的评论褒贬不一。其中最有争 议的问题在于扮演海伦的女演员。许多人认为她配不上海伦“世界上最美丽的女人”这一称号, 这在一定程度上影响了人们对这部电影的看法。5 There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes. Furthermore, books and movies are two different forms of media and therefore have different rules. With this in mind, perhaps we should judge a movie in its own right, and not against its original source. Interestingly, audiences have in recent years turned to television series such as Sherlock or Mad Men, which can have many characters and gradual plot development. Perhaps, one day, readers of F. Scott Fitzgerald's most admired work will find themselves glued to their screens by episodes of The Great Gatsby.一千个读者就有一千个哈姆雷特。而且书籍和电影是两种不同的媒体形式，因此也遵循不同 的原那么。考虑到这一点，也许我们应该基于电影本身而不是将其与原始版本进行比照来评价 电影。值得注意的是，观众已经逐渐将兴趣转向了神探夏洛克或广告狂人这样的电 视连续剧，因为电视剧能展现更多人物，情节也得以逐步展开。也许有一天，E斯科特菲 茨杰拉德最杰出作品的读者们，会发现自己已被了不起的盖茨比的剧集深深吸引。