时间:2018-12-28 作者:英语课 分类:英语语言学习


英语课
On RN Summer this is Great Lovers, and part four of the story romance in the western world. I'm Amanda Smith.
Today it’s a love story from the Renaissance 1 that's become the greatest teenage love story of them all, or as William Shakespeare called it, The Most Excellent and Lamentable 2 Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
Reader: Two households both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge 3 break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth 4 the fatal loins of these two foes 
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life.
Jill Levenson: English Renaissance tragedy, to this point, had never before made romantic love its theme. It had dealt with matters of history and matters of legend, but not matters of love. So Romeo and Juliet was a first in that way.
Amanda Smith: That's Jill Levenson. She's the the editor of the Oxford 5 edition of Romeo and Juliet.
Now in the Middle Ages, the best-loved mythic tale of forbidden and tragic 6 love was 'Tristan and Isolde' - and they were the subject of part three, yesterday’s edition of Great Lovers. And if you missed it, it’s on the RN website. On the program list it’s under RN Afternoons.
Well moving form the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, the favourite in becomes Romeo and Juliet. Both stories though, contain that mixture of love and death encapsulated in the German word, 'leibestod', according to Jill Levenson.
Jill Levenson: 'Liebestod': that word is ambiguous in German and it's ambiguous in translation from the German. It can mean 'love in death', it can mean 'death in love', it can mean 'love's death'. But what I can tell you, that is clear and straightforward 8 I think, is there's a plot, a sequence of events which defines the liebestod theme. And we have that whole plot enacted 9 in Romeo and Juliet. Basically it's simply that two young lovers face obstacles which are impossible, and they defy the obstacles and try to circumvent 10 the obstacles with secret plans, but they fail, because of accident or because of misjudgement, and in the end, both of them die for love.
Amanda Smith: There's also a paradox 11 there too, isn't there, about the desire for love, or the compulsion for love, becomes a kind of compulsion for death?
Jill Levenson: Yes, absolutely. And at the time that the play was written in the late 16th century, and beyond, there was a connection between those two ideas, because, how can I put this so that it doesn't sound rude? Well, I can't put it in any way that doesn't sound rude. Orgasm was identified with death.
Amanda Smith: As a 'little death'?
Jill Levenson: Yes, exactly. As something which in enough quantity shortened life, so that there was a direct connection between concepts of love and concepts of death.
Amanda Smith: Okay, so Romeo and Juliet meet and fall in love at the Capulet's ball. Because Romeo is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet, and the two families hate each other's guts 12, the lovers get married in secret. Just after the wedding, the secret wedding, the two feuding 14 factions 15 get into a street brawl 16. Tybalt (he’s Juliet’s cousin) kills Romeo's friend Mercutio. As a payback Romeo kills Tybalt. And for this, Rome is exiled to Mantua. He and Juliet have just one night to spend together in Verona before he has to leave. They part at dawn. Meanwhile Juliet's parents are arranging a marriage for her, to Lord Paris. Well, for Juliet that’s not going to happen, so she fakes her own death. But Romeo, who’s in Mantua by this time, gets the news that she is dead. What he doesn't get is a letter that would tell him it's a ruse 17. He races back to Verona, finds Juliet apparently 18 dead in a tomb, and so he kills himself. Then Juliet wakes up, she finds Romeo dead beside her, and she kills herself, this time for real.
It's clearly a tragic story, but Romeo and Juliet is not, as the actor and director John Bell says, a tragedy in the classical dramatic sense.
John Bell: It's more of a sad story, if you like, or an unlucky story, than it is a tragedy. And that's signalled in the Prologue 19 where we talk about 'star-crossed lovers'. It's a story of misfortune and accident, and misunderstandings and bad timing 20, which in itself is interesting. That's what we call a tragedy every day: someone gets run over by a train or two lovers get killed in an accident, we say 'What a tragedy'. So we still use the word rather loosely because we think it's a dreadful thing, especially if young people, children are killed by some unlucky or unhappy circumstance. But in the classical terminology 21 I suppose, it isn't a tragedy in the sense that his more mature works are.
Amanda Smith: But it is kind of a tragedy of circumstance I suppose.
John Bell: Yes, which some critics would say, well, that isn't as significant as a tragedy of character; bad luck isn't as significant as human action and behaviour that is deliberate.
Amanda Smith: You could say though that the tragic outcome for the lovers, sort of hinges on a bad postal 23 service between Verona and Mantua, and that is the sort of mix-up you're more likely to get in comedy, not tragedy, I would have thought.
John Bell: Absolutely. I think Romeo and Juliet could be a comedy. Until the death of Mercutio, it's full of fun and jokes and a ball scene and young lovers and a balcony in the moonlight. It's got all the romance and fun and jokes. It's got more jokes than any other Shakespeare play I think, and more dirty jokes at that. But suddenly the death of Mercutio turns the whole play around and then it becomes tragic. But until halfway 24 through it could have a happy ending. And audiences are frequently shocked by the ending. I remember schoolkids coming out of Baz Luhrmann's film; the girls were all weeping and saying 'Oh my God, I didn't know it would finish like that.' You know, they wanted the happy ending and thought they were going to get it, because that's how the play starts out.
Amanda Smith: Yes well, it is interesting that, because to me something very strange happens when you're watching Romeo and Juliet. On the one hand you know they're going to die because they love each other, you're told that at the start, and yet also, no matter how many times I've seen Romeo and Juliet, during it I always find myself wishing and hoping that it's all going to turn out all right for them. So it seems to me there's something psychologically very clever about this play. What do you think?
John Bell: Oh yes, there is, because the lovers are quite irresistible 25. And because they're so young, you have this inbuilt pathos 26, you want them to survive and come through it. And of course the tragedy really isn't about them, it's about vendetta 27. It's about their parents and what the older generation has set up. That's the fulcrum 28 for tragedy. If that vendetta didn't exist, and if the two parents could forgive each other, there would be no tragedy. So I think it's got a deeper significance than just bad luck and misfortune, it's really about the nature of vengefulness and unforgiving parents.
Amanda Smith: Is it a big part of the appeal of Romeo and Juliet that the lovers are victims of vengefulness, victims of circumstance, that they are themselves blameless?
John Bell: I think that's true. Just as we find great vicarious pleasure in the love affair of Antony and Cleopatra, I think we find vicarious pleasure in the youth, the romance, the rhapsody of Romeo and Juliet. And we also can identify I suppose. We all feel sometimes we're the victims of circumstance, and that our parents have let us down, or the older generation has stuffed up the world for us. So young people identify very strongly with that, I think. Young people disobeying their parents, at odds 29 with their parents, try to say 'There's a place for us', like in West Side Story which is just another rendition of Romeo and Juliet. That appeal of youth having been betrayed by the older generation has a huge and everlasting 30 appeal.
Amanda Smith: Yes, well you mention West Side Story. And for all the most beautiful words about love that there are in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, there's a very simple line from one of the songs in West Side Story that as you're speaking, keeps coming into my head, and which applies to Romeo and Juliet as well as to Tony and Maria, and the line is 'When love comes so strong, there is no right or wrong'. In other words, love is amoral, it's bigger than anything else. Is that a deep-seated view we have about love which is projected in Romeo and Juliet as well as its offshoots like West Side Story?
John Bell: I think therein lies the tragedy, that that's what lovers feel. But of course society can't tolerate that, especially parents, who say 'Well there is right and wrong' and 'You can't do this, and you can't do that'. And youth is always constricted 32 by what is regarded as right or wrong by people who are outside the situation. But for lovers themselves, there's no right or wrong, they're totally on cloud nine, above all that.
Amanda Smith: West Side Story is, as you know, the twentieth century American re-telling of Romeo and Juliet. Do you remember though, that at the end of 'West Side Story' Maria doesn't die, unlike Juliet? But as we'll hear later in this epsiode of Great Lovers here on RN, playing around with Shakespeare's ending to Romeo and Juliet is actually something of a time-honoured tradition.
Well the setting for West Side Story is gritty New York, whereas the original's in fair Verona. And John Bell thinks it's significant that it was an Italian love story that the great English dramatist drew on for his Romeo and Juliet.
John Bell: I think it's very interesting that so many of Shakespeare's plays are set in Italy. He wasn't the only writer to do this. Marlowe, Johnson, most of the Elizabethan dramatists, used Italy as a backdrop. Because from there came a lot of the best stories, either the stories of ancient Rome, or stories out of the Renaissance, medieval Italian romances. They found something very liberating 33 and very un-English I suppose, about the grand passions, the degree of emotion, the sensuality. It was a rather sort of romantic Englishman's version of a more colourful civilisation 34 I think, and it's significant that the great lovers of Antony and Cleopatra are Rome and Egypt, and Romeo and Juliet are Italian. And it's very liberating for actors when you do these plays, to think, don't think Australian, don't think English, just think of the Italian vivacity 35 and exuberance 36 and that kind of climate, our popular images of Italy, and it's a rather liberating thing. And I think whenever I've seen Romeo and Juliet played by English actors, it can get very sort of cool and a bit stitched up unless they liberate 22 themselves from that mindset, and think 'Let's play it Italian'.
Amanda Smith: So what is the lineage of the Romeo and Juliet story before Shakespeare gets a hold of it late in the sixteenth century? Jill Levenson says that it was a story that had already been doing the rounds for a good hundred, hundred and twenty years.
Jill Levenson: Well most of the plot that we have in Romeo and Juliet first appeared in 1476 in printed form in a short fiction, a novella, by an Italian writer named Masuccio. And there seems to have been quite a bit of activity around the story in northern Italy, between then and about 1530 when an important version was published. It was another novella and it was by a writer named Luigi da Porto. Da Porto was the writer who added a feud 13 to the narrative 37 as an explanation for the secret marriage, because in its original version there was no reason for the lovers to marry secretly. It's a very strange story, the Masuccio one, so da Porto added the feud, and he furnished the famous names. He borrowed the names Montecchi and Cappelletti from Dante's 'Purgatory 38' for the political factions. So that gives us our two feuding factions.
What happened next was that da Porto's version was elaborated in another Italian novella by Matteo Bandello, that was 1554, and then it began to travel to England. I can't resist saying that Bandello turned a novella that was a gazelle into a novella that was an elephant. It became very, very large and it became filled with circumstantial material. And it became quite prosaic 39 by modern standards, I would think, but during the Renaissance this was the version that everyone loved.
Amanda Smith: What are the specifics of time and place that come into the story, as it is doing the rounds in Italy in the fifteenth, sixteenth century in this novella form? For example, as you mentioned, the family feud is the obstacle to the lovers. Now why does that come in as the reason why the love is forbidden?
Jill Levenson: Each novella was shaped by the cultural circumstances in which it was written. So for example, Bandello's novella version reflects social and economic conditions during the Italian Renaissance, which affected 40 attitudes towards marriage. With the development of capitalism 41, there was an emphasis on consolidating 42 the city-state and consolidating prosperous families. Women were viewed as marriage commodities. So you can see why a love affair would turn into a threat to that in this type of context. An unauthorised relationship would disrupt the new patterns of exchange and challenge the concept of marriage as it was developing at that point.
Amanda Smith: In the film, Shakespeare in Love, Will is trying without much inspiration, to write a play that he first calls 'Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter'. But historically, where does William Shakespeare get a hold of this story of Romeo and Juliet?
Jill Levenson: As far as we know, not quite out of his own experience, as the film would have you believe. Yes, the title of that play just kills me every time I hear it. Well there were two English versions actually, one by Arthur Brooke and one by William Painter, and he used both of them but he used one much more than the other. Brooke, which is the primary source, made two contributions to the narrative: he elaborated the idea of fortune controlling events, and he filled out the character of the Nurse. And I think personally that his version is interesting for another reason. Perhaps this is the reason that Shakespeare chose it. There are contradictions in it if you read it from beginning to end - I don't recommend that, because it's very boring, it really is soporific - but if you do read it from beginning to end, you find contradictions in his views of sex and marriage, which may register not just as inconsistencies in his own thinking, but inconsistencies in the thinking of his age about sex and marriage.
Amanda Smith: So what does Shakespeare do with the story? As you say, it's already well known and popular, and aside from turning it into a play, how does Shakespeare re-cast the narrative so that it's his version of the tale that becomes the famous one?
Jill Levenson: We should keep in mind in thinking about these questions that what Shakespeare inherited was a straightforward, melancholy 43 tale of young love. There was no irony 44 in them, there was no comedy in them, they were unremittingly sad. So what did he do with this material, as you asked? I think on one level he enhanced this emotional intensity 45 and he enhanced the presence of the leibestod myth. For example, by reminding us from the beginning that the outcome of this love affair will be tragic.
Amanda Smith: Yes, because of course Shakespeare tells us right at the start of the play that it's going to end badly, 'a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life'.
Jill Levenson: Yes, that's right, and then after the Prologue, you have characters who experience dreams and forebodings about what's going to happen. The language is going to refer again and again to Death, as Juliet's lover. So even though there's an infusion 46 of comedy and a hint that perhaps this plot could take a different turn, you're constantly being reminded that the story is headed for a tragic ending. So that's one of the things that he did. He enhanced what was already there. At the same time, he added something completely new, a wholly new dimension to the narrative, in portraying 47 Romeo and Juliet as adolescents going through that particular rite 7 of passage. If I could say something a little personal about this aspect of the research on the play which I did as part of the edition. When I discovered this dimension and was trying to understand it, I even took a course on adolescent psychology 48 because by that point I was so far from my own adolescence 49 that I couldn't remember it very clearly. And it was an exciting experience because as I began to understand the psychological state, the play seemed to come into view as a photograph from a negative. This part of it is so clear and so thorough and so brilliantly accurate, and I wonder if this isn't the dimension of the play which explains its continuing emotional appeal in the late twentieth and early twenty first century.
Amanda Smith: Especially for young people.
Jill Levenson: Yes, particularly for young people. For example, the opening scene emphasises Romeo's adolescence, and that part of the scene is wholly invented. That part of the scene where Benvolio, Romeo's cousin and Montague, Romeo's father, are discussing Romeo's behaviour; it must have been a huge surprise to the original audiences of the play, who wouldn't have had any indication that this was coming. But they talk about his restlessness, they talk about his lack of communication, indicating I think to the audience, a case of unsettled hormones 50, and we find out at the same time that Benvolio's doing the same thing. That's how he happened to find Romeo before dawn, wandering around, not having eaten, etc. So that dimension begins to become apparent right in the opening scene.
Amanda Smith: And Jill Levenson is the editor of the Oxford edition of Romeo and Juliet.
A striking thing about Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as a love story is that it presents more than one, in fact many views about love. In a way, the play's a discussion about the nature of love. For Romeo and for Juliet, it's the full fireworks and the full catastrophe 51, but we do get a range of other views and experiences of love. For example, at the start of the play, Romeo is actually quite desperately 52 in love with someone else, with Rosaline, who's a bit of an ice maiden 53. So, John Bell, what's going on there?
John Bell: Well I think it's to show that Romeo is ready for the real thing, that the Rosaline thing was a mere 54 sort of puppy love, obsession 55, but the Juliet relationship is going to develop into the real lasting 31 relationship, that's what's been set up. Juliet on the other hand, this is her first love, she's totally virginal and idealistic. And she's the one who teaches Romeo what love's really about. He's the one who wants to rush off and she says, 'Hang on, wait till tomorrow, we'll get married, we'll do it properly; I'm worried about this rashness, it can't last.' And she I think makes a man of Romeo, and we see her mature into a woman by the end of the play - which only happens over four days if you look at the calendar - but she's grown from a wide-eyed girl to a very mature heroine by the end of it.
Amanda Smith: Now a big factor I think in the success of productions of this play, is the extent to which the lead actors can convince us right from the start of the depth of their love for each other, right from their first meeting. But I wonder, John, how many people today can really believe in love at first sight, and if we don't, does that diminish the emotional effect of the play?
John Bell: I think people do believe in it still, remarkably 56 so. Especially young people. I mean you don't have to believe in it, it just hits you like a ten-ton truck. And given the circumstance of the play and the story, I think we accept that. We also accept that it's not very real, that it has to be tested against time and trial. But the idea of sudden infatuation I think is well within our understanding.
Amanda Smith: There's also something marvellously uncomplicated about Romeo and Juliet's love for each other. Their circumstances are complicated, but their love is immediate 57, it's completely mutual 58, neither of them has a problem with commitment. Again, I wonder how does this sort of perfect match sit with audiences today at a time when I suppose relationships don't necessarily seem so straightforward?
John Bell: Well again I think that, you mentioned the casting, I think that's terribly important that they are really adolescents, because we know that can happen and does happen repeatedly in adolescence. If you cast the lovers too old, then of course it doesn't make sense. These would have been played by boys of about fourteen, fifteen years old in Shakespeare's time, and I think that's the challenge today, to get young actors who are young enough to be convincing, but who are experienced and mature enough to handle that extraordinary language, who have that kind of acting 59 technique. That's the challenge we have today. Whereas in Shakespeare's time they were brought up from a very early age as apprentices 60, and they were very expert actors by the time they were fifteen, and of course, speaking Elizabethan verse was their natural element. They were expert at it. It's harder today to make the play work, to find the right talented youngsters who can carry that off.
Juilet: My bounty 61 is as boundless 62 as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
Romeo: See how she leans her cheek upon her hand.
O that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!
Amanda Smith: In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare does put into the mouths of his young lovers some of the most beautiful and memorable 63 and poetic 64 lines that have ever been written about love in the English language. So how does Shakespeare use the conventions of the love poetry of his age, and recast them into drama? Jill Levenson.
Jill Levenson: I think what he's done with the poetry is quite astonishing, because as I've been saying, I think this play must have struck its original audiences as extremely new. And, perhaps I should add at this point that English Renaissance tragedy to this point had never before made romantic love its theme. It had dealt with matters of history and matters of legend, but not matters of love. So Romeo and Juliet was a first in that way. But the use of love poetry is especially intriguing 65. Shakespeare himself had been working extensively with the sonnet 66 form and sequence when he wrote this play, and he incorporates all of the conventions into the dialogue, the rhyme schemes and all. So why did he make such extensive use of this fashionable verse, because sonnets 67 were fashionable in the middle of the 1590s, why did he do that in a play? He may have been trying to give the prestige of lyrical verse to his work for the theatre, because verse was more prestigious 68 than drama. He may have been attempting to reach a particular demographic in his audience, who would appreciate the references. Or he may even have wanted to rethink this poetry that he had been writing, from a different point of view. So Romeo and Juliet the play may in part show us a poet-dramatist thinking out loud. The only thing we can say for sure, I believe, is that Shakespeare adapts a verse form very effectively for the stage. It becomes the language of Verona, but at the same time its articulation 69 by Romeo and Juliet distinguishes them from everyone else. At their most intense, they speak it in a way that still makes my hair stand on end, even though I've edited the play and I've had to look at every word and every punctuation 70 mark. When I get, for example, to the speech that Juliet has before her wedding night, when she's anticipating her wedding night. Which comes in the wake of the death of Mercutio and Tybalt. Which takes a conventional piece of Elizabethan poetry, the kind of song that was done before a nuptial 71, and turns it into something totally new and original and brilliant.
Juliet: Come gentle night, coming loving black-browed night.
Give me my Romeo; and when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he shall make the face of heaven so fine,
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish 72 sun.
O, I have bought the mansion 73 of a love,
But not possessed 74 it; and though I am sold,
Not yet enjoyed.
Amanda Smith: Well let's move to the fortunes and passage of this play after Shakespeare's time. Romeo and Juliet was revived in 1662 after the playhouses were reopened following the Restoration. Now, Samuel Pepys saw it, we know this from his diary, and he thought it was a shocker, didn't he?
Jill Levenson: Yes, he thought it was poor. But we actually don't know much about the earliest revivals 76 during the Restoration. The history of that period is fairly vague. We haven't got printed texts, we have only references.
Amanda Smith: I'm terribly interested in an alternative version of the play at this time, the middle of the seventeenth century, that as I understand it, changed the ending. Romeo and Juliet live happily ever after, so the dying-for-love theme, and the inevitably 77 of the lovers' deaths that drives the play, was entirely 78 removed. Can you tell me what we know about the happy ending version of Romeo and Juliet?
Jill Levenson: We know virtually nothing. A prompter describes this as tragi-comical and it seems that this adaptation played alternately with the tragedy. But we don't know anything more about it, except from that reference. It seems to have sunk without a trace. In other words, the idea of the happy ending did not catch on.
Amanda Smith: No, well fair enough. Do subsequent productions though, into the eighteenth century, continue to play around with the death scene at the end?
Jill Levenson: They play around with it, but they don't make it a happy ending.
Amanda Smith: What do they do?
Jill Levenson: Mostly what they do is elaborate on it. That is, in the versions of the play which bear any relation to Shakespeare's play, and I'm thinking of Garrick at this point.
Amanda Smith: This is David Garrick who produced the play in the mid-eighteenth century?
Jill Levenson: Yes, that's right. And Garrick produced what I would call the biggest blockbuster ever of Romeo and Juliet. What Garrick was doing was adapting the Shakespeare play to eighteenth century taste. It was a revival 75 which began in 1748 and it actually held the stage for ninety-seven years, and it was not finally dislodged until the late ninteenth century, and there are still elements of it which crop up in modern productions, and even in Baz Luhrmann's film.
Amanda Smith: Such as?
Jill Levenson: Well such as Juliet awakening 79 before Romeo has expired.
Amanda Smith: So this is the playing around with the death scene at the end?
Jill Levenson: That's the kind of playing around with the death scene, which is famous, and still influential 80. Juliet awakens 81 before Romeo dies, and in his version they have a seventy-five line dialogue immediately after he takes the poison.
Amanda Smith: And what's that doing that's different from the original Shakespeare: that thing of Juliet waking up?
Jill Levenson: I think it emphasises the pathos of the situation. You know, if she had awakened 82 one minute earlier he wouldn't have taken the poison, everything would have been all right. We already know that, it seems to me, but Garrick enhanced, or increased the amount of sentimentality that that episode would hold. It seems to me he makes it explicit 83, or in your face.
Amanda Smith: Jill Levenson, the editor of the Oxford Romeo and Juliet.
And now to another re-working of the great teenage love story, created in the twentieth century: the music for the ballet of Romeo and Juliet, composed by Sergei Prokofiev. It's a bit hard to believe now, but in the 1930s, this music caused an artistic 84 and political storm.
This ballet music for Romeo and Juliet gets my vote as the most successful adaptation of the story into another medium, at least since Will Shakespeare took that boring novella and turned it into a great play.
And what the ballet loses in spoken word, it gains in musical expressiveness 85, according to Mark Carroll, who lectures in the history and aesthetics 86 of music.
Mark Carroll: One of the great strengths of the score is that it's not simply a story told to music, as one often finds, but it's actually a story told in music. By that I mean that it's quite possible to actually follow the dramatic action and the story unfolding, by listening purely 87 to the music itself, without the visual prompt of the ballet.
Amanda Smith: But this music for the ballet very nearly didn't happen. There was as much intrigue 88 around its creation as there is in a Shakespearean drama. This was because it was being created in the Soviet 89 Union under Joseph Stalin, where the story of Romeo and Juliet smacked 90 way too much of capitalist decadence 91, especially coming from a composer who'd been living in the West since the Communist revolution. Mark Carroll, tell us the story.
Mark Carroll: Well Prokofiev's decision to compose the score to Romeo and Juliet coincided with his decision to move back to the Soviet Union from the West. He found himself in Leningrad, what we now know as St Petersburg, and his friend the avant garde choreographer 92, Sergei Radlov, invited him to collaborate 93 with him on a score for a new production of Romeo and Juliet.
Amanda Smith: And this is for the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad.
Mark Carroll: The Kirov Ballet in Leningrad. Now unfortunately, right about that time, and indeed nary a note had been composed, when Radlov himself fell out of favour with the city's Communist authorities. So immediately the plans came awry 94. It's also reasonable to suspect that they also fell apart because the tragic ending, Romeo and Juliet's tragic ending, was very much out of kilter with what we would call the ruthlessly enforced optimism of Stalinism's socialist 95 façade.
Amanda Smith: So what happens? The Kirov drops it.
Mark Carroll: Yes, they're cast adrift by the Kirov, and in 1935, Prokofiev and Radlov signed a contract with the Bolshoi Theatre.
Amanda Smith: So how come the Bolshoi picks it up when the Kirov has dropped it for largely political reasons?
Mark Carroll: Well at this particular point, socialist realism was not a blanket policy, so it was very much driven by localised party cells, if you like. Whereas in Leningrad, the spectre of Uncle Joe was looming 96 large over the arts, in Moscow at that particular point, and here I'm talking about early 1935, things were a lot freer. So the Bolshoi was at that particular point in a political position to be able to offer Prokofiev and Radlov a new contract.
Amanda Smith: And they were happy with a story like Romeo and Juliet, whereas the Kirov found it ideologically 97 unacceptable?
Mark Carroll: Indeed. So Prokofiev essentially 98 retired 99 to his dacha outside of Moscow and set about composing a score, or a piano reduction of the score, which he could then take back to the directors of the Bolshoi. Now in what's a remarkable 100 sort of volte-face, the directors, upon hearing Prokofiev's completed piano reduction, promptly 101 declared the music 'undanceable'.
Amanda Smith: Undanceable? What does that mean?
Mark Carroll: Well undanceable doesn't mean undanceable. Undanceable means we've had the message from higher up that this kind of music is now seen as an indulgence that's out of step with the Soviet socialist realist view of art. Now of course the unfortunate thing was that the realities of Soviet life at that particular time, were fairly miserable 102. But of course Stalin and his cultural commissar Andrei Zhdanov, would have none of that, so that by official decree, we're all required to be happy. And art is required to be happy.
Amanda Smith: So yes, as Prokofiev originally conceived the ballet, it was with a happy ending, that Juliet would wake up just in the nick of time before Romeo killed himself. Now this wasn't the first time that Romeo and Juliet has been tried with a happy end, but do we know anything of why Prokofiev originally wanted to do it that way?
Mark Carroll: Well the official story, in other words Prokofiev's version of events was 'Living people can dance, the dying cannot, so how do you put onto the dance stage a death scene?' Now there's probably a fair degree of common sense in that, but also you would have to say that also arose through probably his collaborator 103, Radlov, being a little bit politically more attuned 104 than Prokofiev. In other words, and after all he'd suffered the wrath 105 of Stalin at the Kirov ballet, so he was probably encouraging Prokofiev in the direction of a happy ending: one that would then be able to celebrate and it would be seen as a celebration of Soviet life.
Amanda Smith: Well with or without the happy ending, Prokofiev's music for Romeo and Juliet remained 'undanceable'. In other words, ideologically unacceptable, in the Soviet Union of the 1930s. It was performed, however, in Czechoslovakia in 1938, which prompted another about-face back in the USSR.
Mark Carroll: Well the public success of the Czech premiere, together with what was during wartime a relaxation 106 in socialist realist cultural policy in the Soviet Union, prompted the Kirov and the Bolshoi ballets to overcome their initial reluctance 107. So the Soviet premiere was given by the Kirov in 1940, and the Bolshoi followed suit in 1946.
Amanda Smith: What sort of reception did it get when it was finally performed in the USSR?
Mark Carroll: It received widespread acclaim 108. It was lauded 109 as a great example of Soviet art. So obviously Stalin was very happy that during the war that the masses were being offered a diversion, however ideologically unsound it may well have appeared at the time.
Amanda Smith: Now maybe I'm just imagining this, but the music for the ball scene in this ballet, the Capulet's ball - which is probably the most well-known music from the ballet, that big, powerful, tight, tense sound - does seem kind of Soviet to me.
Mark Carroll: It does, you're absolutely right, I couldn't agree with you more. It's very foursquare. It's music to goosestep to, almost. It does very much have that sort of severe outlook.
Mark Carroll: What saves it from being the soundtrack to the Revolution if you like, is I think what comes before it and what comes after it. But it is very much that foursquare, severe kind of music that we've come to associate with the Soviet style.
Amanda Smith: Even though Prokofiev infused his ballet music for Romeo and Juliet with some elements of acceptable Soviet style, his political fortunes in the Soviet Union once again reversed towards the end of WW2. In 1948, Prokofiev was condemned 110 by the Party Central Committee. He died in 1953, on the very same day, coincidentally, as Joseph Stalin died.
But, and here's another twist, Romeo and Juliet, with the music of Sergei Prokofiev, was the very first ballet that the Bolshoi took to the West. The company performed it at Covent Garden in 1956, to huge critical acclaim. In fact, Romeo and Juliet was the work that established the Bolshoi's international reputation. Maybe it was because the ballet so perfectly 111 combined Soviet technical brilliance 112 with Western sentiment.
Now to return to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Earlier in this series I was speaking with the actor and director John Bell, about Shakespeare's other pair of great lovers, Antony and Cleopatra, and the ambivalence 113 that surrounds them about how they really feel about each other: is it love, is it lust 114? Are they motivated by ambition more than love or lust? But, John, with Romeo and Juliet, we never doubt that they love each other truly deeply, do we?
John Bell: No, and it's because the play happens so fast. It happens over the four days and they never get a chance to really examine themselves very deeply, or to face the longeurs of a long-term affair. But that works. Because they're so young, because the whole thing happened so quickly, and they're up against such odds, and therefore they're on full throttle 115 to get all they can out of this affair while it can last. I think that's what carries it through, it's the sheer impetuosity of the whole thing.
Amanda Smith: Well given that these young lovers do end up killing 116 themselves, what view of love do you think audiences take from the play? For example, that there is such a thing as loving too much, and it's dangerous?
John Bell: Yes, we do get that. Yet we think how wonderful that people can love so much, and can take those risks and go to those lengths for real love. And some people have said, 'Well what if they have survived? They would have settled into a very ordinary middle age.' And that's quite possible, so therefore they have to die, in the sense of we mustn't have that image of adolescent romance dashed, it has to remain. They died young, they died beautiful, and that's how it had to be.
Amanda Smith: Yes, you can't really imagine them discussing the mortgage or whether they're going to have chops for tea, can you?
John Bell: Who puts the garbage out! No, none of that.
Amanda Smith: John Bell, the founding artistic director of the Bell Shakespeare Company. Well, whether it's the Shakespeare play, the Prokofiev ballet music, or the film directed by Baz Luhrmann, or before him, the one by Franco Zeffirelli, watching this sad story of Romeo and Juliet does always seem to me to be a strangely uplifting experience, as any well-told story of forbidden and tragic love always is. So why do we find these great love stories so attractive? Do they tell you anything useful about your own lives and relationships?
John Armstrong is the author of Conditions of Love - the Philosophy of Intimacy 117, and he's not so sure they do.
John Armstrong: One is tempted 118 to say that these great loves have a delusional 119 quality to them. That doesn't mean that they are worthless, but it does mean that we should reconsider the way in which they stand as, say, an inspiration or as admirable. They're perhaps more like other delusions 120 that inspire people to do great things, but are fundamentally quite weird 121. Like, why do people climb mountains? I think that's really quite weird, but it is impressive that they do it. So there can be great motives 122 that we have which are actually not that well founded, but they impel 123 people to do things which look rather amazing.
Amanda Smith: Now a feature of all love stories I think, is the obstacles that stand in the way of the lovers: 'the course of true love never did run smooth' as Shakespeare tells us in Midsummer Night's Dream. And put simply, in romantic comedy the obstacles are eventually overcome and the story ends with the promise or suggestion of living happily ever after. Whereas in romantic tragedy the obstacles are ultimately overwhelming, so the story ends with separation and most often death. Why do you think that so many of our most enduring love stories, the great lovers of Western culture, are tragedies?
John Armstrong: One of the things about tragedy is that it cuts off love at an early stage. So with Romeo and Juliet we get this very beautiful, as it were, morning image, springtime image of the start of love. And because things work out so badly for them, their love is cut off when it's in its perfect pristine 124 condition. And that means that we don't really have to follow through what might happen, and does in fact happen, even in good loving relationships. Namely, that there are a lot of other problems, they discover the irritating little habits, annoying things about the other person. And all that is much less entertaining, much less in a way, less imaginatively powerful, but it's the real stuff of most relationships. So I think it's quite important to us culturally, to give ourselves images of love which is perfect, and one of the ways of doing it is to cut it off early. So that these great tragedies can give us a slightly misleading conception of what love is actually about.
Amanda Smith: But they are kind of strangely uplifting.
John Armstrong: It's nice to be misled.
Amanda Smith: Well even those these are tragic love stories in extremis, is their power to move us also that we recognise, or find kind of reassuring 125 something of our own experience of love's agonies and ecstasies 126 in them, and that's the consolation 127 of art and philosophy?
John Armstrong: One of the most intense moments of life, at least in my experience, has been the moment of rejection 128, the moment when love breaks down. Especially if you feel that it's not your fault. That point when you've been abandoned makes you feel both intensely aware of yourself and also intensely sorry for yourself. And it's actually I think quite a special moment because your sense of what life is about suddenly gets this huge jolt 129. And often it cleanses 130 away, although it's very painful, it cleanses away a lot of the petty details of existence. This is my experience. I remember my girlfriend at the time, it's a few years ago, left me, just at the point where a few other things were quite tricky 131 in life as well. And I suddenly thought it's not the little things that are the problem, if only she'd come back, everything would be all right. So you get a sense of the really deep issues in life, even if only because you've lost them. One of the tragedies of life is that we appreciate things most when we lose them. The point is, that we are returned, when we watch a tragedy, we return to a very solemn and serious view of ourselves, which can actually be quite consoling, because it reminds us of what's really important to us. And by being reminded of what's really important, other problems get put in perspective, and I think that's the consoling aspect of tragedy.
The other thing is that when we see other people having a really bad time, it can make us feel quite cosy 132 about our own existence. We're not being horrible to Romeo and Juliet on the stage by thinking, 'Thank God my life's not as bad as that'. But when you leave the theatre, you want to come back and sort of cuddle up and 'I'm so glad we're not in the tomb together.'
Amanda Smith: In this episode of Great Lovers, the perfect, young love of Romeo and Juliet, I was speaking with the philosopher John Armstrong, the author of Conditions of Love, and a professorial fellow at the University of Tasmania. Also John Bell, the founding artistic director of the Bell Shakespeare Company, based in Sydney; Mark Carroll, who lectures in Music at the Elder School of Music in Adelaide, and the author of Music and Ideology 133 in Cold War Europe; and Jill Levenson, who's the editor of the Oxford Romeo and Juliet. Jill's also Professor of English at the University of Toronto, in Canada.
Tomorrow on Great Lovers, we turn to the dark romanticism of the ninteenth century, with Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and that strange, haunting, intense love of Heathcliff and Catherine.
And, ’the love that dare not speak its name’, the love that brought down Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas – Oscar and Bosie.
That’s Great Lovers tomorrow, hope you'll join me. And by the way, audio, transcripts 134 and details for the five episodes of series are on the RN website – abc.net.au/rn. In the program list choose RN Afternoons. Technical production for Great Lovers is by Carey Dell. I'm Amanda Smith.

1 renaissance
n.复活,复兴,文艺复兴
  • The Renaissance was an epoch of unparalleled cultural achievement.文艺复兴是一个文化上取得空前成就的时代。
  • The theme of the conference is renaissance Europe.大会的主题是文艺复兴时期的欧洲。
2 lamentable
adj.令人惋惜的,悔恨的
  • This lamentable state of affairs lasted until 1947.这一令人遗憾的事态一直持续至1947年。
  • His practice of inebriation was lamentable.他的酗酒常闹得别人束手无策。
3 grudge
n.不满,怨恨,妒嫉;vt.勉强给,不情愿做
  • I grudge paying so much for such inferior goods.我不愿花这么多钱买次品。
  • I do not grudge him his success.我不嫉妒他的成功。
4 forth
adv.向前;向外,往外
  • The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
  • He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。
5 Oxford
n.牛津(英国城市)
  • At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
  • This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。
6 tragic
adj.悲剧的,悲剧性的,悲惨的
  • 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。
7 rite
n.典礼,惯例,习俗
  • This festival descends from a religious rite.这个节日起源于宗教仪式。
  • Most traditional societies have transition rites at puberty.大多数传统社会都为青春期的孩子举行成人礼。
8 straightforward
adj.正直的,坦率的;易懂的,简单的
  • A straightforward talk is better than a flowery speech.巧言不如直说。
  • I must insist on your giving me a straightforward answer.我一定要你给我一个直截了当的回答。
9 enacted
制定(法律),通过(法案)( enact的过去式和过去分词 )
  • legislation enacted by parliament 由议会通过的法律
  • Outside in the little lobby another scene was begin enacted. 外面的小休息室里又是另一番景象。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
10 circumvent
vt.环绕,包围;对…用计取胜,智胜
  • Military planners tried to circumvent the treaty.军事策略家们企图绕开这一条约。
  • Any action I took to circumvent his scheme was justified.我为斗赢他的如意算盘而采取的任何行动都是正当的。
11 paradox
n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法;自相矛盾的人(物)
  • The story contains many levels of paradox.这个故事存在多重悖论。
  • The paradox is that Japan does need serious education reform.矛盾的地方是日本确实需要教育改革。
12 guts
v.狼吞虎咽,贪婪地吃,飞碟游戏(比赛双方每组5人,相距15码,互相掷接飞碟);毁坏(建筑物等)的内部( gut的第三人称单数 );取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 );内脏;消化道的下段;肠
  • I'll only cook fish if the guts have been removed. 鱼若已收拾干净,我只需烧一下即可。
  • Barbara hasn't got the guts to leave her mother. 巴巴拉没有勇气离开她妈妈。 来自《简明英汉词典》
13 feud
n.长期不和;世仇;v.长期争斗;世代结仇
  • How did he start his feud with his neighbor?他是怎样和邻居开始争吵起来的?
  • The two tribes were long at feud with each other.这两个部族长期不和。
14 feuding
vi.长期不和(feud的现在分词形式)
  • Riccardo and Cafiero had been feuding so openly that the whole town knew about it. 里卡多和卡菲埃罗一直公开地闹别扭,全城的人都知道此事。 来自辞典例句
  • The two families have been feuding with each other for many generations. 这两个家族有好多代的世仇了。 来自互联网
15 factions
组织中的小派别,派系( faction的名词复数 )
  • The gens also lives on in the "factions." 氏族此外还继续存在于“factions〔“帮”〕中。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
  • rival factions within the administration 政府中的对立派别
16 brawl
n.大声争吵,喧嚷;v.吵架,对骂
  • They had nothing better to do than brawl in the street.他们除了在街上斗殴做不出什么好事。
  • I don't want to see our two neighbours engaged in a brawl.我不希望我们两家吵架吵得不可开交。
17 ruse
n.诡计,计策;诡计
  • The children thought of a clever ruse to get their mother to leave the house so they could get ready for her surprise.孩子们想出一个聪明的办法使妈妈离家,以便他们能准备给她一个惊喜。It is now clear that this was a ruse to divide them.现在已清楚这是一个离间他们的诡计。
18 apparently
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎
  • 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。
19 prologue
n.开场白,序言;开端,序幕
  • A poor wedding is a prologue to misery.不幸的婚姻是痛苦的开始。
  • The prologue to the novel is written in the form of a newspaper account.这本小说的序言是以报纸报道的形式写的。
20 timing
n.时间安排,时间选择
  • The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
  • The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。
21 terminology
n.术语;专有名词
  • He particularly criticized the terminology in the document.他特别批评了文件中使用的术语。
  • The article uses rather specialized musical terminology.这篇文章用了相当专业的音乐术语。
22 liberate
v.解放,使获得自由,释出,放出;vt.解放,使获自由
  • They did their best to liberate slaves.他们尽最大能力去解放奴隶。
  • This will liberate him from economic worry.这将消除他经济上的忧虑。
23 postal
adj.邮政的,邮局的
  • A postal network now covers the whole country.邮路遍及全国。
  • Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。
24 halfway
adj.中途的,不彻底的,部分的;adv.半路地,在中途,在半途
  • We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路,天就黑了。
  • In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上,最忌讳的是有始无终。
25 irresistible
adj.非常诱人的,无法拒绝的,无法抗拒的
  • The wheel of history rolls forward with an irresistible force.历史车轮滚滚向前,势不可挡。
  • She saw an irresistible skirt in the store window.她看见商店的橱窗里有一条叫人着迷的裙子。
26 pathos
n.哀婉,悲怆
  • The pathos of the situation brought tears to our eyes.情况令人怜悯,看得我们不禁流泪。
  • There is abundant pathos in her words.她的话里富有动人哀怜的力量。
27 vendetta
n.世仇,宿怨
  • For years he pursued a vendetta against the Morris family.多年来他一直在寻求向莫里斯家族报世仇。
  • She conducted a personal vendetta against me.她对我有宿仇。
28 fulcrum
n.杠杆支点
  • Give me a fulcrum on which to rest,and I will move the earth.给我一个支承的支点,我就会搬动地球。
  • The decision is the strategic fulcrum of the budget.这一决定是预算案的战略支点。
29 odds
n.让步,机率,可能性,比率;胜败优劣之别
  • The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
  • Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗?
30 everlasting
adj.永恒的,持久的,无止境的
  • These tyres are advertised as being everlasting.广告上说轮胎持久耐用。
  • He believes in everlasting life after death.他相信死后有不朽的生命。
31 lasting
adj.永久的,永恒的;vbl.持续,维持
  • The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
  • We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。
32 constricted
adj.抑制的,约束的
  • Her throat constricted and she swallowed hard. 她喉咙发紧,使劲地咽了一下唾沫。
  • The tight collar constricted his neck. 紧领子勒着他的脖子。
33 liberating
解放,释放( liberate的现在分词 )
  • Revolution means liberating the productive forces. 革命就是为了解放生产力。
  • They had already taken on their shoulders the burden of reforming society and liberating mankind. 甚至在这些集会聚谈中,他们就已经夸大地把改革社会、解放人群的责任放在自己的肩头了。 来自汉英文学 - 家(1-26) - 家(1-26)
34 civilisation
n.文明,文化,开化,教化
  • Energy and ideas are the twin bases of our civilisation.能源和思想是我们文明的两大基石。
  • This opera is one of the cultural totems of Western civilisation.这部歌剧是西方文明的文化标志物之一。
35 vivacity
n.快活,活泼,精神充沛
  • Her charm resides in her vivacity.她的魅力存在于她的活泼。
  • He was charmed by her vivacity and high spirits.她的活泼与兴高采烈的情绪把他迷住了。
36 exuberance
n.丰富;繁荣
  • Her burst of exuberance and her brightness overwhelmed me.她勃发的热情和阳光的性格征服了我。
  • The sheer exuberance of the sculpture was exhilarating.那尊雕塑表现出的勃勃生机让人振奋。
37 narrative
n.叙述,故事;adj.叙事的,故事体的
  • He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
  • Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。
38 purgatory
n.炼狱;苦难;adj.净化的,清洗的
  • Every step of the last three miles was purgatory.最后3英里时每一步都像是受罪。
  • Marriage,with peace,is this world's paradise;with strife,this world's purgatory.和谐的婚姻是尘世的乐园,不和谐的婚姻则是人生的炼狱。
39 prosaic
adj.单调的,无趣的
  • The truth is more prosaic.真相更加乏味。
  • It was a prosaic description of the scene.这是对场景没有想象力的一个描述。
40 affected
adj.不自然的,假装的
  • 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。
41 capitalism
n.资本主义
  • The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
  • Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。
42 consolidating
v.(使)巩固, (使)加强( consolidate的现在分词 );(使)合并
  • These measures are meant for consolidating the system of basic medical care. 这些举措旨在夯实基层医疗体系,让老百姓看大病不必出远门。 来自互联网
  • We are consolidating the Chinese and English versions of our homepage. 我们将为您提供中英文版本一起的主页。 来自互联网
43 melancholy
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的
  • All at once he fell into a state of profound melancholy.他立即陷入无尽的忧思之中。
  • He felt melancholy after he failed the exam.这次考试没通过,他感到很郁闷。
44 irony
n.反语,冷嘲;具有讽刺意味的事,嘲弄
  • She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
  • In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。
45 intensity
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度
  • I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
  • The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。
46 infusion
n.灌输
  • Old families need an infusion of new blood from time to time.古老的家族需要不时地注入新鲜血液。
  • Careful observation of the infusion site is necessary.必须仔细观察输液部位。
47 portraying
v.画像( portray的现在分词 );描述;描绘;描画
  • The artist has succeeded in portraying my father to the life. 那位画家把我的父亲画得惟妙惟肖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Ding Ling was good at portraying figures through careful and refined description of human psychology. 《莎菲女士的日记》是丁玲的成名作,曾引起强烈的社会反响。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说
48 psychology
n.心理,心理学,心理状态
  • She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
  • He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。
49 adolescence
n.青春期,青少年
  • Adolescence is the process of going from childhood to maturity.青春期是从少年到成年的过渡期。
  • The film is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.这部电影讲述了青春期的麻烦和苦恼。
50 hormones
n.大灾难,大祸
  • I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
  • This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。
51 desperately
adv.极度渴望地,绝望地,孤注一掷地
  • He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
  • He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。
52 maiden
n.少女,处女;adj.未婚的,纯洁的,无经验的
  • The prince fell in love with a fair young maiden.王子爱上了一位年轻美丽的少女。
  • The aircraft makes its maiden flight tomorrow.这架飞机明天首航。
53 mere
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过
  • That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
  • It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。
54 obsession
n.困扰,无法摆脱的思想(或情感)
  • I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
  • She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。
55 remarkably
ad.不同寻常地,相当地
  • I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
  • He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。
56 immediate
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的
  • His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
  • We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。
57 mutual
adj.相互的,彼此的;共同的,共有的
  • We must pull together for mutual interest.我们必须为相互的利益而通力合作。
  • Mutual interests tied us together.相互的利害关系把我们联系在一起。
58 acting
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的
  • 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。
59 apprentices
学徒,徒弟( apprentice的名词复数 )
  • They were mere apprentices to piracy. 他们干海盗仅仅是嫩角儿。
  • He has two good apprentices working with him. 他身边有两个好徒弟。
60 bounty
n.慷慨的赠予物,奖金;慷慨,大方;施与
  • He is famous for his bounty to the poor.他因对穷人慷慨相助而出名。
  • We received a bounty from the government.我们收到政府给予的一笔补助金。
61 boundless
adj.无限的;无边无际的;巨大的
  • The boundless woods were sleeping in the deep repose of nature.无边无际的森林在大自然静寂的怀抱中酣睡着。
  • His gratitude and devotion to the Party was boundless.他对党无限感激、无限忠诚。
62 memorable
adj.值得回忆的,难忘的,特别的,显著的
  • This was indeed the most memorable day of my life.这的确是我一生中最值得怀念的日子。
  • The veteran soldier has fought many memorable battles.这个老兵参加过许多难忘的战斗。
63 poetic
adj.富有诗意的,有诗人气质的,善于抒情的
  • His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
  • His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。
64 intriguing
adj.有趣的;迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词);激起…的好奇心
  • These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
  • It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》
65 sonnet
n.十四行诗
  • The composer set a sonnet to music.作曲家为一首十四行诗谱了曲。
  • He wrote a sonnet to his beloved.他写了一首十四行诗,献给他心爱的人。
66 sonnets
n.十四行诗( sonnet的名词复数 )
  • Keats' reputation as a great poet rests largely upon the odes and the later sonnets. 作为一个伟大的诗人,济慈的声誉大部分建立在他写的长诗和后期的十四行诗上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He referred to the manuscript circulation of the sonnets. 他谈到了十四行诗手稿的流行情况。 来自辞典例句
67 prestigious
adj.有威望的,有声望的,受尊敬的
  • The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
  • You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。
68 articulation
n.(清楚的)发音;清晰度,咬合
  • His articulation is poor.他发音不清楚。
  • She spoke with a lazy articulation.她说话慢吞吞的。
69 punctuation
n.标点符号,标点法
  • My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
  • A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。
70 nuptial
adj.婚姻的,婚礼的
  • Their nuptial day hasn't been determined.他们的结婚日还没有决定。
  • I went to the room which he had called the nuptial chamber.我走进了他称之为洞房的房间。
71 garish
adj.华丽而俗气的,华而不实的
  • This colour is bright but not garish.这颜色艳而不俗。
  • They climbed the garish purple-carpeted stairs.他们登上铺着俗艳的紫色地毯的楼梯。
72 mansion
n.大厦,大楼;宅第
  • The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
  • The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。
73 possessed
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的
  • He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
  • He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。
74 revival
n.复兴,复苏,(精力、活力等的)重振
  • The period saw a great revival in the wine trade.这一时期葡萄酒业出现了很大的复苏。
  • He claimed the housing market was showing signs of a revival.他指出房地产市场正出现复苏的迹象。
75 revivals
n.复活( revival的名词复数 );再生;复兴;(老戏多年后)重新上演
  • She adored parades, lectures, conventions, camp meetings, church revivals-in fact every kind of dissipation. 她最喜欢什么游行啦、演讲啦、开大会啦、营火会啦、福音布道会啦--实际上各种各样的娱乐。 来自辞典例句
  • The history of art is the history of revivals. 艺术的历史就是复兴的历史。 来自互联网
76 inevitably
adv.不可避免地;必然发生地
  • In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去,毫无疑问是会散伙的。
  • Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。
77 entirely
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地
  • The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
  • His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。
78 awakening
n.觉醒,醒悟 adj.觉醒中的;唤醒的
  • the awakening of interest in the environment 对环境产生的兴趣
  • People are gradually awakening to their rights. 人们正逐渐意识到自己的权利。
79 influential
adj.有影响的,有权势的
  • He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
  • He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。
80 awakens
v.(使)醒( awaken的第三人称单数 );(使)觉醒;弄醒;(使)意识到
  • The scene awakens reminiscences of my youth. 这景象唤起我年轻时的往事。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
  • The child awakens early in the morning. 这个小孩早晨醒得早。 来自辞典例句
81 awakened
v.(使)醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 );(使)觉醒;弄醒;(使)意识到
  • She awakened to the sound of birds singing. 她醒来听到鸟的叫声。
  • The public has been awakened to the full horror of the situation. 公众完全意识到了这一状况的可怕程度。 来自《简明英汉词典》
82 explicit
adj.详述的,明确的;坦率的;显然的
  • She was quite explicit about why she left.她对自己离去的原因直言不讳。
  • He avoids the explicit answer to us.他避免给我们明确的回答。
83 artistic
adj.艺术(家)的,美术(家)的;善于艺术创作的
  • The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
  • These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。
84 expressiveness
n.富有表现力
  • His painting rose to a fresh expressiveness and revealed a shrewder insight. 他的画富有一种新的表达力,显示出更敏锐的洞察力。
  • The audiences are impressed by the expressiveness of the actors. 演员们的丰富表情给观众留下了深刻的印象。
85 aesthetics
n.(尤指艺术方面之)美学,审美学
  • Sometimes, of course, our markings may be simply a matter of aesthetics. 当然,有时我们的标点符号也许只是个审美的问题。 来自名作英译部分
  • The field of aesthetics presents an especially difficult problem to the historian. 美学领域向历史学家提出了一个格外困难的问题。
86 purely
adv.纯粹地,完全地
  • I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
  • This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。
87 intrigue
vt.激起兴趣,迷住;vi.耍阴谋;n.阴谋,密谋
  • Court officials will intrigue against the royal family.法院官员将密谋反对皇室。
  • The royal palace was filled with intrigue.皇宫中充满了勾心斗角。
88 Soviet
adj.苏联的,苏维埃的;n.苏维埃
  • Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
  • Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。
89 smacked
拍,打,掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 )
  • He smacked his lips but did not utter a word. 他吧嗒两下嘴,一声也不言语。
  • She smacked a child's bottom. 她打孩子的屁股。
90 decadence
n.衰落,颓废
  • The decadence of morals is bad for a nation.道德的堕落对国家是不利的。
  • His article has the power to turn decadence into legend.他的文章具有化破朽为神奇的力量。
91 choreographer
n.编舞者
  • She is a leading professional belly dancer, choreographer, and teacher. 她既是杰出的专业肚皮舞演员,也是舞蹈设计者和老师。 来自辞典例句
  • It'stands aside, my choreographer of grace, and blesses each finger and toe. 它站在一旁,我优雅的舞蹈指导,并祝福每个指尖与脚尖。 来自互联网
92 collaborate
vi.协作,合作;协调
  • The work gets done more quickly when we collaborate.我们一旦合作,工作做起来就更快了。
  • I would ask you to collaborate with us in this work.我们愿意请你们在这项工作中和我们合作。
93 awry
adj.扭曲的,错的
  • She was in a fury over a plan that had gone awry. 计划出了问题,她很愤怒。
  • Something has gone awry in our plans.我们的计划出差错了。
94 socialist
n.社会主义者;adj.社会主义的
  • China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家,也是一个发展中国家。
  • His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。
95 looming
n.上现蜃景(光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼)v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近
  • The foothills were looming ahead through the haze. 丘陵地带透过薄雾朦胧地出现在眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Then they looked up. Looming above them was Mount Proteome. 接着他们往上看,在其上隐约看到的是蛋白质组山。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望
96 ideologically
adv. 意识形态上地,思想上地
  • Ideologically, they have many differences. 在思想意识上,他们之间有许多不同之处。
  • He has slipped back ideologically. 他思想退步了。
97 essentially
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上
  • Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
  • She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。
98 retired
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的
  • The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
  • Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。
99 remarkable
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的
  • She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
  • These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。
100 promptly
adv.及时地,敏捷地
  • He paid the money back promptly.他立即还了钱。
  • She promptly seized the opportunity his absence gave her.她立即抓住了因他不在场给她创造的机会。
101 miserable
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的
  • It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他,这是可耻的。
  • Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。
102 collaborator
n.合作者,协作者
  • I need a collaborator to help me. 我需要个人跟我合作,帮我的忙。
  • His collaborator, Hooke, was of a different opinion. 他的合作者霍克持有不同的看法。
103 attuned
v.使协调( attune的过去式和过去分词 );调音
  • She wasn't yet attuned to her baby's needs. 她还没有熟悉她宝宝的需要。
  • Women attuned to sensitive men found Vincent Lord attractive. 偏爱敏感男子的女人,觉得文森特·洛德具有魅力。 来自辞典例句
104 wrath
n.愤怒,愤慨,暴怒
  • His silence marked his wrath. 他的沉默表明了他的愤怒。
  • The wrath of the people is now aroused. 人们被激怒了。
105 relaxation
n.松弛,放松;休息;消遣;娱乐
  • The minister has consistently opposed any relaxation in the law.部长一向反对法律上的任何放宽。
  • She listens to classical music for relaxation.她听古典音乐放松。
106 reluctance
n.厌恶,讨厌,勉强,不情愿
  • The police released Andrew with reluctance.警方勉强把安德鲁放走了。
  • He showed the greatest reluctance to make a reply.他表示很不愿意答复。
107 acclaim
v.向…欢呼,公认;n.欢呼,喝彩,称赞
  • He was welcomed with great acclaim.他受到十分热烈的欢迎。
  • His achievements earned him the acclaim of the scientific community.他的成就赢得了科学界的赞誉。
108 lauded
v.称赞,赞美( laud的过去式和过去分词 )
  • They lauded the former president as a hero. 他们颂扬前总统为英雄。 来自辞典例句
  • The nervy feats of the mountaineers were lauded. 登山者有勇气的壮举受到赞美。 来自辞典例句
109 condemned
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地
  • The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
  • Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。
110 brilliance
n.光辉,辉煌,壮丽,(卓越的)才华,才智
  • I was totally amazed by the brilliance of her paintings.她的绘画才能令我惊歎不已。
  • The gorgeous costume added to the brilliance of the dance.华丽的服装使舞蹈更加光彩夺目。
111 ambivalence
n.矛盾心理
  • She viewed her daughter's education with ambivalence.她看待女儿的教育问题态度矛盾。
  • She felt a certain ambivalence towards him.她对他的态度有些矛盾。
112 lust
n.性(淫)欲;渴(欲)望;vi.对…有强烈的欲望
  • He was filled with lust for power.他内心充满了对权力的渴望。
  • Sensing the explorer's lust for gold, the chief wisely presented gold ornaments as gifts.酋长觉察出探险者们垂涎黄金的欲念,就聪明地把金饰品作为礼物赠送给他们。
113 throttle
n.节流阀,节气阀,喉咙;v.扼喉咙,使窒息,压
  • These government restrictions are going to throttle our trade.这些政府的限制将要扼杀我们的贸易。
  • High tariffs throttle trade between countries.高的关税抑制了国与国之间的贸易。
114 killing
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财
  • Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
  • Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。
115 intimacy
n.熟悉,亲密,密切关系,亲昵的言行
  • His claims to an intimacy with the President are somewhat exaggerated.他声称自己与总统关系密切,这有点言过其实。
  • I wish there were a rule book for intimacy.我希望能有个关于亲密的规则。
116 tempted
v.怂恿(某人)干不正当的事;冒…的险(tempt的过去分词)
  • I was sorely tempted to complain, but I didn't. 我极想发牢骚,但还是没开口。
  • I was tempted by the dessert menu. 甜食菜单馋得我垂涎欲滴。
117 delusional
妄想的
  • You became delusional and attacked several people trying to escape. 你产生了错觉并攻击了许多人还试图逃走。 来自电影对白
  • He is incoherent, delusional, suffering auditory hallucinations. 他出现无逻辑的,妄想的,幻听的症状。 来自电影对白
118 delusions
n.欺骗( delusion的名词复数 );谬见;错觉;妄想
  • the delusions of the mentally ill 精神病患者的妄想
  • She wants to travel first-class: she must have delusions of grandeur. 她想坐头等舱旅行,她一定自以为很了不起。 来自辞典例句
119 weird
adj.古怪的,离奇的;怪诞的,神秘而可怕的
  • From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来,他好像有点怪。
  • His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。
120 motives
n.动机,目的( motive的名词复数 )
  • to impeach sb's motives 怀疑某人的动机
  • His motives are unclear. 他的用意不明。
121 impel
v.推动;激励,迫使
  • Financial pressures impel the firm to cut back on spending.财政压力迫使公司减少开支。
  • The progress in science and technical will powerfully impel the education's development.科学和技术的进步将有力地推动教育的发展。
122 pristine
adj.原来的,古时的,原始的,纯净的,无垢的
  • He wiped his fingers on his pristine handkerchief.他用他那块洁净的手帕擦手指。
  • He wasn't about to blemish that pristine record.他本不想去玷污那清白的过去。
123 reassuring
a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的,使人放心的
  • He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. 他轻拍了一下她的肩膀让她放心。
  • With a reassuring pat on her arm, he left. 他鼓励地拍了拍她的手臂就离开了。
124 ecstasies
狂喜( ecstasy的名词复数 ); 出神; 入迷; 迷幻药
  • In such ecstasies that he even controlled his tongue and was silent. 但他闭着嘴,一言不发。
  • We were in ecstasies at the thought of going home. 一想到回家,我们高兴极了。
125 consolation
n.安慰,慰问
  • The children were a great consolation to me at that time.那时孩子们成了我的莫大安慰。
  • This news was of little consolation to us.这个消息对我们来说没有什么安慰。
126 rejection
n.拒绝,被拒,抛弃,被弃
  • He decided not to approach her for fear of rejection.他因怕遭拒绝决定不再去找她。
  • The rejection plunged her into the dark depths of despair.遭到拒绝使她陷入了绝望的深渊。
127 jolt
v.(使)摇动,(使)震动,(使)颠簸
  • We were worried that one tiny jolt could worsen her injuries.我们担心稍微颠簸一下就可能会使她的伤势恶化。
  • They were working frantically in the fear that an aftershock would jolt the house again.他们拼命地干着,担心余震可能会使房子再次受到震动。
128 cleanses
弄干净,清洗( cleanse的第三人称单数 )
  • Prayer cleanses the soul, but pain cleanses the body. 祈祷净化灵魂,而痛苦则净化身体。
  • With water and iodine from the closet, he cleanses my lip. 用温水和碘从壁橱里,他洗净我的嘴唇。
129 tricky
adj.狡猾的,奸诈的;(工作等)棘手的,微妙的
  • I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手,你能帮我吗?
  • He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题,只做了个笼统的表述。
130 cosy
adj.温暖而舒适的,安逸的
  • We spent a cosy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。
  • It was so warm and cosy in bed that Simon didn't want to get out.床上温暖而又舒适,西蒙简直不想下床了。
131 ideology
n.意识形态,(政治或社会的)思想意识
  • The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
  • The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。
132 transcripts
n.抄本( transcript的名词复数 );转写本;文字本;副本
  • Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样,都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
  • You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书,你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句
学英语单词
absolute multiple covariant
admittance transformation
antagonistic colour
apomict
autotheist
Batshamba
bedder planter
beetle brows
bhagyanagars
bott stick
brynye
bulk cheap
cakewoman
cancel code
capsulotome
car wash
carbo-load
Cerro
coelorinchus leptorhinus
cologne spirits
common node
condensing character
consecutiveness
Cornell-Coxe test
counter offer firm
crystal field stabilization energies
dark room test
dependents
design work
Dianthus pygmaeus
dihydrobenzaldehyde
dynamic transaction backout
dynamical convection
early maturer
eat sb. out of house and home
electronic goods
Elsholtzia cristata
enshrining
faircurve
fancy-talker
feeling
folded-up
francolin
gingival groove
graue
holinesse
hollow jump
hydatogenetic
icterus obstructivus
imperfecta
in conflict
input device
intrahepatic cholestasis
iopamiro solution
left to right
legs-of-mutton
liquor amnii
loading and unloading equipment
managerial staff
Marvelon
Mednoye
myrmecoclepty
netted iris
over head bit
pickup lag
pipelined processor
polymerization retarder
port controller
QBP
quill brive
ram driving mechanism
RHAWS
run-of-bank stone
scourge
scrap body material
self-lubricating lower track roller
shafting center line
short-toed eagle
Sisson Branch Res.
slaughterers
slingcart
soays
sonfuckers
sousans
specific tenacity
spermaphore
streptococcus buccalis
target sales
testify under oath that...
time frequency filtering
TPFL (two phase flow loop)
Travolta
up-turned
upbuilds
view volume
watt in
weighted mean velocity
white trashy
wilcke
Xenopodidae
xylite
yellowgreen