導語:課文是指教科書中的正文,區別于注釋和習題等,一般在語文或地理中出現。英語,有對話和短文。以下是大二英語課文翻譯b版的內容,希望你們喜歡!
大二英語課文翻譯b版
Disney Mirrors American Culture
Last fall, the Walt Disney Company did something rare: it admitted defeat in its fight to build a history theme park in Virginia.The park was going to be called "Disney's America".
Some people might be wondering, however, if Disney lost the battle but won the war, as it seems everyone is living in Disney's America these days.
With its purchase of Capital Cities/ABC Inc. last month, the company founded by Walter Elias Disney in 1923 deepened its claim on American culture. In fact, it would be hard to find another company so widely respected—even loved—by Americans.
Americans rush out to see Disney films, and then replay them—on videotapes; they read Disney books to their children;they watch Disney shows on Disney TV;they make trips to Disneyland and Disney World, where they stay in Disney hotels and eat Disney food;Americans buy Disney products at Disney stores, and listen to Disney records of Disney songs.
The world of Disney is becoming anything but small.
All this makes some people more than a little upset. Harold Bloom, a professor at Yale University, provides an examination of the cultural history of Western society.
"At the end of this road lies cultural uniformity of the worst kind. It's just terrible."
This is becoming a popular opinion in universities around the world.
"Disney products," said Paul Fussell, a professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, "have always seemed to me seriously sub-adult."
Those who oppose Disney (and there are many) see its films and by-products as sexist, racist and as simpler, cheered-up accounts of American history and folklore.
"There's a kind of protection at work here," said Henry Giroux, a professor at Penn State University. Like all those opposed to Disney, he can list, in detail, Disney's many crimes against culture:he is very angry, for example, about the treatment of American Indians in Pocahontas.
"I mean, the entire history of what happened to the Indians, which some people would call the murder of their people, is sort of played out as a love story," he said angrily.
Giroux said he believes that Disney has become a basic educator of America's children, most of whom will be able to perform every word of The Lion King long before they even learn US President Abraham Lincoln's historic Gettysburg Address.
However, even the most strongly opposed are quick to note that Disney has many positive values—cheerfulness, good-hearted fun, and a tradition of artistic quality—that help explain its success. Critical or not, most of those who oppose the company are Disney customers themselves.
迪斯尼——美國文化的一面鏡子
去年秋天,沃爾特·迪斯尼公司做了一件罕見的事情:它承認自己爭取在弗吉尼亞州建造一個歷史主題公園的努力失敗了。公園原本打算命名為“迪斯尼美國公園”。不過,有些人會這樣想,迪斯尼只不過是輸了一次戰斗,但贏了一場戰爭,這是因為,這些年來人人似乎都生活在迪斯尼的美國。
隨著迪斯尼公司在上月購買了美國的廣播公司大都會電視臺網之后,這家由沃爾特·伊萊亞斯·迪斯尼在1923年創建的公司進一步代表了美國文化。確實,很難再找出另一家公司像迪斯尼這樣受到美國人如此普遍的尊敬,甚至可以說普遍的熱愛。
美國人爭著去看迪斯尼拍的電影,然后再重看電影錄像;他們給孩子念迪斯尼的故事;他們在迪斯尼電視頻道上觀看迪斯尼節目;他們去迪斯尼樂園和迪斯尼世界游玩,在那兒他們住的是迪斯尼飯店,吃的是迪斯尼食品;美國人還在迪斯尼商店里購買迪斯尼商品,耳邊聽的是迪斯尼歌曲唱片。
迪斯尼的世界可真不小??!
這一切讓有些人感到憂心忡忡。耶魯大學的教授哈羅德·布盧姆對西方社會的文化歷史做了一番審視。
“這條路走到最后的結果便是再糟糕不過的文化單一性。實在太可怕了?!? 這一觀點在世界各地的大學越來越受到認同。 “迪斯尼產品,”賓州大學的英語教授保羅·富塞爾說,“在我看來實在很幼稚?!?/p>
反對迪斯尼的人(而且為數不少)認為迪斯尼電影及其副產品充滿了性別歧視和種族歧視,是美國歷史及民間傳說的簡化版、輕松版。
“這其中有一種偏袒護短的傾向,”賓州州立大學的一位教授亨利·吉羅說。和其他迪斯尼的反對者一樣,他詳細地列舉了迪斯尼所犯的文化罪行:比如,迪斯尼在《風中奇緣》一片中對美國印第安人那段悲慘歷史的種種處理手法就令他非常氣憤。
“我的意思是,印第安人遭遇的整個歷史,有人稱之為對印第安人的屠殺,而在該片中卻被演繹成一個愛情故事,” 他憤憤不平地說。
吉羅認為迪斯尼已經成了美國孩子的主要教育者,這些孩子早在學習美國總統亞伯拉罕·林肯那篇具有歷史意義的葛底斯堡演說之前,大多數就能背誦《獅子王》中的每句臺詞了。
盡管如此,最強烈的反對者也很快指出了迪斯尼具有的諸多價值:輕松愉快、善意風趣、優良的藝術傳統,這些都是迪斯尼成功的原因。不管是否存心挑剔,反對迪斯尼公司的那些人自己大多也是迪斯尼的顧客。
Heavy Body, Not Heavy Heart
In pictures from college I was thin.I worked full time, went to school full time, smoked, and lived off fast food and soft drinks.Friends say that I don't look like myself in those pictures.I looked ill, sad, and unhealthy.
Now, at a weight considered to be dangerously high by medical charts, I live better than ever. I have given up smoking, and I eat a lot of vegetables; I enjoy walking, swimming and dancing classes.I exercise and eat well because I love living, not because I want to lose weight.My doctor tells me I am healthy, and this is much more important than being thin.Studies show that overweight people who exercise have a lower death rate than "normal" weight people who do not.
Negative attitudes toward fat people begin in childhood. One study showed that, as early as nursery school, children liked pictures of disabled children of similar ages better than those of fat children.Similarly, a study of college students said they would rather marry a drug user, a thief, or a blind person than someone who was fat.These attitudes create discrimination that affects fat people in every aspect of their lives, including money matters.In fact, overweight, white women usually earn less than thin, white women—24 percent less, according to one study. People often justify their judgments about fat people by saying that people choose to be fat. Choose?Who would choose life as a fat person in this weight-obsessed culture?There are many false ideas about fat people in society: that all fat people have eating disorders or emotional or mental issues;that if they really wanted to lose weight they could.
In reality, however, some people are naturally fat. How a person is born is simply science, not a comment on someone's character.The Center for Disease Control reports that 78 percent of American women are trying hard to lose weight, and at an amazing failure rate—95 percent get back what they've lost within two to five years.
The often-heard comment of "you have such a pretty face" does not please me because of all that's not said: "If you'd just lose the weight you'd be beautiful." Beauty is a taught concept and the cultural standards for beauty change constantly.
Later in life, I was happy to learn that some cultures have very different standards of beauty. While I was visiting the British Virgin Islands, a local man invited me to be in a picture with him on the beach.I asked, "Why me? There are women who look like models here."
"Bones are for dogs," he said with a smile. "Meat is for men."
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