(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
I'm Shirley Griffith. And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about actor and dancer Gene Kelly. Experts say he did more than anyone else to make dance popular in America.
Eugene Curran Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in nineteen twelve. His mother wanted all five of her children to play music and to dance. Gene was more interested in becoming an athlete. Yet he continued his dance lessons even as he became successful in sports. He said later that he never started out to be a dancer. He wanted to play professional baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. But, he said, he discovered girls liked his dancing.
Gene Kelly graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in nineteen thirty-three. He started teaching at a dancing school. He also directed local plays and performed with his brother Fred.
He went to New York City in nineteen thirty-eight. He was twenty-seven years old. After dancing in a few Broadway shows, he got the lead part in the musical play "Pal Joey" in nineteen forty.
Critics in New York praised Gene Kelly for his ability to sing and dance, and at the same time, create a believable character on stage. Soon, he was offered work in Hollywood. He went to California in nineteen forty-one.
Gene Kelly's real success in movies began in nineteen forty-four. He and director Stanley Donen created a special dance for the movie "Cover Girl." In it, Gene Kelly appears to be dancing with himself. Cameras took pictures of him doing two dances separately. Then the two pictures were placed on a single piece of film. In the movie, two Gene Kellys seem to chase each other up and down steps, threaten each other, and leap over each other's heads.
Gene Kelly said later that he had made a huge discovery in that movie. He said dancing in a movie does not look the way it does on the stage. So he tried to do things differently for the movies. He tried to invent dance movements that were especially created for cameras.
In nineteen forty-five, Gene Kelly first used a method of filming seen often today. Heshared the movie screen with a drawing. In the movie "Anchors Aweigh", he appeared to dance with a cartoon mouse. It cost one hundred thousand dollars to film the eight- minute dance.
Gene Kelly danced first. Then cartoon artists filmed the drawings of the mouse's movements. The two films were combined into one. In the movie, Gene and the mouse are happily dancing and singing together.
Gene Kelly was part of another movie-making first in nineteen forty-nine. It happened in "On the Town." It was the first movie musical to be filmed in a real city. "On the Town" is about three sailors in New York. The movie shows sailors getting off their ship. Then they sing and dance through the city streets.
Musicals were normally filmed on sets built in Hollywood to look like other places. Gene said movie company officials at the time thought filming in the real city was crazy, but it worked. It changed movie musicals forever. Gene Kelly called "On the Town" his favorite movie. It opens with the song "New York, New York":
Some critics say Gene Kelly's greatest success was the nineteen fifty-one movie, "An American in Paris. " It won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Gene won a special Oscar for his singing, dancing, acting and creating dances. The movie ended with a seventeen-minute ballet dance. It showed the effect of the city of Paris on the hero. In the ballet, Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron danced to George Gershwin's "An American in Paris":
Many people think the best Gene Kelly movie of all is "Singin' in the Rain." Experts say "Singin' in the Rain" was the last of the great movie musicals. It was released in nineteen fifty-two. In one part, Gene Kelly sings the title song while he dances. It is considered one of the best movie scenes in history. In it, he shows how happy he is at the idea of being in love. He performs the song and dance while heavy rain falls on a lonely city street.
Gene Kelly appeared in forty-five movies. He danced and sang. He acted in movies that were not musicals. He produced movies and directed them, too. He also directed musical plays on New York City's Broadway. He appeared on television, winning an Emmy Award for the show "Jack and the Beanstalk. "
Gene Kelly was in the three "That's Entertainment" movies. In those movies, he worked with another great dancer, Fred Astaire. Fred Astaire was a movie star when Gene Kelly was just starting to dance.
Kelly said he was too big for the kind of dancing Astaire did so well. He said his kind of athletic dancing was better done in pants and a shirt than in the more formal clothes Astaire wore.
Gene Kelly died on February second, nineteen ninety-six following a series of strokes. He was eighty-three years old. He had been honored many times for his work. He was given awards by the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and the American Film Institute. The government of France gave him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. President Clinton gave him the American National Medal of Arts.
People said he had created a new kind of American dance by mixing modern, tap and ballet in an athletic way. Gene Kelly always said he was not that important. He said he really was just a song and dance man.
重点解析
1.continue 继续
The rain continued to fall all afternoon.
这场雨整整一下午都下个不停。
2.separately 分别地
They were photographed separately and then as a group.
他们先单独照相，然后合影。
3.leap over 跳过
I do not have to leap over hurdles to be happy and content.
我没有必要非要跨越障碍才能感受到开心与自得。
4.In the movie "Anchors Aweigh", he appeared to dance with a cartoon mouse.
appear to 似乎；好像
Many women achievers appear to pose a threat to their male colleagues
许多事业有成的女性似乎对她们的男同事构成了一种威胁。
5.It is considered one of the best movie scenes in history.
It is considered普遍认为
It is considered impolite in the U.S. to eat, drink or chew gum during class.
上课的时候吃零食、喝饮料或者嚼口香糖，这在美国被认为是不礼貌的行为。
6.He said later that he never started out to be a dancer.
start out 一开始打算；本想要
He started out wanting a motorbicycle, and then bought a car.
他本打算要一辆摩托车，可后来却买了一辆汽车。
参考译文
我是雪梨·格里菲斯。我是史蒂夫·恩贝尔。这里是VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。每周我们都会讲述美国历史上的一名重要人物。今天，我们将讲述演员、舞者吉恩·凯利的故事。专家们表示他为让舞蹈在美国流行所做的贡献比任何人都多。
1912年，吉恩·凯利出生于宾夕法尼亚州的匹兹堡。他的母亲想让她的五个孩子都学习音乐和跳舞。吉恩更想成为一名运动员。即使是在体育方面取得成功时，他仍继续上舞蹈课。他之后说道，他从未考虑过做一名舞者。他想加入匹兹堡海盗棒球队打职业棒球，但是，他说他发现女孩子们喜欢他跳舞。1933年，吉恩·凯利毕业于匹兹堡大学。他开始在一所舞蹈学校教跳舞。他还指导当地戏剧并和他的哥哥佛瑞德一起表演。
1938年，他来到纽约市，那时他27岁。在百老汇跳过几场舞后，1940年，他担任音乐剧《酒绿花红》的主演。纽约评论家赞扬了吉恩·凯利唱歌和跳舞的能力，同时，他也在舞台上创造了一个让人信服的角色。很快他就获得了好莱坞的邀约。1941年，他来到利福尼亚州。
吉恩·凯利真正的成功是从1944年的电影开始的。他和斯坦利·多南导演为电影《封面女郎》创造了一种特别的舞蹈。电影中，吉恩·凯利似乎是在和自己跳舞。摄像机分别拍摄了他的两个舞蹈画面。然后再把两组画面放在一个电影片段中。在电影中，两个吉恩·凯利似乎在彼此追逐，相互威胁、跳过对方的头顶。吉恩·凯利之后说过，他在那边电影中有着巨大的发现。他说在电影中跳舞并不是像在舞台上一样。所以他在电影中有不同的尝试。他试着专门为摄像机发明特别舞蹈动作。
1945年，吉恩·凯利首次使用了一种现在常见的拍摄手法。他和一幅图画共享一个电影屏幕。在电影《起锚》中，他和一直卡通老鼠跳舞。拍摄这八分钟的舞蹈一共花费了十万美元。吉恩·凯利先开始跳，然后卡通设计师拍摄老鼠跳舞的图画。两只电影片合成一个。在这部电影中，吉恩和老鼠一起开心地唱歌跳舞。
1949年，吉恩·凯利首次参与另一部电影制片。这部电影是《锦城春色》。这是首部在一座真的城市拍摄的音乐剧电影。电影讲述的是纽约三名水手的故事。电影展示水手们下了船，然后唱着歌跳着舞穿过城市街道。音乐剧一般都是在好莱坞搭建的场景中拍摄。吉恩说那时电影公司的领导认为在真正的城市里拍摄电影是很疯狂的，但却很成功。这次拍摄永远改变了电影音乐剧。吉恩·凯利称《锦城春色》是他最爱的电影。开场曲是《New York, New York》
一些影评人说吉恩·凯利最伟大的成功是1951年的电影《一个美国人在巴黎》。电影获得八座奥斯卡奖，包括最佳电影奖。吉恩因其唱歌、舞蹈、表演和舞蹈创作而获得了一座特别奥斯卡奖。电影的结尾是一段17分钟的芭蕾舞。其展现了巴黎这座城市对主人翁的影响。在这段芭蕾中，吉恩·凯利和莱斯利·卡侬伴着乔治·格什温创作的《一个美国人在巴黎》起舞。
很多人都认为吉恩·凯利最好的电影是《雨中曲》。专家表示《雨中曲》是最后一部最伟大音乐剧电影。电影于1952年上映。在一个桥段中，吉恩·凯利一边跳舞一边唱着电影主题曲。这个桥段被认为是历史上最棒的电影场景之一。在这个场景中，他展现出了恋爱时的开心。他走在下着大雨的孤独街道上，唱着歌跳着舞。
吉恩·凯利出演过45部电影。他唱歌跳舞，也出演非音乐剧电影。他参与指导和制作电影，也在纽约市的百老汇指导音乐剧。他上过电视，因《杰克与豌豆》而获得过艾美奖。吉恩·凯利出演过三部《娱乐世界》电影。在那些电影中，他和另一名伟大舞者弗雷德·阿斯泰尔合作。当吉恩·凯利刚开始跳舞的时候，弗雷德·阿斯泰尔已经是一个电影明星了。凯利说，他的体格太大了，有些舞种不如阿斯泰尔跳的好。他说他跳的那种运动型舞蹈更适合穿着裤子和T恤跳，而不是适合阿斯泰尔穿的那些衣服。
在经历过几次中风后，吉恩·凯利于1996年2月2日去世，享年83岁。他的作品获得多次荣誉。他在华盛顿肯尼迪中心和美国电影学院都获过奖。法国政府授予他法国荣誉军团勋章。克林顿总统为他颁发美国国家艺术奖章。人们都说他以一种运动方式，将现代舞、踢踏舞以及芭蕾舞相混合，创造出了一种新的美国舞蹈。吉恩·凯利总说自己并没有那么重要。他说，他只是一个演唱者和舞者而已。
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