新视野大学英语第四册课文原文

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1、1AAn artist who seeks fame is like a dog chasing his own tail who, when he captures it, does not know what else to do but to continue chasing it.The cruelty of success is that it often leads those who seek such success to participate in their own destruction.Dont quit your day job! is advice frequen

2、tly given by understandably pessimistic family members and friends to a budding artist who is trying hard to succeed.The conquest of fame is difficult at best, and many end up emotionally if not financially bankrupt.Still, impure motives such as the desire for worshipping fans and praise from peers

3、may spur the artist on.The lure of drowning in fames imperial glory is not easily resisted.Those who gain fame most often gain it as a result of exploiting their talent for singing, dancing, painting, or writing, etc.They develop a style that agents market aggressively to hasten popularity, and thei

4、r ride on the express elevator to the top is a blur.Most would be hard-pressed to tell you how they even got there.Artists cannot remain idle, though.When the performer, painter or writer becomes bored, their work begins to show a lack of continuity in its appeal and it becomes difficult to sustain

5、the attention of the public.After their enthusiasm has dissolved, the public simply moves on to the next flavor of the month.Artists who do attempt to remain current by making even minute changes to their style of writing, dancing or singing, run a significant risk of losing the audiences favor.The

6、public simply discounts styles other than those for which the artist has become famous.Famous authors stylesa Tennessee Williams play or a plot by Ernest Hemingway or a poem by Robert Frost or T.S. Eliotare easily recognizable.The same is true of painters like Monet, Renoir, or Dali and moviemakers

7、like Hitchcock, Fellini, Spielberg, Chen Kaige or Zhang Yimou.Their distinct styles marked a significant change in form from others and gained them fame and fortune.However, they paid for it by giving up the freedom to express themselves with other styles or forms.Fames spotlight can be hotter than

8、a tropical junglea fraud is quickly exposed, and the pressure of so much attention is too much for most to endure.It takes you out of yourself: You must be what the public thinks you are, not what you really are or could be.The performer, like the politician, must often please his or her audiences b

9、y saying things he or she does not mean or fully believe.One drop of fame will likely contaminate the entire well of a mans soul, and so an artist who remains true to himself or herself is particularly amazing.You would be hard-pressed to underline many names of those who have not compromised and st

10、ill succeeded in the fame game.An example, the famous Irish writer Oscar Wilde, known for his uncompromising behavior, both social and sexual, to which the public objected, paid heavily for remaining true to himself.The mother of a young man Oscar was intimate with accused him at a banquet in front

11、of his friends and fans of sexually influencing her son.Extremely angered by her remarks, he sued the young mans mother, asserting that she had damaged his good name.He should have hired a better attorney, though.The judge did not second Wildes call to have the woman pay for damaging his name, and i

12、nstead fined Wilde.He ended up in jail after refusing to pay, and even worse, was permanently expelled from the wider circle of public favor.When things were at their worst, he found that no one was willing to risk his or her name in his defense.His price for remaining true to himself was to be left

13、 alone when he needed his fans the most.Curiously enough, it is those who fail that reap the greatest reward: freedom!They enjoy the freedom to express themselves in unique and original ways without fear of losing the support of fans.Failed artists may find comfort in knowing that many great artists

14、 never found fame until well after they had passed away or in knowing that they did not sell out.They may justify their failure by convincing themselves their genius is too sophisticated for contemporary audiences.Single-minded artists who continue their quest for fame even after failure might also

15、like to know that failure has motivated some famous people to work even harder to succeed.Thomas Wolfe, the American novelist, had his first novel Look Homeward, Angel rejected 39 times before it was finally published.Beethoven overcame his father, who did not believe that he had any potential as a

16、musician, to become the greatest musician in the world.And Pestalozzi, the famous Swiss educator in the 19th century, failed at every job he ever had until he came upon the idea of teaching children and developing the fundamental theories to produce a new form of education.Thomas Edison was thrown o

17、ut of school in the fourth grade, because he seemed to his teacher to be quite dull.Unfortunately for most people, however, failure is the end of their struggle, not the beginning.I say to those who desperately seek fame and fortune: good luck.But alas, you may find that it was not what you wanted.T

18、he dog who catches his tail discovers that it is only a tail.The person who achieves success often discovers that it does more harm than good.So instead of trying so hard to achieve success, try to be happy with who you are and what you do.Try to do work that you can be proud of.Maybe you wont be fa

19、mous in your own lifetime, but you may create better art.1BOne summer day my father sent me to buy some wire and fencing to put around our barn to pen up the bull.At 16, I liked nothing better than getting behind the wheel of our truck and driving into town on the old mill road.Water from the mills

20、wheel sprayed in the sunshine making a rainbow over the canal and I often stopped there on my way to bathe and cool off for a spellnatural air conditioning.The sun was so hot, I did not need a towel as I was dry by the time I climbed the clay banks and crossed the road ditch to the truck.Just before

21、 town, the road shot along the sea where I would collect seashells or gather seaweed beneath the giant crane unloading the ships.This trip was different, though.My father had told me Id have to ask for credit at the store.It was 1976, and the ugly shadow of racism was still a fact of life.Id seen my

22、 friends ask for credit and then stand, head down, while a storeowner enquired into whether they were good for it.Many store clerks watched black youths with the assumption that they were thieves every time they even went into a grocery.My family was honest.We paid our debts.But just before harvest,

23、 all the money flowed out.There were no new deposits at the bank.Cash was short.At Davis Brothers General Store, Buck Davis stood behind the register, talking to a middle-aged farmer.Buck was a tall, weathered man in a red hunting shirt and I nodded as I passed him on my way to the hardware section

24、to get a container of nails, a coil of binding wire and fencing.I pulled my purchases up to the counter and placed the nails in the tray of the scale, saying carefully, I need to put this on credit.My brow was moist with nervous sweat and I wiped it away with the back of my arm.The farmer gave me an

25、 amused, cynical look, but Bucks face didnt change.Sure, he said easily, reaching for his booklet where he kept records for credit.I gave a sigh of relief.Your daddy is always good for it.He turned to the farmer.This here is one of James Williams sons.They broke the mold when they made that man.The

26、farmer nodded in a neighborly way.I was filled with pride.James Williams son.Those three words had opened a door to an adults respect and trust.As I heaved the heavy freight into the bed of the truck, I did so with ease, feeling like a stronger man than the one that left the farm that morning.I had

27、discovered that a good name could furnish a capital of good will of great value.Everyone knew what to expect from a Williams: a decent person who kept his word and respected himself too much to do wrong.My great grandfather may have been sold as a slave at auction, but this was not an excuse to do w

28、rong to others.Instead my father believed the only way to honor him was through hard work and respect for all men.We childreneight brothers and two sisterscould enjoy our good name, unearned, unless and until we did something to lose it.We had an interest in how one another behaved and our own actio

29、ns as well, lest we destroy the name my father had created.Our good name was and still is the glue that holds our family tight together.The desire to honor my fathers good name spurred me to become the first in our family to go to university.I worked my way through college as a porter at a four-star

30、 hotel. Eventually, that good name provided the initiative to start my own successful public relations firm in Washington, D.C.America needs to restore a sense of shame in its neighborhoods.Doing drugs, spending all your money at the liquor store, stealing, or getting a young woman pregnant with no

31、intent to marry her should induce a deep sense of embarrassment.But it doesnt.Nearly one out of three births in America is to a single mother. Many of these children will grow up without the security and guidance they need to become honorable members of society.Once the social ties and mutual obliga

32、tions of the family melt away, communities fall apart.While the population has increased only 40 percent since 1960, violent crime in America has increased a staggering 550 percentand weve become exceedingly used to it. Teen drug use has also risen.In one North Carolina County, police arrested 73 st

33、udents from 12 secondary schools for dealing drugs, some of them right in the classroom.Meanwhile, the small signs of civility and respect that hold up civilization are vanishing from schools, stores and streets.Phrases like yes, maam, no, sir, thank you and please get a yawn from kids today who are

34、 encouraged instead by cursing on television and in music.They simply shrug off the rewards of a good name.The good name passed on by my father and maintained to this day by my brothers and sisters and me is worth as much now as ever.Even today, when I stop into Buck Davis shop or my hometown barber

35、shop for a haircut, I am still greeted as James Williams son.My familys good name did pave the way for me.2A He was born in a poor area of South London.He wore his mothers old red stockings cut down for ankle socks.His mother was temporarily declared mad.Dickens might have created Charlie Chaplins c

36、hildhood.But only Charlie Chaplin could have created the great comic character of the Tramp, the little man in rags who gave his creator permanent fame.Other countriesFrance, Italy, Spain, even Japanhave provided more applause (and profit) where Chaplin is concerned than the land of his birth.Chapli

37、n quit Britain for good in 1913 when he journeyed to America with a group of performers to do his comedy act on the stage, where talent scouts recruited him to work for Mack Sennett, the king of Hollywood comedy films.Sad to say, many English people in the 1920s and 1930s thought Chaplins Tramp a bi

38、t, well, crude.Certainly middle-class audiences did; the working-class audiences were more likely to clap for a character who revolted against authority, using his wicked little cane to trip it up, or aiming the heel of his boot for a well-placed kick at its broad rear.All the same, Chaplins comic b

39、eggar didnt seem all that English or even working-class.English tramps didnt sport tiny moustaches, huge pants or tail coats: European leaders and Italian waiters wore things like that.Then again, the Tramps quick eye for a pretty girl had a coarse way about it that was considered, well, not quite n

40、ice by English audiencesthats how foreigners behaved, wasnt it?But for over half of his screen career, Chaplin had no screen voice to confirm his British nationality.Indeed, it was a headache for Chaplin when he could no longer resist the talking movies and had to find the right voice for his Tramp.

41、He postponed that day as long as possible: In Modern Times in 1936, the first film in which he was heard as a singing waiter, he made up a nonsense language which sounded like no known nationality.He later said he imagined the Tramp to be a college-educated gentleman whod come down in the world.But

42、if hed been able to speak with an educated accent in those early short comedies, its doubtful if he would have achieved world fame.And the English would have been sure to find it odd. No one was certain whether Chaplin did it on purpose but this helped to bring about his huge success.He was an immen

43、sely talented man, determined to a degree unusual even in the ranks of Hollywood stars.His huge fame gave him the freedomand, more importantly, the moneyto be his own master.He already had the urge to explore and extend a talent he discovered in himself as he went along.It cant be me. Is that possib

44、le? How extraordinary, is how he greeted the first sight of himself as the Tramp on the screen.But that shock roused his imagination.Chaplin didnt have his jokes written into a script in advance; he was the kind of comic who used his physical senses to invent his art as he went along.Lifeless object

45、s especially helped Chaplin make contact with himself as an artist.He turned them into other kinds of objects.Thus, a broken alarm clock in the movie The Pawnbroker became a sick patient undergoing surgery; boots were boiled in his film The Gold Rush and their soles eaten with salt and pepper like p

46、rime cuts of fish (the nails being removed like fish bones).This physical transformation, plus the skill with which he executed it again and again, is surely the secret of Chaplins great comedy.He also had a deep need to be lovedand a corresponding fear of being betrayed.The two were hard to combine

47、 and sometimesas in his early marriagesthe collision between them resulted in disaster.Yet even this painfully-bought self-knowledge found its way into his comic creations.The Tramp never loses his faith in the flower girl wholl be waiting to walk into the sunset with him; while the other side of Ch

48、aplin makes Monsieur Verdoux, the French wife killer, into a symbol of hatred for women.Its a relief to know that life eventually gave Charlie Chaplin the stability and happiness it had earlier denied him.In Oona ONeill Chaplin, he found a partner whose stability and affection spanned the 37 years a

49、ge difference between them, which had seemed so threatening, that when the official who was marrying them in 1942 turned to the beautiful girl of 17 whod given notice of their wedding date, he said, And where is the young man? Chaplin, then 54, had cautiously waited outside.As Oona herself was the c

50、hild of a large family with its own problems, she was well prepared for the battle that Chaplins life became as many unfounded rumors surrounded them bothand, later on, she was the center of calm in the quarrels that Chaplin sometimes sparked in his own large family of talented children.Chaplin died

51、 on Christmas Day 1977.A few months later, a couple of almost comic body thieves stole his body from the family burial chamber and held it for money.The police recovered it with more efficiency than Mack Sennetts clumsy Keystone Cops would have done, but one cant help feeling Chaplin would have rega

52、rded this strange incident as a fitting memorialhis way of having the last laugh on a world to which he had given so many.2B Modest and soft-spoken, Agatha Muthoni Mbogo, 24, is hardly the image of a revolutionary.Yet, six months ago, she did a most revolutionary thing: She ran for mayor of Embu, Ke

53、nya, and won.Ms. Mbogos victory was even more surprising because she was voted in by her colleagues on the District Council, all men.For the thousands of women in this farming area two hours northeast of Nairobi, Ms. Mbogo suddenly became a symbol of the increasingly powerful political force women h

54、ave become in Kenya and across Africa.Ms. Mbogo launched her dream of a career in politics in 1992 by running for the Embu Council, facing the obstacles that often trouble African women running for political office.She had little money.She had no political experience.She faced ridiculous questions a

55、bout her personal life.My opponent kept insisting that I was going to get married to somebody in another town and move away, Ms. Mbogo said.Ms. Mbogo also faced misunderstanding among the towns women, many of whom initially were unwilling to vote for her.She became an ambassador for womens political

56、 rights, giving speeches before womens groups and going from door to door, handbag in hand, spending hours at a time giving a combination of speech and government lesson.I was delighted when she won the election, because men elected her, said Lydiah Kimani, an Embu farmer and political activist.It w

57、as the answer to my prayers because it seemed to be a victory over this idea that women cant lead.Education of African women has become a top priority for political activists.One organization has held dozens of workshops in rural Kenya to help women understand the nations constitution and the proced

58、ures and theory behind a democratic political system.One veteran female political activist said that many women had not been taught the basics of political participation.They are taught to vote for the one who gives you a half kilo sack of flour, 200 grams of salt, or a loaf of bread during the camp

59、aign, said the activist.Women politicians and activists say they are fighting deeply-held cultural traditions.Those traditions teach that African women cook, clean, take care of children, sow and harvest crops and support their husbands.They typically do not inherit land, divorce their husband, cont

60、rol their finances or hold political office.Yet, political activity among Kenyan women is not a new phenomenon.During the struggle for independence in the 1950s, Kenyan women often secretly provided troops with weapons and spied on the positions of colonial forces.But after independence, leaders jea

61、lous to protect their power shut them out of politics, a situation repeated across the continent.Today, men still have the upper hand.Women in Kenya make up 60 percent of the people who vote, but only 3 percent of the National Assembly.No Kenyan woman has ever held a cabinet post.Against that backgr

62、ound, Agatha Mbogo began her political career.After winning her council seat, she declined a spot on the education and social services committee after a colleague called it a womans committee.She instead joined the town planning committee, a much more visible assignment.Then last year, she decided t

63、o challenge Embus mayor, a veteran politician.Ms. Mbogo said she had become frustrated because the donor groups that provide substantial aid to Kenyas rural areas did not want to come here.We werent seeing things done for the community, she said.It was a scandalthe donors money seemed to be going to

64、 individuals.After a fierce campaign, the council elected her, 7 to 6.She said women in Embu celebrated.Men were puzzled; some were hostile.They asked, How could all of those men vote for a woman? she recalled.Ms. Mbogo has not met with the kinds of abuse that other female politicians have been subjected to, however.Some have said their supporters are sometimes attacked with clubs after rallies.Last June, Kenyan police attempted to break up a womens political meeting northwest of Nairobi, insisting it wa