2017英语四六级备考小憩:美文鉴赏之Eric Whitacre在TED演讲(1)

英语自学网

　　2017年6月英语四六级考试报名已接近尾声，文都小编希望各位考生在报名备考的同时，也不要忘记英语自身的魅力。现下就为大家奉上美文鉴赏之Eric Whitacre在TED演讲：一个2000人的虚拟唱诗班高声歌唱(第一篇)。【2017英语四六级报名时间】

2017033105150466738.jpg

　　I wanted to be a rock star. I dreamed of it, and that's all I dreamed of. To be more accurate, I wanted to be a pop star. This was in the late '80s. And mostly I wanted to be the fifth member of Depeche Mode or Duran Duran. They wouldn't have me. I didn't read music, but I played synthesizers and drum machines. And I grew up in this little farming town in northern Nevada. And I was certain that's what my life would be.
　　我想成为一名摇滚歌星。 这就是我的梦想，我梦想的一切。 更准确的说，我想成为一名流行歌星。 那是在八十年代末。 我主要是想成为 流行尖端或杜兰杜兰（两个著名乐队）的第五名成员。 但没成功。 我不识谱，但我会用合成器和电子鼓。 我在内华达州北部的一个农业小镇长大。 我很确定我的生活会是怎样。
　　And when I went to college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas when I was 18, I was stunned to find that there was not a Pop Star 101, or even a degree program for that interest. And the choir conductor there knew that I sang and invited me to come and join the choir. And I said, "Yes, I would love to do that. It sounds great." And I left the room and said, "No way." The choir people in my high school were pretty geeky, and there was no way I was going to have anything to do with those people. And about a week later, a friend of mine came to me and said, "Listen, you've got to join choir. At the end of the semester, we're taking a trip to Mexico, all expenses paid. And the soprano section is just full of hot girls." And so I figured for Mexico and babes, I could do just about anything.
　　去拉斯维加斯的内华达大学上学时 我18岁， 我吃惊地发现 那儿没有流行歌星基础课程， 甚至也没有与此相关的学位。 那儿的唱诗班指挥 知道我会唱歌 并邀请我加入唱诗班。 我回答道，“好的，我非常愿意加入。听起来非常不错。” 接着我离开了房间，说到，“没门。” 我高中学校唱诗班里的人都非常怪异， 我可不想与这种人有任何关联。 大约一周后，我一位朋友找到我，对我说， “听着，你必须加入唱诗班。 在这学期末，我们一起去墨西哥旅行， 所有费用全免。 而且女高音部全是辣妹。” 因此因为墨西哥和美女们，我想通了， 我能为此做任何事。
　　And I went to my first day in choir, and I sat down with the basses and sort of looked over my shoulder to see what they were doing. They opened their scores, the conductor gave the downbeat, and boom, they launched into the Kyrie from the "Requiem" by Mozart. In my entire life I had seen in black and white, and suddenly everything was in shocking Technicolor. The most transformative experience I've ever had -- in that single moment, hearing dissonance and harmony and people singing, people together, the shared vision. And I felt for the first time in my life that I was part of something bigger than myself. And there were a lot of cute girls in the soprano section, as it turns out.
　　我去唱诗班的第一天， 与坐在了男低音部 仔细观察他们在做什么。 他们打开乐谱，指挥一挥指挥棒， 轰隆一声，他们开始演唱 莫扎特“安魂曲”中的求怜经。 在此之前我的世界是黑白的， 而突然所有的事物都变得绚丽多彩。 这是我经历过的最具变革性的经历 -- 在那一刻，听着和谐的不和谐的歌声 人们在歌唱，人们拥有共同的愿景。 我人生中第一次感受到 我是比自身更大的事物的一部分。 事实证明，在女高音部有许多可爱的女孩儿。
　　I decided to write a piece for choir a couple of years later as a gift to this conductor who had changed my life. I had learned to read music by then, or slowly learning to read music. And that piece was published, and then I wrote another piece, and that got published. And then I started conducting, and I ended up doing my master's degree at the Juilliard School. And I find myself now in the unlikely position of standing in front of all of you as a professional classical composer and conductor.
　　在一两年后我决定为 唱诗班写一篇作品， 作为礼物献给这名 改变了我人生的指挥。 我在那时学会了阅读五线谱，或者说慢慢地学会了读五线谱。 这一作品发行了， 然后我又写了一个，也发行了。 接着我开始指挥乐队， 我在茱莉亚音乐学院获得硕士学位。 我发现我现在作为一名专业古典作曲者和指挥 站在各位面前还是让我有些恍惚。
　　Well a couple of years ago, a friend of mine emailed me a link, a YouTube link, and said, "You have got to see this." And it was this young woman who had posted a fan video to me, singing the soprano line to a piece of mine called "Sleep."
　　几年前， 我的一个朋友email给我 一个链接，一个YouTube的链接， 说道，“你必须看看这个。” 那是名年轻的女性上传的一段献给我的视频， 演唱的是我的 一部女高音作品，名为“睡眠”。