文化推荐

Three Cups of Tea

《三杯茶》

Two years after being published, this story of Central Asian philanthropy continues to top the American bestseller lists. Greg Mortenson used to be a mountain climber until, on an expedition to try and top K2 in memory of his dead sister, he found himself sick and exhausted on the return trip.Collapsing in a small Pakistani village called Korphe, the local people nursed him back to health.In gratitude, he set out to raise funds to build schools to help the village and others in the region, with an especial eye towards providing education for young girls. Women are marginalized in most Central Asian societies, which are highly patriarchal and often misogynistic, and Mortenson believes that only by giving them the chance to learn can the region ever be lifted out of backwardness and poverty.

虽然问世已经两年，但这部有关中亚慈善故事的书仍居美国畅销书排行榜前列。格雷格•莫特森曾是位登山爱好者，有一次他试图征服乔戈里峰以纪念其亡妹，但在返回途中筋疲力尽而病倒。他在巴基斯坦一个名叫Korphe的小村子倒下，经过当地人精心照顾后恢复健康。为表示感谢，他开始集资建校，以帮助村里和当地其他村落，尤其注重让女孩受教育。中亚大多数地区严重重男轻女，妇女被边缘化，莫特森相信，只有给她们学习的机会，该地区才能摆脱落后与贫困。

The book is Mortenson's story, but is largely written by an admiring journalist, David Relin. Its heart is undoubtedly in the right place, and the scenes of children giving access to books and teachers and solid classrooms for the first time are deeply touching, while Mortenson's adventures among the mountains of Pakistan and elsewhere are pretty interesting. The writing, however, is lacklustre; melodramatic without being truly exciting, and very few of the many characters Mortenson meets come to life, although the cultural details can be intriguing - the book's title comes from a local proverb that 'The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family.' Still, the message of hope and peace has struck a chord with the American public, and the details of life among the very poor can hit hard for those of us used to a life of comfort.

该书讲述的是莫特森的故事，但主要由赞赏其行为的记者大卫•雷林撰写。本书主旨高尚，孩子们第一次接触到书、老师和坚固的教室时的场景感人至深，而莫特森在巴基斯坦山区和其它地方的冒险也趣味盎然。不过文笔沉闷呆板；带有戏剧性的传奇色彩，但并非激动人心，莫特森所遇许多人物中栩栩如生的屈指可数，但是文化细节引人入胜——书名来自当地谚语“第一次跟巴尔蒂人喝茶的时候，你是陌生人。第二次喝的时候，你是贵客。第三次喝的时候，你就成了自家人。”不过，希望与和平的宗旨打动了美国读者，穷困百姓生活的细节也震撼了过惯安逸生活的我们。

The Shack

《木屋》

Christian fiction sells amazing amounts in the USA, despite being more or less ignored by the wider publishing industry. Fortunately, this latest example is a cut above such vile, terrible books as the Left Behind series that sold millions of copies in the 1990s; it's about forgiveness, love, and the reality of suffering. Published by a small house, it became a word-of-mouth hit.

基督教小说在美国的销量惊人，不过在更广泛的范围内，是比较不受出版业重视的。幸好，这部最新作品优于诸如上世纪90年代卖出数百万册的《末世迷踪》系列等粗制滥造之作；《木屋》的主题是宽恕、爱和受苦的现实。虽然由一家名不见经传的出版社印刷，但口碑相传，大受欢迎。

The story deals with Mackenzie Philips, or 'Mac,' a father of five who loses his youngest daughter, Missy, to a serial killer. Sinking into a deep depression, he receives a note from 'Papa' - even though his own father is long dead - inviting him to come to the shack in the woods where his daughter was murdered. Taking up the invitation, he finds himself greeted by the three members of the Christian Holy Trinity - Jesus, a Mideastern carpenter, the Holy Spirit, who manifests as a young Asian woman, and God, who appears as a black woman who calls herself 'Papa.' Mac discusses forgiveness, Heaven, and religion with them, and 'Papa' eventually shows him where his daughter's body is buried, leading to the arrest of her killer.

书中，麦肯赛•菲利普（“麦可”）有5个孩子，最小的女儿米希被一个连环杀手杀害。之后，麦可极度消沉沮丧，但有一天，他收到“爸爸”的一张便笺，邀请他去女儿遇害的森林里的一座木屋，可他父亲早已去世。麦可接受邀请，迎接他的是三一圣人——耶稣（化身成美国中东部的木匠）、圣灵（化身为一个年轻的亚洲女人）和上帝（化身为一个黑人妇女，自称“爸爸”）。麦可同他们讨论了宽恕、天堂和宗教,“爸爸”后来给他指出了其女儿尸体的埋藏地，凶手最终落入法网。

While the sentiments of the book are certainly touching, and its message of hope and redemption a sound one, it's terribly written, and the spiritual and ethical content is remarkably banal. This hasn't stopped it being important to many, as the testimonies at the end of the book show, but its hardly a literary classic. Still, for those looking for a quick, easy read or an introduction to the basic tenets of a liberal version of American Christianity, it may be helpful.

该书真挚感人，传递希望与赎罪等健康信息，但文笔拙劣，宗教和道德内容也平凡无奇。可是瑕不掩瑜，许多人都认为这本书对他们很重要，全书结尾处的证言也说明了这一点，不过算不上文学经典。然而，对于想翻看些轻松读物，或者了解美国自由主义基督教基本信条的人，可能会有帮助。

Merlin to Cast Spell in China

《梅林传奇》即将在央视热播

BBC1 drama series Merlin is set to air in China after being sold to the country's largest broadcaster. China Central Television (CCTV) has bought the 13 x 40-minute series, produced by Shine Television, as part of a deal with distributor Freemantle Media Enterprises (FME). The sale also includes German daily action drama 112 and Australian crime drama The Strip.

BBC一台的连续剧《梅林传奇》卖给中国最大的电视台后，将在中国播放。中国中央电视台已购买该剧，它共有13集，每集 40分钟，由Shine电视台制作，这是央视与Freemantle传媒集团所签合同的一部分。央视此次购买的还有德国日播动作片《112》和澳大利亚犯罪剧《海岸雄风》。

Merlin is a British television drama series that began in 2008, designed to appeal to the same family audiences as other UK hits like Dr Who and Primeval, and filling a similar time-slot on Saturday evenings. It is based on the Arthurian legends of the mythical wizard Merlin and his relationship with Prince Arthur, though differs significantly from more traditional versions of the myth. The original stories are epics of tragedy, bravery, and loss; this is rather lighter fare.

《梅林传奇》是一部英国电视连续剧，2008年开播，旨在吸引喜爱《神秘博士》和《远古入侵》等其他热播英剧的观众，填补了周六晚上相似的时间档。它改编自有关澳大利亚传奇魔法奇才梅林及其同亚瑟王子的关系的故事，不过跟该神话的传统版本迥异。原本故事是有关悲剧、勇敢与迷失的史诗，电视剧版则较为明快。

With a cast of young actors - even Merlin himself, normally depicted as an old man, is a twenty-something stud, it tells the story of the friendship between Merlin and Arthur in Arthur's father's court. The emphasis is on magic, adventure, and warfare, with Arthur shown as a young prince in a Dark Ages Britain. Although the show was panned by most critics, it proved popular with audiences, and has been renewed for a second season.

该剧的演员都很年青，梅林通常被描绘成老年人，但剧中的梅林才20多岁。它讲述了梅林与亚瑟在亚瑟父亲宫殿里的友谊故事。《梅林传奇》充满魔法、冒险与战争，片中亚瑟是英国黑暗时期的年青王子。虽然大多数电视评论家对其不屑一顾，但观众却很喜欢，第二季已经开播。

Monsters Versus Aliens

《怪兽大战外星人》

DreamWorks have been trying to come up with an animated smash to match rival studio Pixar's for quite some time. For the last few years they've been churning out vaguely similar movies, mixing a prestigious voice cast with generally lacklustre plots. However, they did well with last year's Kung Fu Panda, only to have it beaten at the Oscars by Pixar's Wall-E. Their new offering, Monsters vs Aliens, is just as star-studded as Kung Fu Panda, but isn't quite as clever or exciting.

梦工厂早就想拿出一部动画大片来叫板对手皮克斯。近年来，他们大量炮制类似的电影，即著名演员配音加平淡无奇的情节。然而，去年他们的《功夫熊猫》表现不俗，但在奥斯卡上却败给皮克斯的《机器人瓦力》。他们的最新作品是《怪兽大战外星人》，跟《功夫熊猫》一样星光闪耀，但不如后者巧妙、刺激。

It's about Susan (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), a shy young woman who, on the day of her wedding, gets accidentally grown to fifty feet tall. After her fiance rejects her, she's imprisoned in a secret government facility along with other monsters, a blob, a mad scientist with the head of a cockroach, a gigantic insect, and a swamp beast that's a cross between a fish and an ape. All are voiced by well-known comic actors, such as Jack Black and Will Arnett. The monsters are freed by the government after an army of aliens comes to conquer the earth, and have to use their disparate skills to defeat the invading hordes.

本片中，苏珊（由瑞茜•威瑟斯彭配音），一个害羞的女青年，在结婚当日突然长到50英尺高。遭到未婚夫拒绝之后，她被关进政府的一个秘密基地，跟其他怪兽住在一起，包括一个果冻状怪物、一名长着蟑螂头的科学家、一只巨大的昆虫和一头半鱼半猿的湿地野兽。配音者都是著名喜剧演员，如杰克•布莱克和威尔•阿奈特。在一帮外星人前来征服地球后，怪物被政府释放，各显神通来击败入侵者。

The premise is a parody of 50's 'B-Movie' science-fiction, where aliens would regularly invade the earth for no particularly good reason, and when imported Japanese giant monster movies, such as Godzilla, were wildly popular with American teens. The subtext of those movies was fear of the atomic age, when destruction of the earth seemed a real possibility, and Monsters vs Aliens hints at this by including many references to a famous parody of nuclear strategy, Dr Strangelove. One of the main characters is General W.R Monger (Warmonger), eager to use nukes at the least opportunity. The whole thing is fun, but nothing special - worth a lazy afternoon watching, though.

该片基于上世纪50年代“便宜的劣质科幻电影”，在当时的科幻片中，外星人经常莫名其妙地入侵地球，而根据进口日本巨兽题材拍成的电影，如《哥斯拉》，深受美国青少年的喜爱。这些电影蕴含着人们对原子时代的恐惧，即认为原子时代地球真的有可能被摧毁，《怪兽大战外星人》大量借鉴了演绎核悲剧的著名电影《奇爱博士》，对此有所暗示。主角之一是蒙哥将军（好战分子），他总想使用核武器。整部片子很有趣，但没什么特别之处——适宜在慵懒的午后时光消遣。

Ali G, Borat, Bruno - But Who's Behind Them?

萨沙•拜伦•科恩

British comedian Sasha Baron Cohen has been doing basically the same shtick for the last twelve years now, but he does it well enough that nobody can really complain. Slipping into the guise of a foolish or naive character, he interviews real-life people and puts them in outrageous situations, or tricks them into saying stupid things themselves. His first creation was faux-gangsta-rapper Ali G, a huge hit in the UK. His second was Borat, a supposed Kazakhstani journalist who would innocently say the most obscene things and trick people into exposing their own prejudices.Famously, appearing at a country and western club in the USA, he got a crowd singing along to what he claimed was the national anthem of Kazakhstan, Throw the Jew Down The Well.(Baron Cohen is Jewish, and takes particular delight in exposing anti-semitism, as well as often using Hebrew or Yiddish obscenities when pretending to speak other languages like Kazakh.)

十二年来，英国喜剧演员萨沙•拜伦•科恩基本上都是在演同样的戏，但他表现出色，也无可厚非。他饰演愚蠢或天真的角色，采访真实的人，使他们怒不可遏，或骗他们胡言乱语。他饰演的第一个角色是虚拟说唱歌手Ali G，在英国大受欢迎。第二个角色是波拉特，一名虚构的哈萨克斯坦记者，此人常常无意地说出一些淫秽至极的话，诱人自爆其个人偏见。最出名的例子是，他在美国西部乡村的一个俱乐部里，让一群人随着他唱其自称为哈萨克斯坦国歌的《把犹太人扔到井里》。（拜伦•科恩是犹太人，特别喜欢展现反犹太主义，经常说希伯来语或依地语，但哄人说自己是在说其他外国语，如哈萨克斯坦语。）

The Borat movie, where he crossed America in pursuit of pneumatic star Pamela Anderson, was a big hit three years ago. The problem with these kind of tricks, of course, is that once the character becomes moderately well-known you can't pull them off anymore. That's why Baron Cohen has switched identities again, this time becoming Bruno, a gay Austrian fashion host he used in an earlier TV series. The flamboyant Bruno has already pulled off such stunts as exposing the shallowness of fashionistas willing to change opinion at a drop of a hat, as well as pushing at the homophobia of young Americans.

在电影《波拉特》里，他为追求大明星帕米拉•安德森而横穿美国，三年前引起了巨大轰动。这种手段的问题在于，一旦角色稍微有些名气，就不能再故技重施。因此，拜伦•科恩再次变换角色，这次成了布鲁诺，是在其之前的电视剧中出现的奥地利同志时尚节目主持人。神气活现的布鲁诺的举止惊人，如暴露时尚潮人朝三暮四的浅薄，以及激起美国年青人对同性恋的恐惧。

For instance, he got a group of college wrestlers to pose nearly naked, slap each other on the buttocks, and then told them it was for 'Austrian Gay TV', prompting rage and threats. In his new movie, out this summer, he apparently pulls off similar tricks, like advertising a 'wrestling and beer' event that gradually turns gayer and gayer, sparking a riot among the crowd. Whether it'll be as funny and successful as Borat, we don't know - it seems kind of a one-note joke - but it should be worth a few laughs at least.

例如，他让一帮几近全裸的大学生摔跤选手摆好姿势，互相拍打臀部，然后告诉他们说这是供“奥地利同志电视”所用，这引发了愤怒和威胁。他的新电影今年夏天上线，片中他耍同样的把戏，比如为“摔跤与啤酒”活动做广告，越说越淫荡，引起人群中发生骚乱。它是否如《波拉特》那样有趣和成功，我们无法知晓——它似乎是个没完没了的笑话——但至少会博君一笑。