rangesurban myths or urban legends课文翻译

身，直到没有了动静才出来。 日出之前，他们又会回到地下。没有几个伦敦人真正见过他们，但是某

人的朋友的朋友曾 经见过他们好几次。

True

story?

Probably

not.

I's

a

classic

example

of

what's

called

inmany

languages

an

urban

myth.

An

urban

myth

is

a

story

you

hear

byword

of

mouth.

It

usually

describes

something

which

might

havehappened,

an

apocr

yphal,

second-hand

story

told

as

if

it

were

true,

just

about

plausible

enough

to

be

credible,

about

some

event

which

hassupposedly

happened

to

a

real

person.

Factual

or

not,

it's

likely

to

rely

onexpert

st

ortelling

and

on

a

trustworthy

source,

such

as

happened

tomy

brother's

friend'smother

这是真事吗

?

很可能不是。这是在很多语言中被 称为都市神话的一个典型例子。都

市神话是你通过口口相传听来的故事，

讲述的是一些可能发生过的事情，

一个杜摸的，

从别处 听来的

故事，却被当作真事来讲，听起来像真的似的。不论是真是假，都市神话依赖的是 讲故事的技巧以及

来源的可靠性，比如“这件事发生在我弟弟的朋友的母亲的身上。”< /p>

However,

some

academics

claim

that

urban

myths

are

not

really

myths.

According

to

them,

a

myth

is

a

story

which

held

some

religious

orsp

iritual

significance

for

those

who

told

it

or

listened

in

the

past

to

it,

and which

contributed

to

the

expression

of

shared

beliefs

and

values.

However

improbable

a

myth

might

be,

it's

always

true

for

those

w

hobelong

to

that

culture

from

which

the

myth

comes.

但是，有一些学者认为都市神话

并非真正的神话。

在他们看来，

神话故事对于讲故事和过去听 故事的人来说都有某种宗教或精神层面

的意义，

而且神话帮助人 们表达共同的信仰和价值观。

不管一一个神话看上去是多么匪夷所思，

< br>对于

那些从属于这些文化的人来说，它们永远是真实可信的。

So

should

we

use

the

term

urban

myths?

Let's

look

at

one

of

th

emost

durable

of

urban

myths,

The

Vanishing

Hitchhiker.

The

basic

story

is

that

ofa

driver

alone

at

night

on

a

dark,

country

road,

who

sees

a

yo

ung

woman

bitchhiking.

The

driver

stops

and

offers

her

a

lift.

Soon

the

driverd

rops

the

hitchiker

off

at

her

destination,

and

they

say

goodbye.

But

it'son

ly

when

the

driver

stops

later

that

he

realizes

the

young

woman

has

leftbe

hind

a

coat

with

her

wallet,

or

sometimes

an

old

envelope

in

the

pocket.

He

then

goes

to

the

address

to

retum

the

coat.

An

old

woman

op

end

the

door

of

the

house,

and

the

driver

explains

what

has

happened.

It

turms

out

that

the

coat

does

belong

to

the

old

woman's

daughter,

but

she

was

killed

several

years

before

on

the

same

stretch

of

road

where

the

driver

picked

业

m

her

up.

That

day

was

the

anniversary

of

the

accident.

那么我们 该不该用“都市

神话”这个术语呢

?

让 我们来看一下经久不衰的都市神话之一“消失的搭车客”故事的大概是

:

一

个司。机独自开车行驶四在漆黑的乡村公路上，他看到一位年轻女子在路边 要搭车。司机停下来，让

地上了车。很快司机就把她送到了目的地，他们相互道别。可直 到后来停车时司机才发现，这个年轻

女子落了一件外套在车上，

兜里还装着一个钱包，

有的故事是完里装着个旧信封。

于是他按 照钱包里

或信封上的地址把外套送回去。一位老妇人开了门，司机向地讲述了事情的经过 。原来，这件外套是

老妇人女儿的，而她的女

儿已经在几年前的车祸中去世了，

车 祸的地点正是司机让她上车的那个地方。

那一天也正是车祸的周

年纪念日。

In

fact,

like

many

myths,

this

story

can

be

traced

back

to

some

time

:

before

the

cars

and

roads

of

the

20th

or

2lst

centuries,

and

to

other

countries

or

regions

such

as

Sweden

or

East

Africa.

It

also

has

otherfeatur

es

common

to

the

myth

in

its

traditinal

sense.

As

we

have

already

市

seen,

it's

a

story

for

those

people

who

want

to

believe

in

it,

and

who

s

harethe

same

cultural

values.

It

has

been

told

and

retold

many

times

over

theyears,

gathering

embllishments

which

are

specifc

to

the

culture

inwhich

it

's

set.

Finally,

it's

enjoyable,

exciting

and

captivating

to

th elisteners.

事实

上，

< /p>

和许多别的神话一一样，这个故事可以追溯到

20

世纪或是

2

世纪的汽车和 公路出现之前

的其他国家和地区，

比如瑞典和东非。