2010年考研英语阅读理解真题第1篇 The Amateur as Critic

To read such books today is to marvel at the fact that their learned contents were once

deemed suitable for publication in general-circulation dailies.

现在，

如果读到这些集子，

人们肯定会惊诧，

当年这般渊博深奥的内容竟然被认

为 适合发表在大众日报中。

We

are

even

farther

removed

from

the

unfocused

newspaper

reviews

published

in

England between the turn of the 20th century and the eve of World War II, at a time

when newsprint was dirt-cheap and stylish arts criticism was considered an ornament

to the publications in which it appeared.

从

20

世纪早期到二战以前，当时的英国报纸上的评论主题广泛，包罗万象，我

们现在离此类报纸评论越来越远。

当时的报纸极其便宜，

人们把高雅时尚的文艺

批评当作是所刊登报纸的一个亮点。

In those far-off days, it was taken for granted that the critics of major papers would

write in detail and at length about the events they covered.

在那些遥远的年代，

各大报刊的评论家们都会不遗余力地详尽报道他们所报道的

事情，这在当时被视为是 理所当然的事情。

Theirs

was

a

serious

business,

and

even

those

reviewers

who

wore

their

learning

lightly, like George Bernard Shaw and Ernest Newman, could be trusted to know what

they were about. < /p>

他们的写作是件严肃的事情，

人们相信：

甚至那些博学低调不喜欢炫耀的评论家，

比如

George Bernard Shaw

和

Ernest Newman

也知道自己在做什么。

These men believed in journalism as a calling, and were proud to be published in the

daily press.

这些批评家们相信报刊评论是一项 职业，并且对于他们的文章能够在报纸

上发

表感到很自豪。

“

So, few authors have brains enough or literary gift enough to keep their own end up

in journalism

,”

Newman wrote, “that I am tempted to define 'journalism' as 'a term of

contempt applied by writers who are not read to writers who are. '”

Newman

曾写道，

鉴于几乎没有作家能拥有足够的智慧或文学天赋以保证他们

在新闻报纸写作中 站稳脚跟，我倾向于把

'

新闻写作

'< /p>

定义为不受读者欢迎的作家

用来嘲讽受读者欢迎的作家的一个

'

轻蔑之词

'

Unfortunately, these critics are virtually forgotten.

不幸的是，这些批评家们现在实际上已被人们遗忘。

Neville

Cardus,

who

wrote

for

the

Manchester

Guardian

from

1917

until

shortly

before his death in 1975, is now known solely as a writer of essays on the game of

cricket.