2010年考研英语一阅读 Text 1 原文翻译及答案解析

Of all the changes that have taken place in English-language newspapers during the past quarter-century, perhaps the most far-reaching has been the inexorable decline in the scope and seriousness of their arts coverage.

在过去四分之一世纪里，英文报纸发生的所有变化中，影响最深远的或许是其艺术报道范围和严肃性的不可避免的衰退。

It is difficult to the point of impossibility for the average reader under the age of forty to imagine a time when high-quality arts criticism could be found in most big-city newspapers. Yet a considerable number of the most significant collections of criticism published in the 20th century consisted in large part of newspaper reviews. 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.

对于四十岁以下的普通读者来说，想象一个在大多数大城市报纸上都能找到高质量艺术评论的时代几乎是不可能的。然而，20世纪出版的许多最重要的评论集大部分由报纸评论组成。今天读这些书，会惊叹于它们学术性的内容曾被认为适合在大众日报上刊登。

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. 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. 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. These men believed in journalism as a calling, and were proud to be published in the daily press. "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'."

我们离20世纪初至第二次世界大战前夕在英国发表的那些不聚焦的报纸评论更远了，当时新闻纸极其便宜，时尚的艺术评论被视为出版物的装饰。在那个遥远的年代，人们理所当然地认为主要报纸的评论家会详细且长篇大论地报道他们所覆盖的事件。他们的工作是严肃的，即使是那些轻描淡写地展示学识的评论家，如乔治·萧伯纳和欧内斯特·纽曼，也能被信任知道自己在做什么。这些人相信新闻是一种使命，并为能在日报上发表文章感到自豪。纽曼写道：“很少有作者有足够的头脑或文学天赋在新闻界站稳脚跟，以至于我倾向于将‘新闻界’定义为‘一个由不被阅读的作家用来形容被阅读的作家的蔑称’。”

Unfortunately, these critics are virtually forgotten. 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. During his lifetime, though, he was also one of England's foremost classical-music critics, and a stylist so widely admired that his Autobiography (1947) became a best-seller. He was knighted in 1967, the first music critic to be so honored. Yet only one of his books is now in print, and his vast body of writings on music is unknown save to specialists.

不幸的是，这些评论家几乎被遗忘了。内维尔·卡杜斯从1917年直到1975年去世前不久一直为《曼彻斯特卫报》撰稿，现在仅以撰写板球比赛文章而闻名。然而，在他生前，他也是英国最杰出的古典音乐评论家之一，他的文体如此广受赞誉，以至于他的《自传》（1947年）成为畅销书。他于1967年被封为爵士，是第一位获此殊荣的音乐评论家。但现在只有一本他的书仍在印刷，他大量关于音乐的著作除专家外鲜为人知。

Is there any chance that Cardus's criticism will enjoy a revival? The prospect seems remote. Journalistic tastes had changed long before his death, and postmodern readers have little use for the richly upholstered Victorian prose in which he specialized. Moreover, the amateur tradition in music criticism has been in headlong retreat.

卡杜斯的评论有可能复兴吗？前景似乎渺茫。在他去世之前很久，新闻品味就已经改变，后现代读者对他专长的装饰华丽的维多利亚时代散文几乎没有兴趣。此外，音乐评论中的业余传统正在迅速衰退。