<-NARRATOR:->Listen to a conversation between a student and his art history professor.

旁白：听一段学生和艺术史教授的对话。

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->How was the museum?

教授：博物馆怎么样？

<-MALE STUDENT:->Great. I hadn't been there for a few years.

学生：棒极了。我已经好几年没去了。

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Did you enjoy the Van Gogh painting?

教授：你喜欢梵高的画吗？

<-MALE STUDENT:->That's the thing-looks like I have to change my topic...

学生：这就是问题所在了。看起来我要换课题了。

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->[concerned tone] Hmm, we're getting close to the deadline....You were writing about the theme of night in the paintings of Vincent van Gogh? It-it's a wonderful topic...

教授：我们离截止日期已经很近了。你写的是文森特·梵高画作中夜的主题，这个话题很不错。

<-MALE STUDENT:->I know.... People don't usually think of Van Gogh as an artist of nocturnal themes.They think of brightness, sunshine... all that yellow and orange.

学生：我知道。人们通常不会认为梵高是表现夜色主题的艺术家。他们想到的都是明亮的色彩、阳光，黄色和橙色。

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->You're right, of course, about the intense light associated with his daytime paintings, but his night paintings don't exactly lack brightness.

教授：当然了，你说得对，在梵高关于白天的画作中，强烈的光线总是伴随出现，但他关于夜晚的画作实际上也不缺明亮的元素。

<-MALE STUDENT:->That's the paradox that I really like-the paradox of painting a nighttime scene using so much color and light.So I was planning to focus mostly on his painting Starry Night.

学生：我正是喜欢这种矛盾之处，画的是一个夜晚的场景，但运用了这么多色彩和光线。我打算专注于他的画作《星夜》。

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->But?

教授：但？

<-MALE STUDENT:->When I went to the museum to look at the actual painting, like you told me to, it wasn't there.

学生：和你告诉过我的一样，我去了博物馆看画作真品，但它不在那儿。

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Really? [surprised tone] Isn't it part of the permanent collection?

教授：真的吗？那不是永久藏品吗？

<-MALE STUDENT:->Yes, but it's on loan right now to a museum in Europe.

学生：是。但这幅画现在借给了欧洲一家博物馆。

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->[disappointed tone] I see. Well, I am strict about having students write about paintings they can observe firsthand.

教授：我懂了，我在这方面要求很严格，坚持让学生写能第一手观察到的画作。

<-MALE STUDENT:->Well, I found another painting I could study instead...

学生：我找到了另一幅我能研究的画。

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->OK...

教授：好。

<-MALE STUDENT:->I read that there are two paintings called Starry Night.The first one was done by the French Realist painter Millet... It may've been the inspiration for Van Gogh's painting.Millet's painting is located near my family's house in Connecticut-and I'm going there this weekend, and could study it then.I made sure it's not out on loan...

学生：我看到，原来有两幅画叫《星夜》。第一幅是法国现实主义画家米勒画的。这可能是梵高画作的灵感来源。米勒的画在康涅狄格，离我家很近---我这周会回去，到那时我就能研究这幅画了。我确认了，这幅画没被借走。

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->That definitely would work, then.Van Gogh copied many of Millet's compositions.We know that he really admired Millet's work.And a lot of us think Van Gogh saw this particular painting by Millet in Paris in the late 1700s.

教授：这绝对行得通。梵高模仿了许多米勒的艺术技巧。我们都知道他很喜欢米勒的作品。很多人认为，在18世纪晚期，梵高在巴黎看见了这幅米勒的画作。

<-MALE STUDENT:->Yeah. Although Millet was a Realist painter and Van Gogh a Postimpressionist, the two paintings still share lots of features-not just the name.The most striking shared feature has got to be the amazing light effects.I'm excited to go see it. But, one other thing...

学生：对。尽管米勒是现实主义画家，梵高是后印象派画家，这两幅画中有很多共同点，不只是名字。其中最突出的共同特点就是令人惊叹的光效了。能去看这幅画，我觉得很激动。但还有一件事……

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Uh-huh?

教授：嗯。

<-MALE STUDENT:->I was thinking about getting a head start on my next assignment while I'm at the gallery in Connecticut-the assignment on miniatures.They have a lot of miniature portraits of children as part of their permanent collection...

学生：我打算提前开始我下一份作业，关于微缩模型的作业，趁我去康涅狄格美术馆的机会。那里有很多儿童的微型肖像，是他们的永久藏品。

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->American miniatures?

教授：美国微缩模型？

<-MALE STUDENT:->Yeah. So I figured I could also get started on that essay... study a few while I'm there.I'd focus on the meaning of the objects that some of the children are holding; some are holding flowers, one child has a rattle, another a toy violin...

学生：对，所以我想我也能开始写那篇论文了，在那儿做些研究。我打算集中研究某些儿童所拿物品的意义，一些人拿着花，一个小孩拿着拨浪鼓，另一个拿着玩具小提琴……

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->That would be fine.Uh, those objects-we call them attributes.The attribute chosen to be included in a particular miniature was often meant to communicate parents' hopes and dreams for their child.So I think you'll learn a lot about how people viewed children at the time the miniature paintings were done.

教授：这没问题。这些物品，我们称为象征物。人们选择把这些象征物纳入某幅微型作品中，通常是为了传达父母对孩子的期望。所以我认为，你会学到很多关于人们在微型画所在时期对儿童的看法。