考满分 toefl

1 .<-NARRATOR:->Listen to part of a lecture in an art history class. The professor has been discussing illustrated books.

旁白：请听一段艺术史讲座的节选。教授正在讨论插画书籍。

1 .<-MALE PROFESSOR:->I want to take a look at one particular book to give you an idea about what was involved in publishing illustrated books in the 1800s.

教授：我想要给你们看一本特别的书，让你们对19世纪出版的插图书有一个大致的了解。

2 .The book’s called The Birds of America, and the illustrator was John James Audubon.

这本书叫做《美洲鸟类》，插画家是约翰·詹姆斯·奥杜邦。

1 .So … The Birds of America … four volumes which contained illustrations of nearly every bird in the United States, over 400 birds, all hand-colored, all painted life-sized, the larger birds printed on the largest printing paper available at that time.

《美洲鸟类》一共有四卷，这本书里几乎囊括了美国所有鸟类的插图，超过400只鸟类，都是手绘的，都是活鸟大小的，最大的鸟在当时可用的最大印刷纸上印刷。

2 .This required a lot of dedication, and Audubon is best remembered as an incredibly meticulous, accurate artist, a very accomplished illustrator of the natural world.

这需要强烈的奉献精神，从而奥杜邦则被人们铭记为一位极其细致，准确的艺术家，一位很有造诣的自然世界插画家。

3 .And while there were other artists working on similar projects at the same time,

尽管当时还有别的艺术家也在为相似的话题作画，

4 .Audubon’s book remains the most well-known and successful of its kind.

但奥杜邦的书仍然是同类作品中最著名和最成功的。

5 .But, uh, let’s talk a bit about Audubon himself first.

但我们先来看看奥杜邦这个人。

1 .First of all, Audubon was not a traditional painter,

首先，奥杜邦不是一个传统的画家，

2 .and by this, I mean that he didn’t work in oils.

这句话的意思是，他不是画油画的。

3 .He preferred to use watercolor and pastel crayons, and he worked on paper instead of on canvas.

他更喜欢用水彩和蜡笔，他在纸上作画而不是在画布上。

4 .The thing is, Audubon considered the illustrations in his book, not the original watercolors, to be the finished product.

问题是，奥杜邦认为他书里的插画，不是原始的水彩画，是他所完成的作品。

5 .His watercolors were merely preparatory studies, most of which were painted while he was observing birds in the wild.

他的水彩画仅仅是准备状态，其中大部分是他在野外观察鸟类时候画的。

6 .These watercolors were then sent to his printer, who created the final prints for the book.

这些水彩画随后被送到他的印刷商那里，印刷商为这本书制作了最后的印刷稿。

7 .And Audubon was so concerned with accuracy that he often scribbled notes to the printer around the edges of these original watercolors.

奥杜邦太在意精确度了，以至于他经常在这些水彩画初稿边缘上写一些给印刷商的笔记。

1 .In fact, you might question whether producing a work of art was even Audubon’s goal.

事实上，你可能会质疑，制作一件艺术品是否是奥杜邦的目标。

2 .Now, when I look at an Audubon illustration, I see a work of art.

当我在看奥杜邦的插画的时候，我看到的是一件艺术品。

3 .But, it may make more sense to consider Audubon, first and foremost, as a naturalist, as a scientist.

但是，把奥杜邦首先看作一个博物学家，一个科学家可能更有意义。

4 .See, the early nineteenth century when Audubon was painting was a time of major scientific inquiry.

你们看，在奥杜邦创作画作的十九世纪早期是一个主要的科学探索时期。

5 .And an essential way of spreading scientific knowledge was through illustrated books.

并且传播科学知识的一种基本关键方式是通过那些插画书籍。

1 .<-FEMALE STUDENT:->So what did Audubon consider himself? An artist or a scientist?

学生：所以奥杜邦是怎么看待他自己的呢？一位艺术家还是一位科学家？

1 .<-MALE PROFESSOR:->I’m not sure the distinction between the two was all that clear in the 1800s.

教授：我也不确定这两者在十九世纪的时候区别是否鲜明。

2 .I think we can accurately state that … that the driving force in his art was getting the science right.

我认为我们可以比较准确地说...他艺术创作的驱动力是让科学正确。

3 .And this was perhaps a point that critics of his artwork at the time just didn’t appreciate.

这可能是那个时期的批评家们对于他的艺术作品所不理解的点。

1 .Audubon also studied birds in ways that didn’t directly inform his art.

奥杜邦研究鸟类的方式并没有直接影响到他的艺术。

2 .Uh, you know what bird banding is, right?

啊，你们知道什么是鸟类环志（套圈），对吧？

3 .A bird has a band attached to its foot so we can learn about things like migration patterns.

一只鸟的脚上有一条带子，这样我们就能了解（它们）迁徙的模式。

4 .Well, the first recorded instance of anyone doing that, it was Audubon.

第一次有记录的这种研究就是奥杜邦做的。

5 .Another example, a common belief at the time was that vultures use their sense of smell to find food.

另一个例子是，当时人们普遍认为秃鹰用它们的嗅觉来寻找食物。

6 .Audubon didn’t believe that, so he tested it.

奥杜邦并不相信这个，所以，他验证了一下。

7 .He put a large painting of a dead sheep in a field, and sure enough: vultures found it and started pecking at it.

他把一幅画着一只死羊的大油画放在一块地里，果然，秃鹫发现了它，开始啄它。

1 .Now, Audubon’s work was very accurate, and we know this because we can compare his illustrations to the birds around us.

奥杜邦的作品很准确，我们之所以知道这一点，是因为他画上的鸟和真鸟差不多。

2 .But sometimes it’s not possible to check.

但是有些时候是无法检验的。

3 .There’re actually several birds in his book that no one’s ever seen.

事实上，在他的书中有几只鸟是没有人见过的。

4 .These are sometimes called Audubon’s “mystery birds,” because even though he drew them, there’s no evidence that they exist in the wild.

这些鸟被称为奥杜邦的神秘鸟儿，因为即使他画了这些鸟，也没有证据证明它们真的在野外存在。

5 .For someone who’s respected as a naturalist, isn’t it strange to think that he drew some birds that don’t appear to be real?

对于一个受人尊敬的自然主义者来说，想到他画了一些看起来不像真的鸟不是很奇怪吗？

1 .For example, there’s an illustration that appears to be a type of warbler, a small bird.

例如，有一幅插图似乎是一种莺，一种小鸟。

2 .It has a white ring around its eyes and white bars on its wings.

在它的眼睛周围有一圈白色的环，翅膀上有白色横线。

3 .No one’s ever seen a warbler like this,

没有人见过这种莺，

4 .so some people wonder if Audubon maybe forgot certain details about this bird when he painted it,

所以有些人想知道奥杜邦是不是在画这只鸟的时候忘记了一些细节，

5 .or that he copied another artist’s work. But considering that Audubon was such a meticulous artist.

或者他抄袭了其他艺术家的作品。但是考虑到奥杜邦是一个如此一丝不苟的艺术家。

6 .Well, there might be a better answer.

嗯，也许有更好的答案。

1 .Hybridization is something that’s well known in birds.

杂交是鸟类中知名的现象。

2 .And it definitely explains a rather unique-looking duck Audubon painted.

这也解释了为什么奥杜邦画了一只看起来很独特的鸭子。

3 .He himself suggested that maybe it wasn’t an unknown species, but a hybrid, born from two different species.

他自己提出，也许这并不是一个未知的物种，而是两个不同物种的杂交后代。

4 .Since then, this particular crossing of species has actually been recorded, both in the wild and in captivity,

自从那时候开始，这种特别的杂交物种就被记录了下来，不管是在野生鸟类中的还是在圈养鸟类中的。

5 .so it turns out that Audubon was right, and this duck actually was a hybrid.

结果证明奥杜邦是对的，这只鸭子实际上是杂交的。