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1 Text B
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2 Language points
游走戏剧世界
1 Seventeen years ago there were thirty of us, all aged around 20, and dreaming of a really great career in the theatre. We had good reason for dreaming. After all we had been chosen from hundreds of candidates and accepted for the Salzburg Mozarteum’s three drama classes. That meant something, so we felt talented and important.
17年前，我们一共30个人，都20来岁，梦想着在戏剧上干出一番真正的大事业。我们有充分的理由拥有这样的梦想，毕竟我们是从几百名考生中脱颖而出考进萨尔茨堡莫扎特音乐大学三个戏剧班的。那可是一件了不起的事情，因此我们认为自己很有才能，自视甚高。
2 We probably all were talented, to a greater or lesser degree, and inexperienced too—in love with acting and convinced that our ability would bring us to the great theatres of this world. We wanted to serve great art, and great art deserved us. That is how we thought then.
我们或许或多或少都有一些才华，然而，也都缺乏经验——只是热爱表演并深信自己有能力走向世界最伟大的剧院。我们希望自己献身伟大的艺术事业，与此同时伟大的艺术事业也值得我们为之献身。当时，我们的想法就是这样的。
3 Everyday reality looked rather different. The first lesson we had to learn was that drama students kiss and hug always and everywhere. The great figures showed us how. We fell in love with all the people, and smoked whatever was offered to us. A year later, when new students turned up, we proudly presented ourselves as advanced drama students.
然而，现实与我们的想像相去甚远。我们要学的第一课就是，学戏剧的学生首先要学会随时随地接吻和拥抱。那些大腕儿来给我们示范。我们要与形形色色的人相爱，无论递过来的是什么，我们都要表演出抽烟的样子。一年之后，当新生入校后，我们就自豪地摆出一副戏剧专业高年级学生的姿态。
4 Instead of declaiming Schiller and Shakespeare on stage we first had to learn our craft. Fencing, tap-dancing, singing. Throwing and catching imaginary balls. Recognizing, with closed eyes, fellow students by their hands. What all that had to do with great art only became apparent to us very slowly. We wanted to be on stage. When we were at long, long last allowed to walk the boards, we quickly understood that a dark stage could be the loneliest place in the world.
戏剧专业的学生并不是一开始就上台朗诵席勒和莎士比亚的作品，而是先要学习一些表演技能。要学击剑、踢踏舞、唱歌、抛接想像中的球以及闭眼摸手猜同学。我们十分缓慢地明白那些与伟大艺术相关的一切。我们期望登上舞台。在经历了漫长的学习过程之后，我们终于获准登上舞台。然而，我们很快就懂得，世界上最孤单的地方可能就是那个一片漆黑的舞台。
5 It is not at all easy for outsiders to comprehend what is supposedly so difficult about learning a few sentences by heart and then presenting them. Of course there is stage fright, but what else? The most complex thing of all is simply walking across the stage. One never quite gets that right. A person crossing a stage is not simply someone walking, but a person acting a part. But what part? That is the problem.
外行人很难理解，把台词记住然后再表演出来到底难在哪里。当然怯场是个难点，但还有别的吗？其中最复杂的要数走台步了。没有一个人能够走得恰到好处。走台步不只是走走路，而是表演一个角色。但表演什么角色呢？这就是问题所在。
6 What has become of us—thirty dreams and seventeen years later? A long story, above all. No, thirty stories. Some of us are well-known, almost famous. Andrea and April for instance. One has played in a TV opera for years, and the other is the only woman in the actors’ team in Saturday’s quiz show. Some of us have disappeared, like Mafia and Mathias. Mafia, who could dance and play the piano so beautifully, simply didn’t return after the vacation in the first year. Mathias, now running a sound studio in Vienna, finally realized that “my ambitions were perhaps a little excessive.” By saying this, he preserved himself from a lie with which too many bad actors console themselves: that they are unlucky to be unrecognized, and that if the right director turned up, their immense talent would be appreciated.
我们怀揣30个梦想，17年过去了，结局如何呢？总之，这个故事说来话长。不，应该是30个故事。我们中的一些人已经小有名气，几乎是家喻户晓了。比如安德里亚和艾普丽尔，一个多年来一直演电视剧，另一个则是星期六问答秀节目演员组里的唯一一位女演员。有些人却从舞台上消失了，比如马法和马赛厄斯。那个舞蹈和钢琴都很出色的马法，在第一个学年的假期结束之后就再也没有回到学校。马赛厄斯现在在维也纳经营一家录音室。当年他最终意识到：“也许，我之前的雄心壮志有点过头。” 他说的倒是真话，不像许多蹩脚的演员用谎言来自我安慰：没有得到认可是因为运气太差；如果遇见一位能够发掘自己才能的导演，他们无限的才华就能够得到赏识。
The text is about how the author and her fellow students tried to make their career in the theatre and the changing of their views in the process of working for it. At the very beginning they thought that with their talent and their enthusiasm for acting they would become somebody in their career. But when they really began to learn the trade, they found the reality was quite different from what they had thought. It was a long time before they really got a chance to perform like a true actor. Seventeen years later, some of them became really successful. However, a few others gave up their career. They finally realized acting was not at all an easy career.
（P149) II. Choose the best answer to each of the following questions.
1. The author and her fellow students had good reason to feel talented and important because _________.
A. they were full of ambition
B. they loved the career in the theatre
C. they were chosen for the drama classes by Salzburg Mozarteum
D. they were young
2. Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A. They soon got a chance to play roles in a play by Shakespeare.
B. It was long before they were allowed to walk the boards.
C. They finally knew a dark stage could be the loneliest place in the world.
D. To learn great art requires time and effort.
3. Why was it so complex to walk across the stage according to the author?
A. Stage fright made it difficult to walk across the stage.
B. The lines in the script were too long to be memorized.
C. Walking across a stage was also a part of acting.
D. Their teachers never taught them how to walk across a stage.
4. Mathias finally gave up his career as an actor because _________.
A. he realized his ambitions were too much to him
B. he was not lucky enough to meet the right director
C. he found running a sound studio more attractive
D. he lost his interest in a theatrical career
5. What is a lie according to the text?
A. To dream of a really great career in the theatre.
B. To walk across the stage in the right way.
C. To be not lucky enough to be recognized or appreciated by the right director.
D. To serve the great art with time and effort all your life.
