Unit 13A - Mr. Imagination
Mr. Imagination
George Kent
Back in the 1880s, a big red-bearded man came to call one day on the French Minister of Education. The receptionist looked at the card and his face lighted up. "Monsieur Verne," he said reverently, "pray be seated. With all the traveling you do, you must be tired."
Jules Verne should have been worn out. He had gone around the world 100 times or more—once in eighty days. He had voyaged 60,000 miles under the sea, whizzed around the moon, hitchhiked on comets, explored the center of the earth, chatted with cannibals in Africa and Bushmen in Australia. There was very little of the world's geography that Jules Verne, the writer, had not visited.
Jules Verne, the man, was a stay-at-home. If he was tired it was merely writer's cramp. For forty years, he sat in a small room of the red brick tower of his home, in Amiens, turning out, year in, year out, one book every six months—more than 100 altogether. Verne himself had made visits around Europe and North Africa, and one six-week tour of New York State. And that was all. The world's most extraordinary tourist spent less than one of his seventy-seven years on voyage.
His books are crowded with hunting and fishing expeditions, but Jules went hunting only once. Then he raised his gun and—poof!—shot the red ribbon off the hat of a game warden. The only fish he ever caught was on a plate at the end of a fork.
Though he never held a test tube in his hand, Jules Verne became a stimulus and inspiration to the scientist in the laboratory. He had TV working before simple radio had been invented. He had helicopters a half century before the Wright brothers. There were, in fact, few twentieth-century wonders that this man did not foresee: neon lights, air conditioning, skyscrapers, guided missiles, tanks, submarines, airplanes.
Beyond any doubt, Verne was the father of science fiction; he was years ahead of H. G. Wells, Conan Doyle, and the other great visualizers of things to come.
Nor was he simply an entertainer. He wrote about the marvels of tomorrow with such precise, indisputable detail that he was taken seriously. Learned societies argued with him. Mathematicians spent weeks checking his figures. When his book about going to the moon was published, 500 people volunteered for the next expedition. France's famous Marshall Lyautey once said that modern science was simply a process of working out in practice what Jules Verne had envisioned in words.
Verne, who lived to see many of his fancies come true, was matter-of-fact about it all. "What one man can imagine," he said, "another man can do."
Jules' father was a lawyer; his mother was descended from one of the great families of France. Their son was born on the island of Feydeau, near Nantes, in 1828. Napoleon had just died. Wellington was prime minister of England. The first railroad was only five years old. Steamers were crossing the Atlantic but they still carried sail to supplement their engines. From the windows of his home the boy Jules could see the masts of sailing ships, watch fisherman's nets drying, smell hides and spices. At the age of eleven he was playing on the wharves with a childhood sweetheart who said she would like a string of red coral beads like those the sailors brought back from their voyages. Jules solemnly promised she would have one, and that same afternoon was on board a boat about to sail for India, signed on as a cabin boy. Fortunately for his later admirers, a friend of the family saw him go on board and told the family. His father fetched him home, spanked him, and put him to bed.
At eighteen Jules was in Paris to study law, but he was more interested in writing poetry and plays.
One evening, bored with a fashionable party which he was attending, he left abruptly and slid down the banister. At the bottom he slipped off and landed squarely on a stout gentleman about to ascend the stairs. Jules blurted out the first thing that came into his head. "Have you had your dinner, sir?" he asked.
The other replied that he had—he had dined wonderfully on an omelet made in the style of Nantes.
To this Verne retorted, "Bah, no one in Paris can make one!"
"Can you?" asked the stout fellow.
"Of course—I am from Nantes," said Jules.
"Very well, then, come to dinner next Wednesday—and cook the omelet."
With that, he handed the young man his card and continued up the steps. It was Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers. You could have knocked Jules over with a breadstick.
Knowing Dumas confirmed young Verne's desire to be an author. Jules, urged on by the older man, made up his mind he would do for geography what Dumas had done for history. He began spending his days reading and writing and forgot completely that he was in Paris to become a lawyer.
His father, impatient with the boy's neglect of his studies, cut off his allowance. Jules obtained a small job in a theater, but the years that followed were lean ones. "I eat beefsteak that a few days ago was pulling a cart through the streets of Paris," he wrote to his mother. Once he ate nothing but dried prunes for three days because he had spent his food money on a set of Shakespeare. He was ragged and cold. "My stockings," he told a friend, "are like a spider-web in which a hippopotamus has been sleeping."
Though his father had deprived him of his allowance, Jules remained the devoted, loving son. He wrote regularly, even when he was a middle-aged man. He discussed his books, his projects, his dreams, and rarely took a step without first seeking parental advice. It was this strong family feeling which kept him a church-goer and a religious, even puritanical man in gay and pleasure-loving Paris.
Cocky, good-looking, and "irresistible" to the ladies, Jules promptly fell in love. Monsieur Verne recovered, however, fell in love again, and this time married the girl—a handsome widow with two children.
With the help of his father, he became a stockholder. His financial position improved, but he continued to live in an attic and to write.
His first book was Five Weeks in a Balloon. Fifteen publishers looked at it, sniffed and sent it back. In a rage, Jules flung it into the fire. His wife rescued it and made him promise he would try once more. So Jules tucked the slightly charred manuscript under his arm and went around to show it to Pierre Hetzel.
The publisher read the book through as the fidgeting young author waited. Hetzel said he would publish it if Jules would rewrite it in the form of a novel.
In two weeks Jules was back. Five Weeks in a Balloon became a best seller, was translated into every civilized language. In 1862, at the age of thirty-four, its author was famous and a success.
His next book, Voyage to the Centre of the Earth, started his characters off down the crater of a volcano in Iceland. They went through a thousand adventures and finally came sliding out on a lava stream in Italy.
Perhaps the best known of Verne's books is Around the World in 80 Days. Serialized in Le Temps, of Paris, the progress of its hero aroused so much interest that New York and London correspondents sent cables daily to their newspapers reporting the imaginary Phileas Fogg's whereabouts.
In every country of Europe people made bets on whether Fogg would arrive in London in time to win the bet. Verne artfully kept this popular interest alive: his hero rescued an Indian widow from death, fell in love with her, and almost missed connections on her account; crossing the American plains he was attacked by Red Indians, and arrived in New York to see the ship that was to take him to England only a small speck on the horizon.
Every transatlantic steamship company offered Verne large sums of money if he would place Phileas Fogg aboard one of their ships. The author refused and had his hero charter a vessel. As the world held its breath, Fogg reached London with only minutes to spare, and won his bet.
In 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Verne developed a submarine which was not only double-hulled and propelled by electricity but was able to manufacture electricity from the sea. Simon Lake, father of the modern submarine, credits Verne with giving him virtually a blueprint for his invention.
Reading through Verne's books, one finds it hard to believe that they were written almost 100 years ago. The people of his fancy made diamonds synthetically, developed a convertible automobile-ship-helicopter-plane, and fired glass bullets containing an electric spark instantly fatal.
The last years of Jules Verne were not happy ones. Intellectual circles sneered at him. He was not elected a member of the French Academy. Gossips said that there was no such man as Jules Verne. The Russians claimed him as a Slav, a Pole and former espionage agent who had taken to letters. Italian intellectuals said Jules Verne was the pen name of a group of French scientists and delegated a novelist to go to France to find the proof. The man examined the manuscripts and departed wholly convinced. To his colleagues he wired: "There is no Jules Verne and Company—there is only Jules."
Jules Verne died in 1905. The world attended his funeral, including all who had sneered and gossiped, the thirty members of the French Academy, the diplomatic corps, and special representatives of kings and presidents.
Of all the thousands of words of praise uttered at his death, Jules Verne would have liked best these two sentences from a Paris newspaper: "The old story teller is dead. It is like the passing of Santa Claus."
参考译文——想象大师
想象大师
乔治·肯特
时间回到19世纪80年代。一个留着红胡子的大个子来拜访法国教育部长。接待员看了看他的名片，面露喜色。“凡尔纳先生，”他恭敬地说，“快请坐。您经历了那么多次的旅行，肯定很累了吧。”
儒勒·凡尔纳的确应该累坏了。凭借想象力，他环游世界至少有100次了——有一次是在80天内完成的。他在海底航行了60000英里，急速掠过月球，在彗星上搭过便车，去地心探险，和非洲的食人族、澳洲的丛林居民交谈。世界上几乎没有什么地方是作家儒勒·凡尔纳凭着想象力没有去过的。
儒勒·凡尔纳本人却是个不爱出门的人。如果他感到疲倦，那只不过是长时间写作导致的手指抽筋罢了。40年来，他一直都待在位于亚眠的家中的那个红砖楼的一间小屋子里，日复一日、年复一年地以每半年出一本书的速度进行着创作——总共出了100多本。凡尔纳本人曾游览过欧洲和北非，还曾在纽约州玩了六个星期。这就是他全部的旅行了。这个世界上最了不起的旅行家活了77岁，真正花在旅行上的时间却还不足一年。
他的书中描写了很多打猎和捕鱼方面的活动，但儒勒只打过一次猎。那次，他举起枪，“砰” 的一声打中了猎场看守人帽子上的红丝带。他只在餐盘中用叉抓住过鱼。
尽管儒勒·凡尔纳从未碰过试管，他却给实验室里的科学家们带来了鼓励和灵感。简易收音机发明之前，他的书中电视机已经能用了；他比莱特兄弟早半个世纪发明了直升机。实际上，他几乎预见了20世纪所有的惊人成就：霓虹灯、空调设备、摩天大楼、导弹、坦克、潜水艇和飞机。
毋庸置疑，儒勒是科幻小说之父，他的预见比韦尔斯、柯南·道尔及其他伟大的幻想家们早很多年。
他给人们带来的不仅仅是快乐。他对未来那些奇妙事物的描写详细确切，无可争辩，因此， 很多人都很认真地看待他的想法。学术界和他展开争论，数学家们花几周时间去验证他列出的数字。当他那本关于登月旅行的书出版时，500个人自告奋勇要参加下次探险。法国著名的马歇尔·利奥泰曾经说过，现代科学不过是把儒勒·凡尔纳书中想象的东西变为现实的过程。
凡尔纳有生之年目睹了他的很多想象变为现实，他认为这不足为奇。他说：“只要有人能想出来，就有人能把它变为现实。”
儒勒的父亲是一位律师，母亲是法国名门之后。他们的儿子于1828年出生在离南特不远的菲多岛上。那年，拿破仑刚去世；惠灵顿担任英国首相；第一条铁路还只有5年的历史；蒸汽船在大西洋上航行，但仍装有风帆以作为发动机的补充。从家里的窗户望出去，小儒勒可以看见帆船的桅杆，看到渔夫们晒网，可以闻到兽皮和香料的味道。11岁那年，他和一个童年玩伴在码头玩耍，她说，她想要一串珊瑚珠项链，和海员归航时带回来的一样。小儒勒郑重地许诺说她会有一串的。当天下午他就上了一艘开往印度的小船，还应征成为船上的一名听差。让凡尔纳后来的崇拜者庆幸的是：他家的一个朋友看到他上了船，告诉了他的家人。他父亲将他带回了家，打了一顿，就让他睡觉去了。
18岁时，儒勒来到巴黎学习法律，但是他对写诗歌、剧本更感兴趣。
一天晚上，因为腻烦了正在出席的时尚晚会，他突然离开。他高兴地沿着楼梯扶手往下滑。在扶手的末端，他掉了下来，恰巧撞在一个正准备上楼的胖绅士身上。儒勒不假思索脱口问道：“先生，吃过晚饭没有？”
那人回答说吃了——很愉快地吃了一个南特风格的煎蛋。
凡尔纳反驳道：“哼！巴黎没人会做那样的煎蛋！”
“你会吗？”那个胖子问道。
“我当然会啦——我是南特人，”儒勒说。
“那太好了！下礼拜三来我家吃饭吧，给我们做些煎蛋。”
说着，他递给这个年轻人一张名片，然后继续上楼去了。他就是亚历山大·大仲马，《三个火枪手》的作者。当时儒勒就惊呆了，那样子用一根面包棒就可以把他打翻在地。
认识大仲马更使凡尔纳坚定了要当作家的想法。在这位长者的鼓励下，儒勒决定要在地理学领域进行创作，就像大仲马的写作集中在历史学范畴那样。他开始把时间都花在了看书和写作上，彻底忘记了他是来巴黎学法律的。
他的父亲无法容忍他这样荒废学业，一怒之下，断了他的经济来源。儒勒在一家剧院找了一份报酬不高的工作，随后的几年过得很艰苦。他在给妈妈的信中这样写道：“我吃了牛排，这头牛几天前还在巴黎的大街上拉车呢。”他有一次一连吃了三天的梅干，因为他拿饭钱去买了一套莎士比亚全集。他衣衫褴褛、饥寒交迫。他这样对朋友说：“我的长袜好像蜘蛛网，里面一直睡着河马。”
尽管父亲切断了他的经济来源，儒勒仍然是那个对家庭忠诚、对父母很孝顺的儿子。他经常给父母写信，甚至到了中年仍然如此。在信中，他与父母亲讨论他的书、他的计划和他的梦想，极少在征求父母意见之前采取行动。正是他对家庭深深的爱使他在巴黎这样一个热闹非凡、享乐至上的艳丽之都还保持着本色：一个去教堂按时做礼拜的虔诚教徒，一个过着清教徒般生活的人。
儒勒英俊潇洒、气宇轩昂，对女孩子有着“难以抵挡的”魅力。于是他很快就坠入了爱河。从失恋的打击中恢复过来的凡尔纳先生很快又爱上了一个带着两个孩子的漂亮寡妇，这次他娶了她。
在他父亲的帮助下，他成为一名股票经纪人。他的经济状况得到了改善，但他仍然住在阁楼里，仍然写作。
他的第一部书是《气球上的五个星期》。15个出版商看过之后都嗤之以鼻，然后将书稿寄还给他。儒勒气坏了，把书扔进了火里。妻子把书稿从火里抢救出来，并让他答应再试一次。 于是儒勒卷起这本有点烧焦了的手稿，夹在胳膊底下，去找皮埃尔·黑泽尔，让他看看。
出版商认真通读了一遍，年轻的作家在一旁不安地等待。黑泽尔说，如果儒勒愿意将这本书改写成小说的话，他就愿意出版。
两个星期后，儒勒带着书稿回到出版社。《气球上的五个星期》成为最畅销的书并被译成多种文字。1862年，34岁的儒勒一举成名了。
他的第二部书是《地心游记》。这个故事中，众多人物从冰岛的一个火山口下到地心，历尽千辛万苦，最后在意大利的一次火山爆发中随着岩浆来到了地面。
也许凡尔纳的书中最著名的要数《八十天环游地球》了。这个故事在巴黎的《时代》杂志上连载的时候，书中主人公的命运引起了人们极大的兴趣，结果纽约和伦敦的通讯记者们每天都给自家报纸发电报，报道书中那位虚构的主人公菲力斯·福格的行踪。
关于福格能否及时到达伦敦以赢得赌注这件事，欧洲各国的人都在打着赌。凡尔纳巧妙地使人们兴趣盎然地关注故事的进展：书中的男主人公把一个印度寡妇从死亡线上拉回来又爱上了她，险些因为她误了要搭乘的联运船；他在穿越美洲大平原时遭到了印第安人的袭击；等他赶到纽约时却看到那艘要把他带回伦敦的船已经远去，在地平线上成为一个小斑点。
每家横渡大西洋的轮船公司都许诺给凡尔纳一大笔钱，只要他让菲力斯·福格搭乘他们公司的任何一艘船。但凡尔纳都拒绝了，他让他的主人公租了一艘船。当全世界都在屏息等待时，福格只提前了几分钟赶到了伦敦，赢得他和别人打的赌。
在《海底两万里》中，凡尔纳描述了一种潜水艇，它不仅是双层外壳、由电推动，而且还能用海水发电。现代潜水艇之父西蒙·莱克认为凡尔纳给他的发明提供了蓝本。
读凡尔纳的书，简直不能相信它们几乎是写于100年前。他那些幻想故事里的人用合成法造钻石，发明了一种在汽车、轮船和直升机之间自由转换的交通工具，他们发射的玻璃子弹中含有立即致命的电火花。
儒勒·凡尔纳的晚年过得并不幸福。学术界对他冷嘲热讽。他没能当选为法兰西文学院院士。谣传说没有儒勒·凡尔纳这个人。俄国人宣称他是斯拉夫人、波兰人，是以写作为掩护的老牌间谍。意大利的知识分子们说儒勒·凡尔纳是一伙法国科学家的笔名，且派了一个小说家去法国寻找证据。那个人检查了手稿，离开的时候心悦诚服。他打电报告诉他的同事：“没有什么儒勒·凡尔纳团体——只有儒勒。”
儒勒·凡尔纳死于1905年。社会各界的人们都参加了他的葬礼，包括所有原来鄙视他和散布谣言诋毁他的人、法国文学院的30名成员、外交人员、国王和总统们的特使。
人们在他的葬礼上所说的那些溢美之词中，儒勒·凡尔纳也许最喜爱巴黎一家报纸上刊载的两句话：“一位故事大师离开了我们，就像圣诞老人一样地离去了。”
Key Words:
merely ['miəli]
adv. 仅仅，只不过
reverently ['revərəntli]
adv. 恭敬地，虔诚地
extraordinary [iks'trɔ:dnri]
adj. 非凡的，特别的，特派的
expedition [.ekspi'diʃən]
n. 远征，探险队，迅速
fiction ['fikʃən]
n. 虚构，杜撰，小说
foresee [fɔ:'si:]
v. 预见，预知
inspiration [.inspə'reiʃən]
n. 灵感，吸入，鼓舞人心(的东西)
precise [pri'sais]
adj. 精确的，准确的，严格的，恰好的
indisputable [.indis'pju:təbl]
adj. 无可争辩的，无可置疑的
prime [praim]
adj. 最初的，首要的，最好的，典型的
supplement ['sʌplimənt,'sʌpliment]
n. 补充物，增刊
vt. 补充，增补
string [striŋ]
n. 线，一串，字串
fashionable ['fæʃənəbl]
adj. 流行的，时髦的
cart [kɑ:t]
n. 手推车，(二轮)载货车
v. (用手推车
abruptly [ə'brʌptli]
adv. 突然地，莽撞地，陡峭地，不连贯地
ascend [ə'send]
v. 上升，攀登
allowance [ə'lauəns]
n. 津贴，零用钱，允许，限额，折扣，允差，考虑 <
neglect [ni'glekt]
vt. 忽视，疏忽，忽略
n. 疏忽，忽视
confirmed [kən'fə:md]
adj. 习惯的，积习的，确认过的，证实的 动词conf
omelet ['ɔmlit]
n. 煎蛋卷，鸡蛋卷
banister ['bænistə]
n. 栏杆的支柱，楼梯的扶栏 =bannister
impatient [im'peiʃənt]
adj. 不耐烦的，急躁的
rage [reidʒ]
n. 狂怒，大怒，狂暴，肆虐，风行
v. 大怒
manuscript ['mænjuskript]
adj. 手抄的
n. 手稿，原稿
attic ['ætik]
n. 阁楼
balloon [bə'lu:n]
n. 气球
vt. 使膨胀
allowance [ə'lauəns]
n. 津贴，零用钱，允许，限额，折扣，允差，考虑 <
slightly ['slaitli]
adv. 些微地，苗条地
promptly [prɔmptli]
adv. 敏捷地，迅速地
devoted [di'vəutid]
adj. 投入的，深爱的 v. 投入 vbl. 投入
balloon [bə'lu:n]
n. 气球
vt. 使膨胀
vessel ['vesl]
n. 容器，器皿，船，舰
n. 脉管，血
charter ['tʃɑ:tə]
n. 宪章，特许，(船、机、车等的)租赁
popular ['pɔpjulə]
adj. 流行的，大众的，通俗的，受欢迎的
imaginary [i'mædʒinəri]
adj. 想象的，虚构的
volcano [vɔl'keinəu]
n. 火山
lava ['lɑ:və]
n. 熔岩，火山岩
spare [spɛə]
adj. 多余的，闲置的，备用的，简陋的
minutes ['minits]
n. 会议记录，(复数)分钟
espionage [.espiə'nɑ:ʒ]
n. 间谍活动
invention [in'venʃən]
n. 发明，发明物，虚构，虚构物
convertible [kən'və:təbl]
adj. 可改变的，可交换，同意义的 n. 有活动摺篷的
blueprint ['blu:'print]
n. 蓝图，设计图，(周详的)计划
v. 制成
intellectual [.intil'ektʃuəl]
n. 知识份子，凭理智做事者
adj. 智力的
diplomatic [.diplə'mætik]
adj. 外交的，古字体的，老练的
convinced [kən'vinst]
adj. 信服的
spark [spɑ:k]
n. 火花，朝气，情人，俗丽的年轻人
pole [pəul]
n. 杆，柱，极点
v. (用杆)支撑
fatal ['feitl]
adj. 致命的，毁灭性的，决定性的
参考资料：
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第二册:U13A Mr. Imagination(1)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第二册:U13A Mr. Imagination(2)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第二册:U13A Mr. Imagination(3)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第二册:U13A Mr. Imagination(4)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第二册:U13A Mr. Imagination(5)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第二册:U13A Mr. Imagination(6)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第二册:U13A Mr. Imagination(7)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
8万+
被折叠的 条评论
为什么被折叠?
到【灌水乐园】发言
