跟《经济学人》学英文：2024年08月10日这期 “Deadpool & Wolverine” is revolting, but popular

“Deadpool & Wolverine” is revolting, but popular

The film has had the highest-grossing opening of an R-rated film

revolting：美 [rɪˈvoʊltɪŋ] 讨厌的；恶心的

highest-grossing：票房最高的

原文：

What is the most surprising thing about the new Marvel film, “Deadpool &

Wolverine”, the first to be rated R? It is not the violence, which is gratuitous

and unpleasantly tinged with sexuality (suffice to say that Wolverine’s claws

go where no claws should). Instead, it may be the synopsis, which Disney

released beforehand. This starts by explaining how the hero, Deadpool, must

save the world from “an existential threat” then suddenly tails off. “Fuck,” it

says. “Fuck. Synopses are so fucking stupid.”

第一部被评为R级的漫威新片《死侍与金刚狼》最令人惊讶的是什么？这不是暴力，这是毫无理由的，令人不快地带有性的色彩(只要说金刚狼的爪子去了不该去的地方就够了)。相反，它可能是迪士尼事先公布的大纲。这部电影首先解释了男主角死侍必须拯救世界免受“生存威胁”，然后故事突然结束。“他妈的，”它说。“操。概要是如此他妈的愚蠢。”

学习：

gratuitous：美 [ɡrəˈt(j)uədəs] 无必要的；无缘无故的；无正当理由（或目的）的

unpleasantly：令人不愉快地；不讨人喜欢地

tinged with：带有xxx的色彩

sexuality：美 [ˌsekʃuˈæləti] 性取向；性欲；性特征；性感觉；性行为

suffice： 美 [səˈfaɪs] 足够；满足需要；足以 注意发音

suffice to say：只要说…就够了；简单地说

synopsis：美 [sɪˈnɑːpsɪs] 概要；摘要；梗概

synopses：美 [sɪ’nɑpsiz] 对照表；大纲；（synopsis的复数）

beforehand：事先；预先；提前

原文：

Perhaps that is because any synopsis of this film would involve terms like

“space-time matrix” and “man in a red body stocking”. But “Deadpool &

Wolverine”, as a commercial venture, is not stupid at all. The film, which

breaks taboos and the fourth wall with abandon, is startlingly successful: it

made $211m during its first weekend (July 26th-28th) in America. That is

the largest-ever opening for an R-rated film and the sixth-biggest grossing—

the word is unusually apt—opening of all time.

也许这是因为这部电影的任何概要都会涉及诸如“时空矩阵”和“穿红色紧身衣的人”等术语。但是《死侍&金刚狼》作为一部商业冒险片，一点都不傻。这部电影打破了禁忌，毫无保留地打破了第四堵墙，取得了惊人的成功:在美国上映的第一个周末(7月26日至28日)就赚了2 . 11亿美元。这是R级电影有史以来最大的首映票房，也是有史以来票房第六高的电影——这个词非常贴切。

原文：

Deadpool the character may save the world; “Deadpool & Wolverine” the

film is being credited with saving the Marvel film franchise itself. (Whether

or not it was culturally worth saving is arguable.) Recent films have

bombed, but the Marvel enterprise—which sells comics and merchandise in

addition to films—remains a marvel. The largest continuous, self-contained

piece of fiction that humanity has produced is not the writings of Proust, or

of James Joyce, but of Marvel comics: over half a million pages to date, and

counting. The franchise, as Douglas Wolk, author of “All of the Marvels”,

has argued, changed the filmography of the 20th century both directly (three

of the ten highest-grossing films of all time are Marvel films) and indirectly.

“‘Star Wars’ and ‘Avatar’ and ‘The Matrix’”, writes Mr Wolk, “would be

unimaginable without it.”

死侍这个角色可能会拯救世界；《死侍与金刚狼》这部电影被认为拯救了漫威电影系列本身。(从文化角度来看，它是否值得保存尚有争议。)最近的电影都失败了，但是漫威企业——除了电影还销售漫画和商品——仍然是一个奇迹。人类创作的最大的连续的、自成一体的小说不是普鲁斯特的作品，也不是詹姆斯·乔伊斯的作品，而是漫威漫画公司的作品:迄今为止已经超过50万页，而且还在增加。正如《所有的奇迹》的作者Douglas Wolk所说，这部电影直接和间接地改变了20世纪的电影史(有史以来票房最高的十部电影中有三部是漫威电影)。“‘星球大战’、‘《阿凡达》’和‘黑客帝国’，”沃尔克先生写道，“没有它是不可想象的。”

学习：

wolverine：美 [ˌwʊlvəˈrin] 狼獾；熊貂（狼獾的别称）；狼獾皮；豹熊

comics： 美 [ˈkɑmɪks] 少儿连环漫画期刊；成人连环漫画册；连环漫画；（comic的复数）

merchandize：英 [ˈmɜːtʃəndaɪs ] 商品

self-contained：独立的；自立的；自给自足的；独门独户的；一应俱全的；

filmography：美 [fɪlˈmɑɡrəfi] 影片作品列表；电影目录；电影集锦；注意发音

原文：

Its influence goes beyond film. Phrases such as “‘nuff said” and “Spidey

sense” came from Marvel. In 2022 Marvel Comics were issued as Penguin

Classics, implicitly ranking them alongside the complete works of Jane

Austen and Homer. They share some similarities with the latter (endless

fighting, odd obsession with body armour), though not style. In “The Iliad”,

after Achilles defeats his foe, he speaks movingly about “the fate the gods

have spun for poor mortal men, that we should live in misery”. When

Marvel characters win, they tend instead to say things in the vein of “Pow!”

and “You skunk!”

它的影响超越了电影。像“努夫说”和“蜘蛛侠感觉”这样的短语来自漫威。2022年，漫威漫画作为企鹅经典发行，与简·奥斯汀和荷马的全集并列。他们与后者有一些相似之处(无休止的战斗，对防弹衣的古怪痴迷)，尽管不是风格。在《伊利亚特》中，在阿喀琉斯击败他的敌人后，他动情地谈到“诸神为可怜的凡人安排了命运，让我们生活在痛苦之中”。当漫威角色获胜时，他们往往会说“Pow！”和“你这个讨厌鬼！"

学习：

the complete works：全集；整个著作；全部著作

body armour：防弹衣

Marvel characters：漫威的角色

skunk：美 [skʌŋk] 卑鄙的人；（游戏中的）完败对手

in the vein of：以xxx的方式

原文：

Marvel’s success was not always easy to predict. The characters, who first

appeared in the 1930s during comic books’ “golden age”, included the

Human Torch and Captain America. They battled villainous foreigners and

the English language itself. (“Quick! Load the sleep-gas cylinder in your

portable bazooka!” is a typical sentence.) There was some zeal—the debut

issue of Marvel Comics sold 800,000 copies—but also scepticism. As

Martin Goodman, Marvel’s publisher put it, “We can’t keep putting out this

crap for long.”

漫威的成功并不总是容易预测的。这些角色最早出现在20世纪30年代漫画的“黄金时代”，包括人类火炬和美国队长。他们与邪恶的外国人和英语国家本身斗争。(“快！把睡眠气体筒装到你的便携式火箭筒里！”就是典型的一句话。)有一些热情——漫威漫画的第一期卖出了80万册——但也有怀疑。正如漫威的出版商马丁·古德曼所说，“我们不能长期出版这种垃圾。”

学习：

villainous： 美 [ˈvɪlənəs] 邪恶的；恶毒的；恶劣的

bazooka：美 [bəˈzukə] 巴祖卡，火箭筒

“Load the sleep-gas cylinder in your portable bazooka!”

• 这句话是一个典型的漫画对白，展示了漫画书中夸张和富有想象力的情节。意思是“把睡眠气体筒装到你的便携式火箭筒里！”这是一个带有科幻色彩的战斗指令，展示了早期漫画书中的荒诞和戏剧性。
• 例子：漫画书中夸张的情节和对话，例如“把睡眠气体筒装到你的便携式火箭筒里！”，展示了早期漫画的想象力和创造力。(The exaggerated scenarios and dialogues in comic books, such as “Load the sleep-gas cylinder in your portable bazooka!”, showcase the creativity and imagination of early comics.)

zeal：热情；激情；积极性

crap：垃圾；废物

原文：

It turns out that they could, though not all of Marvel’s habits have aged well

in a more global entertainment market. In a “Captain America” film, the Cap

bumps into some Frenchmen in wartime Europe; their ongoing discussion is

rendered in the subtitles simply by the words: “Speaking French”. Not all of

its names have aged well, either: the tendency to shorten Captain America’s

name to “the Cap”, to modern British ears, makes it sound as though he is

battling not evil but rather unwanted pregnancies with a diaphragm.

事实证明，他们可以，尽管在一个更加全球化的娱乐市场中，漫威的所有习惯并没有过时。在一部“美国队长”电影中，队长撞到了战时欧洲的一些法国人；他们正在进行的讨论在字幕中简单地表现为“说法语”。也不是所有的名字都有悠久的历史:现代英国人倾向于将美国队长的名字缩写为“the Cap ”,这听起来好像他不是在与邪恶作斗争，而是在与有隔膜的意外怀孕作斗争。

学习：

bump into：撞见

“Rather unwanted pregnancies with a diaphragm”

• 这里这句话是用幽默的方式来表达“Captain America”的简称“the Cap”在现代英国人听来可能会引起误解。具体来说，英国人把“Cap”理解为避孕帽（diaphragm），于是"battling not evil but rather unwanted pregnancies with a diaphragm" 的意思是指听起来像是“Captain America”不是在与邪恶作斗争，而是在与意外怀孕作斗争。
• 例子：这句话的幽默在于，它利用了词语的双关，让人们把“the Cap”与避孕帽联系起来，从而产生误解。(The humor in this phrase lies in the wordplay, making people associate “the Cap” with a contraceptive device, thereby creating a misunderstanding.)

pregnancies: 美 [ˈpreɡnənsiz] 怀孕；妊娠；（pregnancy的复数）

diaphragm: 美 [ˈdaɪəˌfræm] 避孕膜; 隔膜；隔板；

原文：

Instead of elevating its films, Marvel seems to have chosen to mock itself in

relentless, self-referential irony. The opening credits of the first Deadpool

film promised a “hot chick”, “British villain” and “gratuitous cameo”. The

latest is filled with in-jokes about the rights to the Marvel characters

themselves, and at one point the two characters tussle by a 20th-Century Fox

logo that is half-buried, Ozymandias-like, in desert sands.

漫威似乎没有提升自己的电影，而是选择了无情地自我嘲讽。第一部死侍电影的片头字幕承诺了一个“辣妹”、“英国恶棍”和“免费客串”。最新的一部充满了关于漫威角色本身权利的笑话，在某一点上，两个角色为一个20世纪福克斯的标志而争斗，这个标志半埋在沙漠中，像奥兹曼迪斯。

学习：

referential：英 [ˌrɛfəˈrɛnʃ(ə)l] 指示的；涉及的；关联的

self-referential：自指的

chick： 美 [tʃɪk] 年轻女性；少女；年轻女子

villain： 美 [ˈvɪlən] 反派角色；恶棍；坏人；罪犯

gratuitous： 美 [ɡrəˈt(j)uədəs] 无偿的；无必要的

cameo：美 [ˈkæmiˌoʊ] 客串角色

原文：

“Deadpool & Wolverine” often feels like little more than a series of cameos

glued together with body fluids, albeit by good actors. Matthew Macfadyen

from “Succession” pops up here as a British bad guy to warn another villain

that she “has the power to shred the fabric of all realities”. Then he looks

glum, possibly because he is worried about reality, or possibly because he

has just said the line “shred the fabric of all realities”. At one point,

Deadpool turns to Wolverine and says: “Welcome to the MCU [Marvel

Cinematic Universe], by the way. You’re joining at a bit of a low point.”

Financially, thanks to this film, he may not be. ■

《死侍与金刚狼》给人的感觉通常只是一系列用体液粘在一起的客串，尽管是由优秀的演员制作的。《继承者们》中的马修·麦克费登作为一个英国坏蛋出现在这里，警告另一个恶棍，她“有能力撕碎所有现实的织物”。然后他看起来闷闷不乐，可能是因为他担心现实，也可能是因为他刚刚说了那句“撕碎所有现实的织物”。有一次，死侍转向金刚狼说:“顺便说一下，欢迎来到MCU[漫威电影宇宙]。你是在有点低落的时候加入的。”在经济上，由于这部电影，他可能不会。■

学习：

glum：英 [ɡlʌm] 闷闷不乐的；阴沉的；情绪低落的；

cinematic： 美 [ˌsɪnəˈmætɪk] 影院的；电影的；电影制作的；

后记

2024年8月13日15点16分于上海。