PETS二级考试语法复习精讲（71）
发布时间：2010/11/30 19:54:10 来源：城市学习网 编辑：admin
Violence is good box office.
Marie: That was a really violent movie.
Jean: It certainly was. There seemed to be one killing about every ten minutes.
Marie: I know. I began to get a bit sick of it long before the end.
Jean: Why are so many movies so full of violence?
Marie: It's because violence is good box office I suppose.
Jean: You must be right. Well the next movie I go to see will be romantic comedy.
玛丽：这部电影真是充斥暴力。
珍：不错。似乎每隔十分钟就有一人被杀。
玛丽：是啊，电影放映不久，我就感到有点厌倦。
珍：为什么那么多电影都在渲染暴力？
玛丽：也许是因为暴力才叫座吧。
珍：一定是这样。嗯，我下次看电影，要看部浪漫喜剧。
前面说过box office是电影院等的售票处，但box office还有另一个意思：可增加票房收入的人、事。Violence is good box office是一个例子，这里不妨再举两个例：（1）She isn't box office any more.（她不再叫座了）。（2） The scandal about the heroine was all good box office.（涉及女主角的丑闻，对票房大有帮助）。
留意例句二的heroine.Hero和heroine 当然可指'英雄'和'女英雄'，例如：He/She was a war hero/heroine.（他╱她是位战争英雄）。但电影、戏剧、小说等的男女主角，即使没有英雄气慨，也叫hero和heroine，例如：The heroine in the movie is too meek to stand up for her rights.（电影中的女主角太过温顺，不能维护自己的权利）。
Box office还可作形容词。The movie is probably the biggest box office failure/flop of the year.即'这部电影大概是全年票房纪录最差的'.Superman was a box office success/hit/smash则是说'《超人》这部电影十分卖座'.Hit、smash原意都是'打'，引伸解作'成功'，smash hit更是'大成功'，例如：His new album proved a smash hit（他的新唱片非常畅销）。
电影卖不卖座还有一个说法：The movie does well/badly at the box office.那does改为fares也可以。Fare作动词，有'遭遇'的意思，所以向朋友说Fare you well或Farewell（再见）等于说'祝一切顺利'.[NextPage] It was about an old man on his deathbed looking back on his life in flashback.
Graham: I've just seen a really interesting foreign movie.
Eliza: Really? Where was it made?
Graham: In Iran. I didn't even know it had a movie industry.
Eliza: Neither did I. What was it about?
Graham: It was about an old man on his deathbed looking back on his life in flashback.
Eliza: Sounds a bit depressing.
Graham: Not at all, he had had a very exciting life.
格雷姆：我刚刚看了一部很精采的外国电影。
伊莱泽：是吗？电影是在哪里拍的？
格雷姆：伊朗。我以前甚至不知道伊朗有电影业。
伊莱泽：我也不知道。电影说什么？
格雷姆：电影以倒叙法，述说一个老人临终躺卧床上，回顾自己一生。
伊莱泽：听起来颇为伤感。
格雷姆：一点都不伤感。那老人一生非常多采多姿。
电影、小说等有时会用倒叙法，即故事中插入一段往事，这片段叫flashback，是可数名词；假如指倒叙手法，则作不可数名词，例如：
（1） The hero's life story was told in a series of flashbacks（男主角一生的故事，用倒叙手法一幕一幕的陈述）
（2） The events leading to the dictator's downfall were shown in flashback（那独裁者垮台的经过，是用倒叙手法陈述的）。
Flash本是指'闪耀'，作动词、名词都可以。有时，往事突然在脑海中闪现，这就是flashback的原义，动词是flash back，例如：
（1） While strolling in the park, I had a flashback of my father sitting with me on one of the benches many years before（我在公园里散步，忽然想起多年前，父亲和我一起坐在这公园一张长椅上）。
（2） My thoughts flashed back to the day when I first met her（我忽然想起和她初相识那一天）。
动词flash back当然也可以指电影等使用倒叙法；而既有flash back，也就有flash forward，即提前叙述一段日后的事，例如：The movie flashed back/forward to his youth（电影用倒叙手法/预示手法谈到他的青年时代）。
最后谈谈on one's deathbed一词，Deathbed即临终所卧的床，所以'临终的愿望'叫a deathbed wish，'临终的忏悔'叫deathbed repentance等，On one's deathbed即'卧床将死'，例如：On his deathbed, he made his will（他临终立了遗嘱）。
