时间:2019-01-07 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2011年(一月)


英语课

Country music frames a new romantic drama starring Gwyneth Paltrow as a Nashville diva trying to come back after personal tragedy sidetracks her career. Here's a look at Country Strong.


"Nashville's Kelly Canter left rehab early this morning. You remember the country music star was arrested a few months ago for drunk and disorderly conduct."

"I feel okay, thanks."

"Kelly, do you have anything else to say to your fans?"

"I love you all. Thanks for coming out."


Kelly Canter is a star in trouble. After a drunken onstage fall that causes her to suffer a miscarriage 1, she sinks into a haze 2 of depression and substance abuse.


"Do you care about Kelly? This is her last opportunity to turn things around."


Sony Pictures

Tim McGraw in scene from COUNTRY STRONG

Her husband and manager James, played by real-life country star Tim McGraw, is determined 3 to revive Kelly's career, even though the tragic 4 events have irreparably broken their marriage. Gwyneth Paltrow says she was drawn 5 to, but also afraid of playing the damaged diva.


"I did feel fear at the beginning just because this character was in such a different place and was so different from me in so many ways," admits Paltrow. "But also I just didn't know how to do a lot of the things that she does, like play guitar and be addicted 6 to pills and alcohol. There were so many things that I felt trepidation 7 about taking on and doing believably. It was a big job for me. I've never prepared so much for anything and I was nervous when we started.


Sony Pictures

Gwyneth Paltrow and Garrett Hedlund in scene from COUNTRY STRONG

Garrett Hedlund, on screen recently as the young lead of Tron: Legacy 8, co-stars as Beau, who comes into Kelly's life as a staff member at the rehab clinic. An aspiring 9 singer-songwriter, he moonlights playing his songs at a local honky-tonk bar. Hedlund says it took months of practice and study to gain the confidence it takes to get on stage and sing for an audience.


"It was all day every day listening to country [music] and getting every inflection of every song down," Hedlund says. "That makes it easier, I guess, but to be in the studio and sing the song week after week you find where it works and try to ride that wave. When you see that people are enjoying it, you enjoy it and you enjoy everything."


Sony Pictures

Leighton Meester in scene from COUNTRY STRONG

Leighton Meester, a co-star of the TV hit Gossip Girls, plays Chiles, a young beauty queen who idolizes superstar Kelly and hopes to follow in her footsteps.


The only key member of the cast with real country music experience is Tim McGraw, who does not sing a note as Kelly's husband-manager. A critic of most Hollywood movie versions of the music world, McGraw says the attempt at authenticity 11 in Country Strong won him over.


"It's a movie, so nothing is dead on, but I think what is really authentic 10 is the music as it relates to each character," McGraw says. "I think that a lot of times in these films you can have really great music, but the characters kind of fall short or the storyline falls short so you don't believe that these characters can support that music; or, vice-versa, you can have these beautiful characters and story and then the music hits and you think 'there's no way that this music is really good enough in the real world to sustain these characters.' I think in this particular case you have really great characters who you get emotionally invested in and you really want to see what happens to them; and then you have this great music that you can believe, in the sort of fantasy world of this movie, that this music could create these people who want to be stars or this person who is a star or it could propel this guy to be a star."


Sony Pictures

Gwyneth Paltrow in scene from COUNTRY STRONG

Texas-born Shana Feste wrote and directed Country Strong and says for the story to work the audience has to believe the characters really are in that music world.


"The most important thing when I was casting this movie was that I found actors who could sing," explains Feste. "That was most important. I just didn't want to revoice anyone. I thought it was so cheesy and if you're going to make a movie about country music and you want it to be authentic you have to use the actors' real voices. What we ended up doing was the mikes were always live and we ended up, in the editing room, incorporating a lot of their live performance into their pre-recordings ...just so it sounded like they were really performing at these venues 12. "


Country Strong was filmed on location in and around Nashville, Tennessee and many of the extras and background performers are real musicians, technicians and reporters who work in that capital city of American country music.



n.失败,未达到预期的结果;流产
  • The miscarriage of our plans was a great blow.计划的失败给我们以巨大的打击。
  • Women who smoke are more to have a miscarriage.女性吸烟者更容易流产。
n.霾,烟雾;懵懂,迷糊;vi.(over)变模糊
  • I couldn't see her through the haze of smoke.在烟雾弥漫中,我看不见她。
  • He often lives in a haze of whisky.他常常是在威士忌的懵懂醉意中度过的。
adj.坚定的;有决心的
  • I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
  • He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。
adj.悲剧的,悲剧性的,悲惨的
  • The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
  • Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的
  • All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
  • Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。
adj.沉溺于....的,对...上瘾的
  • He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
  • She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。
n.惊恐,惶恐
  • The men set off in fear and trepidation.这群人惊慌失措地出发了。
  • The threat of an epidemic caused great alarm and trepidation.流行病猖獗因而人心惶惶。
n.遗产,遗赠;先人(或过去)留下的东西
  • They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
  • He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。
adj.有志气的;有抱负的;高耸的v.渴望;追求
  • Aspiring musicians need hours of practice every day. 想当音乐家就要每天练许多小时。
  • He came from an aspiring working-class background. 他出身于有抱负的工人阶级家庭。 来自辞典例句
a.真的,真正的;可靠的,可信的,有根据的
  • This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
  • Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。
n.真实性
  • There has been some debate over the authenticity of his will. 对于他的遗嘱的真实性一直有争论。
  • The museum is seeking an expert opinion on the authenticity of the painting. 博物馆在请专家鉴定那幅画的真伪。
n.聚集地点( venue的名词复数 );会场;(尤指)体育比赛场所;犯罪地点
  • The band will be playing at 20 different venues on their UK tour. 这个乐队在英国巡回演出期间将在20个不同的地点演出。
  • Farmers market corner, 800 meters long, 60 meters wide livestock trading venues. 农牧市场东北角,有长800米,宽60米的牲畜交易场地。 来自互联网
学英语单词
acate pneumonic tuberculosis
air tanker
Allen key
amynologic
AOEL
AORTF
aperture-field method
Bactris
benzene hexachloride (bhc)
cage structure
camcorders
caraca
carved wooden necklace
ccr(current cell rate)
centerbody
charge turbulent fluctuation
circle shear
circular shelf dryer
closed cycle
coefficient of self oscillation
conjugate locus
conservations of mass
corrosion resisting property
cost utility analysis
cross-adaptation
crumpacker
cryogenic heat pipe
crystalliser
diacetyl-dihydroxydiphenylisatin
dimethyl tartrate
double punch and blank-column detection
dower and courtesy interests
Duhring's diagram
enteric bacillus
epistatic gene
EPO-R
family Lobotidae
Fleet vehicle
fuze firing mechanism
gets along
graduated hopper-charging
gynaeco-
Hall flowmeter
hindshanks
honey glands
Johnny on the spot
lehmannite
listenest
literary critics
make one's escape
marieclaude
mechanization of maintenance
miniatus
molecular absorption band
mounting metallurgical specimens
musculus extensor digitorum longus pedis
network-connected
neutral phosphate
NIH-7519
orates
paddle type agitator
papillary foramen
paris-journal
Phyllomahaleb
pitching change
platform barrier
POPSIPT
Porlezzina
propeller-regulating mechanism
pulpiform
rassling
recovery flap
remerging
resistance-weld mill
rock bolting jumbo
S.S.P.
spheriflex hub
spring gage
stopine
sturrocks
subdetector
superpredicate
switching line
tail throat of a hump yard
teeming stage
tetralogies of fallot
the Met
The sands are running out.
theater air priority number
Themar
tie-in line
tin plate printing
tinamidaes
trachodonts
transfer target
turning block
turpentine wood oil
universal cutter and tool grinder
weather search radar
zahava
Zarp