National Portrait Gallery – 国家肖像画廊

The National Portrait Gallery



Helen:

Jin: 大家好，我是金妮。在今天的节目中，我们要带大家游览著名的英国国家肖像画廊。

Helen: The National Portrait Gallery is located right in the centre of London, next to the famous Trafalgar Square.

Jin: 国家肖像画廊就在伦敦市中心，紧靠著名的特拉法加广场。你要是对名人感兴趣，还真应该到这儿来看看。

Helen: That’s right. The National Portrait Gallery is famous for its collection of portraits of famous people.

Jin: 那么国家肖像画廊有哪些值得一看的作品呢？我们请来了这里媒体负责人 Stephen, 首先他和我们介绍了一下这里的历史。

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The National Portrait Gallery was founded in 1856, nearly 150 years ago, to collect and display portraits of famous men and women who have contributed to British history and culture and society.

Jin: 原来国家肖像画廊建于1856年。

Helen: Founded in 1856, and the main purpose of the gallery is?

Jin: 主要目的是收藏那些对英国历史，文化和社会做出过贡献的名人肖像。

Helen: So the collection has quite a few rules. And Stephen has more explanations for us.

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They have to be eminent 1, they have to be prominent, they have to be well known, they have to have had some form of achievement. That could be captaining the England football team, or having a Nobel prize, or having composed a great symphony 2.

Jin: 听Stephen这么一说，不是每个人都能把自己的肖像挂到国家肖像画廊里的，而是得要符合一定的标准。

Helen: Exactly, and Stephen used a few big words to describe the selection 3 criteria 4. First of all, they have to be eminent.

Jin: 显赫，eminent.

Helen: They have to be prominent.

Jin: 卓越，prominent.

Helen: Also well known, famous.

Jin: 并且得有点儿名气。

Helen: And to have had some kind of achievement.

Jin: 成就。也就是说只有那些达到了一定成就的人才有可能被考虑进去。

(You are listening to BBC Learning English)

Helen: And to give us an example of eminent, prominent, well known people with achievement, Stephen talked about David Beckham.

Jin: 贝克汉姆，当然是名人喽。那他的肖像是什么样儿的呢？

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It’s a video portrait of him asleep - it’s by Sam Taylor Wood – and it’s actually an hour and seven minutes of David asleep in his hotel room in Madrid.

Jin: 竟然是一盘贝克汉姆在马德里酒店房间里睡觉的录像带啊。Where did this idea come from?

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The idea behind the portrait when it was put to the artist to do this commission 5, was, she said, how can you have a portrait of someone who is so well known? His image is flashed across the world in newspapers, on the internet. We see him playing football; the public David Beckham is the person we know, what is the private David Beckham? Well, the place when nobody, or very few people see him, is of course when he is asleep. So we share through the video portrait, that intimate moment of him asleep.

Jin: Okay, that makes more sense. 无可置疑，贝克汉姆是世界上最有名的足球运动员之一，他的照片儿随处可见。

Helen: His pictures are flashed everywhere. Flash here is a verb, it means showing something to other people.

Jin: 所以，为了让这位明星球员的肖像更吸引人，作者就想到拍摄熟睡中的贝克汉姆。

Helen: So showing him sleeping is actually a very private moment.

Jin: 这是他的私人生活镜头，和他频频曝光的公众形象形成了鲜明对比。

Helen: It’s a refreshing 6 idea.

Jin: 国家肖像画廊每天都有数以千计的游客，那它最大的吸引力在什么地方呢？

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People come to the gallery for many different reasons; some come to see familiar faces and those iconic images from the collection.

Jin: 很多人来是为了来看他们熟悉的面孔。

Helen: Familiar faces.

Jin: 和偶像们的形象。

Helen: Iconic images, iconic is from icon 7.

Jin: Icon，偶像。像贝克汉姆是很多人的偶像，不过莎士比亚也是属于偶像级人物。

Helen: There are many different themes on display, so you are constantly on a journey of discovery.

(BBC Learning English)

Jin: 好了，今天的节目就到这儿。

Helen: Let’s hope that you’ll have the chance to explore the iconic images of people in the National Portrait Gallery one day.

Jin: Bye.

Helen: Bye bye.