【英语听和读】朋克风的兴起

 Amber 1: Hello, I’m Amber and this is bbclearningenglish.com.

In Entertainment today, we go back to the mid-1970s when punk rock and the
British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood ruled the day! ‘Punk’ was a
popular style among young people and it involved shocking the establishment
with rebellious 2 music, shocking behaviour and outrageous 3 clothes!
We hear a description of the ‘punk look’, the punk style of clothes and hair.
And we hear how those clothes made the designer Vivienne Westwood famous.
But the story doesn’t end there – ‘these days’ (that’s a handy expression for
talking about the present time, in comparison with the past) – these days –
Vivienne Westwood is a ‘Dame 4’ – she’s been honoured by the Queen and
given the title ‘Dame’, and her fashion designs are museum pieces!
Here’s BBC presenter 5 Mark Coles describing punk culture and Vivienne
Westwood’s part in that trend. As you listen, try to catch the verb (it’s US
slang) that Mark uses to explain that punk rockers were disrespectful and
critical of the Queen.
Mark Coles
‘Spiky-haired youngsters running around in tartan bondage 6 trousers, safety pins and spiked 7
dog collars, dissing the Queen and calling for revolution on the streets! Well, that punk look,
its anarchy 8 symbols and torn clothes, was all Vivienne Westwood. It helped turn her into a
household name – one of the world’s most influential 9, not to mention, notorious, fashion
designers. These days, more than 30 years on, you’re more likely to find her designs hanging
in prestigious 10 museums like the National Gallery of Australia. She’s also Dame Vivienne
Westwood – honoured by the very Queen that the Sex Pistols savaged 11 back in punk’s
heyday 12.’ 
Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007
Page 2 of 3
bbclearningenglish.com
Amber: Did you catch it? Mark says punk rockers were ‘dissing’ the Queen. But that
was in ‘punk’s heyday’ (in the 1970s) – the heyday of something is the time of
its greatest popularity.
Listen again and try to catch what the punk rockers looked like!
Mark Coles
‘Spiky-haired youngsters running around in tartan bondage trousers, safety pins and spiked
dog collars, dissing the Queen and calling for revolution on the streets! Well, that punk look,
its anarchy symbols and torn clothes, was all Vivienne Westwood. It helped turn her into a
household name – one of the world’s most influential, not to mention, notorious, fashion
designers. These days, more than 30 years on, you’re more likely to find her designs hanging
in prestigious museums like the National Gallery of Australia. She’s also Dame Vivienne
Westwood – honoured by the very Queen that the Sex Pistols savaged back in punk’s
heyday.’
Amber: So punk rockers wore their hair in ‘spiky’ styles – stuck into sharp points,
sticking upwards 13! They often wore safety pins and even ‘spiked dog collars’ –
just to shock! Oh, and rather colourful trousers – ‘tartan bondage trousers’.
Tartan is kind of wool fabric 14 with straight patterns, often with a lot of red and
black lines in it. Bondage trousers have lots of zips and rips (they’re often
‘torn’)!
But now, Vivienne Westwood is speaking out again – this time she’s criticising
some forms of popular culture, like the cinema and magazines, and saying
people should go to the theatre and read books instead. She’s launched a
cultural manifesto 15 called ‘Active Resistance To Propaganda’, in which she asks
people to forget commerce, celebrity 16 and conceptual art and immerse
themselves instead in great culture. Here she is. Try to catch why she’s
encouraging people to rebel.
Vivienne Westwood
‘Every time you go to the theatre instead of the cinema, you are active in the theatre, you are
thinking, you are using your imagination. I’m not saying that cinema sometimes maybe can
not be artistic 17, but usually it’s not. Magazines are mostly for the – not only the illiterate 18 – but 
Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007
Page 3 of 3
bbclearningenglish.com
the visually illiterate. A magazine is something you just wet your finger, and just go through
the pages – flick 19, flick, flick – there’s not even anything particularly to see in there!’
Amber: So Vivienne Westwood says we should experience forms of art which make
us think and use our imaginations. She says we should be ‘active’ in the arts!
Vivienne Westwood
‘Every time you go to the theatre instead of the cinema, you are active in the theatre, you are
thinking, you are using your imagination. I’m not saying that cinema sometimes maybe can
not be artistic, but usually it’s not. Magazines are mostly for the – not only the illiterate – but
the visually illiterate. A magazine is something you just wet your finger, and just go through
the pages – flick, flick, flick – there’s not even anything particularly to see in there!’
Amber: Now let’s recap the language we focussed on.
‘that punk look’ - the rebellious style of clothes and hair fashionable in the
1970s
to dis – that’s US slang, meaning to be disrespectful, to criticise 20
‘punk’s heyday’ – the heyday of something is the time of its greatest
popularity.