时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2012年(十月)


英语课

 



Cloud Atlas 1: A Tale of Birth, Death and Re-Birth


From the travails 2 of a young American in the mid-19th century on a vessel 3 crossing the Pacific to a female clone who rises up against oppression in a futuristic society, Cloud Atlas is a grand tale about lessons learned from previous lives.


Lana Wachowski wrote and co-directed the film. “We started looking at the way the stories connected. We were immediately drawn 4 to this concept what if the villain 5 of one story is actually the hero of another story played by the same actor," she said. 


To achieve this, each actor plays multiple roles. Tom Hanks is one of the leads. “On one page, you go from 1851 to 1974 to you know, dystopian future," he said.


The challenge was great says Halle Berry who has significant film presence and interprets six characters. “Each one of those characters, the soul evolved in order to have the strength to be the character that I ended up being," she said. 


In her last incarnation, she plays a woman in the future who saves the world. 


Cloud Atlas is also about eternal love. 


"Each story propels the next story and then you're back again and it propels again the next one," said actress Susan Sarandon, who also appears in the film. 


She says romance links each story to the next as the characters meet again and again.


The cast also includes Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and Hugo Weaving, who is famous for his role as the sinister 6 Agent Smith in The Matrix. Once again, Weaving represents pure evil. His goal is to tempt 7 and stall the evolution of the soul.


This $100 million production offers costumes and sets that highlight the film's different eras. 


“The breadth, the scope, the vast amount of time and space the movie covers. Some buildings are just doors and windows and other buildings are great architecture," said Hanks. 


But the film lacks the depth it promises. The stories meander 8 and there are too many characters. After three hours we are lost between the past, the present and the future. 




1 atlas
n.地图册,图表集
  • He reached down the atlas from the top shelf.他从书架顶层取下地图集。
  • The atlas contains forty maps,including three of Great Britain.这本地图集有40幅地图,其中包括3幅英国地图。
2 travails
n.艰苦劳动( travail的名词复数 );辛勤努力;痛苦;分娩的阵痛
  • In the and travails of businesses you'll always need hometown help. 就算你的业务扩大到其他城市,也不要忘了你的发源地。 来自互联网
  • Tata Motor's travails with Land Rover and Jaguar spring to mind as recent less-than-favorable examples. 印度塔塔汽车公司对陆虎和捷豹品牌的辛苦收购就是最近一个不如人意的例子。 来自互联网
3 vessel
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管
  • The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
  • You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。
4 drawn
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。
5 villain
n.反派演员,反面人物;恶棍;问题的起因
  • He was cast as the villain in the play.他在戏里扮演反面角色。
  • The man who played the villain acted very well.扮演恶棍的那个男演员演得很好。
6 sinister
adj.不吉利的,凶恶的,左边的
  • There is something sinister at the back of that series of crimes.在这一系列罪行背后有险恶的阴谋。
  • Their proposals are all worthless and designed out of sinister motives.他们的建议不仅一钱不值,而且包藏祸心。
7 tempt
vt.引诱,勾引,吸引,引起…的兴趣
  • Nothing could tempt him to such a course of action.什么都不能诱使他去那样做。
  • The fact that she had become wealthy did not tempt her to alter her frugal way of life.她有钱了,可这丝毫没能让她改变节俭的生活习惯。
8 meander
n.河流的曲折,漫步,迂回旅行;v.缓慢而弯曲地流动,漫谈
  • Visitors and locals alike meander along the sidewalks of the Seine River.游客与当地人沿着塞纳河岸漫步聊天。
  • They tumble down mountainsides and meander through flat farmlands.它们滚滚冲下山脊,蜿蜒穿过平坦的农田。
学英语单词
abscessed teeth
adamellite
administer relief
almas
aul wan
barytons
Batu Pulai, Sungai
be skilled at
beef tongues
borefest
cancer pathophysiology
carotid arch
catch a disease
centrifugal pendulum
civitated
country of residence
cromoglycate
decision support system - DSS
dial - up access
down price
ekalead
electronic pick up
emoia atrocostata
epithallus
fairy circles
feel your way
ferroelectric non-volatile memory
final working drawings
firedamp migration
go on errands
gurdfish
hemicontinuous operator
herborises
honeycomb radiator
incidence point
indolent
internal cylindrical gauge
IPG
japann
judicial separation
jump out of skin
Karkar I.
kissins
koat
la charite
Leontopolis
ligg. intercuneiformia plantaria
light repeater
linkage analysis
location variable type
longspur
magnetoresistances
marine electric power station
marine energy resource
marine refraction seismic survey
master scheduler
mercuric lactate
mercury ballast of gyrocompass
methylal resin
meyers
michelman
Molotor cocktail
monologists
multi-valued displacement
multistage scrubber
nit-pickers
Nocardia actinoides
nonfashion
nonintersecting lines
observance of good seamanship
orbifolding
ordered scattering
parental involvement
plancks
plite
pneutronic ammeter
polyether diols
purchase of goods
radial inlet
readily available
receiver operating characteristics curve
regentess
Retina Display
rinsed-out
Routh array table
Sambang
satellisation
saturn-day
sawhney
scrikes
seam-welding equipment
self compatible
semen diluter
semianaerobic condition
Sid Caesar
sphagna
subsurface burst
superhigh frequency
talk down to
tidly
unheal
xenocrystal