【英语听和读】詹姆斯邦德

 Callum: Hello, I'm Callum Robertson and this is Entertainment.

This week sees the release of the 21st Bond film, Casino Royale and it's the
first film to star actor Daniel Craig as the British Secret Service spy 007.
James Bond was the creation of author Ian Fleming who wrote 13 Bond novels
as well as a number of short stories featuring Bond between 1953 and 1964, the
year in which he died. Fleming had worked in intelligence during the Second
World War and this was the background and experience he called upon in his
books.
Ian Fleming was also a keen ornithologist 1, an ornithologist is someone whose
hobby is watching birds, and he wrote most of his books in his house in the
West Indian island of Jamaica. He took the name of the character James Bond,
from the real name of a writer of a book called 'Birds of the West Indies'.
It's one of the many pieces of Bond trivia that in the film Die Another Day the
actor Pierce Brosnan, playing Bond, is seen holding a copy of the book while
pretending to be an ornithologist.
Pierce Brosnan was the fifth actor to play the role of the super spy and as the
actors have had to change over the years, so have the plot lines and stories. 
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The world is a very different place to what is was in 1962 when the first Bond
film Dr. No was released and the films have reflected that and evolved and
reflected contemporary events. Here's writer and critic Kim Newman. How
does he describe the way the Bond movies have dealt with issues from the real
world?
 
Kim Newman
Over the years Bond's dealt with whatever we've dealt with in the real world but in a slightly
inflated 2, exaggerated way. I'm going back into the books in the 50s, they start dealing 3 with
communism, that's the big trouble. In the 1960s it's out of control technological 4 maniacs 5 and
we've had a few attempts to do mercenaries, drug dealers 6, arms dealers, sort of more realistic
villains 7 and now I suppose we're going to have to look forward to Bond going up against
terrorists.
Callum: He said that the issues of the real world have been dealt with in a slightly
inflated and exaggerated way. An inflated and exaggerated way which means
larger than life, more dramatic than reality. A few of the things mentioned are
communism, technological maniacs – people with advanced technology who
have mad plans to take over the world, technological maniacs. There have also
been attempts in the films to deal with more realistic issues such as drug
dealers, arms dealers, people who sell weapons and mercenaries. A mercenary
is a soldier who works not for a country but for whoever pays him, a hired
soldier – a mercenary. He says that now Bond will have to face the threat of
terrorism. He will have to 'go up against' terrorists. To 'go up against' is a
multi-word verb which means to confront, to challenge and fight, to go up
against. Listen again
Kim Newman
Over the years Bond's dealt with whatever we've dealt with in the real world but in a slightly
inflated, exaggerated way. I'm going back into the books in the 50s, they start dealing with 
Entertainment © BBC Learning English
Page 3 of 3
bbclearningenglish.com
communism, that's the big trouble. In the 1960s it's out of control technological maniacs and
we've had a few attempts to do mercenaries, drug dealers, arms dealers, sort of more realistic
villains and now I suppose we're going to have to look forward to Bond going up against
terrorists.
Callum: Over the years Bond has covered the cold war, the space race, nuclear threats
and dangers connected with the rise of information technology. The films have
become well-known for special effects and special gadgets 8 – gadgets, tools and
devices that Bond uses like the watch with a laser built in, the invisible car and
exploding toothpaste.
What about the new Bond and the new film? Well I don't know, I haven't had
the chance to see it yet, but from what I've heard it's tougher, more realistic and
there are fewer gadgets. I'm certainly looking forward to catching 9 it and
hearing a new actor say the immortal 10 line, the name's Bond, James Bond.