History of Moving Pictures剑桥雅思6-听力原文翻译及答案解析

一、History of Moving Pictures听力原文：

Many believe that the story first began in America in 1877,when two friends were arguing over whether a horse ever had all four feet or hooves off the ground when it galloped.

To settle the bet,a photographer was asked to photograph a horse galloping and the bet was settled because you could see that all the hooves were off the ground in some of the photos.

What was even more interesting was that if the photos were shown in quick succession the horse looked like it was running-in other words‘moving pictures’.

The person who became interested in taking the moving pictures to its next step was the famous American inventor Thomas Edison.

Actually,he didn't do the work himself but rather asked a young Scotsman in his employ to design a system,which he did.

Now this young fellow was clever because the first thing he did was study other systems-primitive as they were-of moving pictures and then put all the existing technologies together to make the first entire motion pictures system.

He designed a camera,a projection device and the film.

The system was first shown in New York in 1894 and was really very popular.

Apparently people lined up around the block to see the wonderful new invention.

There were,however,a couple of problems with the system.

The camera weighed over 200 kilograms and only one person at a time could see the film.

Well now,news of the new system in America travelled fast and a number of rival European systems started to appear once people had heard about it.

The single problem with all the systems was they couldn't really project the film onto a screen-you know,so more than one person could see it.

Then in 1895,three systems were all developed,more or less at the same time and independently of each other.

I guess the most famous of these was by the Lumiere Brothers from France,and they called their system the cinematographe which of course is where the word cinema comes from.

There were also two brothers in Germany who developed a successful system and they called it a bioskop.

Well now,once the problem of projection had been solved,the next challenge for the inventors was to make the films longer and more interesting.

A continuing problem at the time was that the films had a tendency to break when they were being played-a problem which was caused by the tension between the two wheels,or‘reels’as they are called,which hold the film.

Now this problem was solved by two American brothers.

They developed the‘Lantham Loop’,which was the simple addition of a third reel between the two main reels,and this look all the tension away with the result that the film stopped snapping.

So now there was a real possibility of having films of more than two or three minutes,and this led to the making of The Great Train Robbery-the very first movie made.

It only lasted 11 minutes but was an absolute sensation,and there were cases of people watching the movie and actually fainting when the character fired a gun at the camera!

Almost overnight movies became a craze,and by 1905 people in America were lining up to see movies in‘store theatres’,as they were called then.

I guess the next big step in terms of development of technology was to have people actually talking on the film,and the first step towards this was in 1926 when sound effects were first used on a film.

It wasn't until the following year however that the first‘talkie’,as they were called then,was made.

This film featured actors speaking only during parts of the film and was called The Jazz Singer,and it wasn't until 1928 that the first all-talking film was produced,and this was called The Lights of New York.

Unfortunately,the sound on this early film was not very good and I believe they put subtitles on the film-that is,they printed the dialogue along the bottom of the film to compensate for this poor sound quality.

Now,with the addition of sound,moving pictures became far more difficult to make…

二、History of Moving Pictures听力中文翻译：

许多人认为，这个故事最早起源于1877年的美国，当时两个朋友在争论一匹马在疾驰时是否有四只脚或蹄子全部离开地面。

为了下注，一位摄影师被要求拍摄一匹疾驰的马，下注成功了，因为你可以在一些照片中看到所有的马蹄都离开了地面。

更有趣的是，如果这些照片连续快速地显示出来，那匹马看起来就像在奔跑——换言之，就是“动态照片”。

美国著名发明家托马斯·爱迪生（ThomasEdison）对拍摄下一步的动态照片感兴趣。

事实上，他并不是自己做这项工作，而是请他手下的一位年轻苏格兰人设计一个系统，他做到了。

现在这个年轻人很聪明，因为他做的第一件事就是研究其他系统——尽管它们很原始——的电影，然后把所有现有的技术结合在一起，制造出第一个完整的电影系统。

他设计了一台照相机、一台投影设备和一部胶卷。

该系统于1894年首次在纽约展出，非常受欢迎。

显然，人们在街区周围排队观看这项奇妙的新发明。

然而，该系统存在一些问题。

这架相机重达200多公斤，每次只有一个人能看到这部电影。

现在，关于美国新系统的消息传得很快，一旦人们听说了它，许多与之竞争的欧洲系统开始出现。

所有系统的唯一问题是，它们无法将电影真正投影到屏幕上，所以不止一个人可以看到它。

然后在1895年，三种系统都被开发出来，或多或少是同时开发的，彼此独立。

我想其中最著名的是来自法国的卢米埃兄弟，他们把他们的系统称为电影摄影，这当然是电影这个词的来源。

德国还有两兄弟开发了一个成功的系统，他们称之为bioskop。

现在，一旦投影问题得到解决，发明家面临的下一个挑战就是使电影更长、更有趣。

当时一个持续存在的问题是，电影在播放时有破裂的倾向，这是由固定电影的两个轮子或所谓的“卷轴”之间的张力引起的。

现在这个问题由两个美国兄弟解决了。

他们开发了“兰瑟姆环”，这是在两个主卷轴之间简单地添加了第三个卷轴，这样看起来所有的张力都消失了，因此电影停止了拍摄。

因此，现在有了一个真正的可能性，可以拍摄两到三分钟以上的电影，这导致了《火车大劫案》的拍摄，这是第一部制作的电影。

这只持续了11分钟，但绝对是一种轰动，有人在看电影时，当角色向镜头开枪时，实际上晕倒了！

几乎一夜之间，电影成了一种热潮，到1905年，美国人开始排队在当时被称为“商店影院”的地方看电影。

我想技术发展的下一个重要步骤是让人们在电影上进行真正的对话，而实现这一目标的第一步是在1926年，当时音效首次在电影上使用。

然而，直到第二年，第一台当时被称为“talkie”的手机才问世。

这部电影的特点是演员只在电影的某些部分说话，被称为爵士歌手，直到1928年才制作出第一部全说话的电影，这部电影被称为《纽约之光》。

不幸的是，这部早期电影的音质不是很好，我相信他们在电影上加了字幕，也就是说，他们在电影的底部印上了对白，以弥补音质的不足。

现在，随着声音的增加，电影变得更加难以制作

三、History of Moving Pictures听力问题：

Question 31-37

Choose the correct letters A,B or C.

31.Some photographs of a horse running showed

A.all feet off the ground

B.at least one foot on the ground

C.two feet off the ground

32.The Scotsman employed by Edison

A.designed a system to use the technology Edison had invented.

B.used available technology to make a new system.

C.was already an expert in motion picture technology.

33.One major problem with the first system was that

A.only one person could be filmed

B.people could only see very short films.

C.the camera was very heavy.

34.Rival systems started to appear in Europe after people had

A.been told about the American system

B.seen the American system.

C.used the American system.

35.In 1895,a famous new system was developed by

A.a French team working alone

B.a French and German team working together.

C.a German team who invented the word'cinema’

36.Longer films were not made at the time because of problems involving

A.the subject matter

B.the camera

C.the film projector

37.The'Lantham Loop’invention relied on

A.removing tension between the film reels.

B.adding three more film reels to the system.

C.making one of the film reels more effective.

Question 38-40

Complete the sentences below.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.38 The first motion picture was called The

39 were used for the first time on film in 1926.

40 Subtitles were added to The Lights of New York because of its.

四、History of Moving Pictures听力答案：

31.A

32.B

33.C

34.A

35.A

36.C

37.A

38.Great Train Robbery

39.Sound effects

40.poor sound quality

五、History of Moving Pictures听力答案解析

Question 31 A.题干中路标词为photographs of a horse，选项中all，one，two分别为考点词。此题路标词和考点词在原文中都很明确，没有干扰。

Question 32 B.题干中人名为路标词，但选项较长，且表达的意思角度不一，考生需要认真阅读选项，划出每个选项的考点。A选项中需注意定语从句“Edison had invented”，因为干扰项的常见特点是主句意思与原文相同，但修饰部分不同。事实上，原文确实提到“Scotsman...design a system”，但没有提到是“爱迪生发明的技术”，所以A选项排除；B选项则注意修饰词“available”和“new”，原文说“existing technologies...to make the first...”，分别对应这两个词，为正确答案；而C选项expert原文没提到，也不符合常识。

Question 33 C.题干problem为路标词。A选项考点词是“only one”，注意动词是被动语态“be filmed”（被拍摄），B选项为“only see very short”，C选项为“heavy”。原文however是重要的信号词，之后出现路标词problems，over 200 kilograms与heavy对应。注意排除A选项的干扰，尽管only one对应，但原文是主动语态，意思完全不同。

Question 34 A.题干rival systems，Europe为路标词。选项中的三个不同动词been told，seen，used为考点。原文路标词后只有一个动词“heard about”，因此A选项为正确答案。

Question 35 A.题干1895，famous为路标词，原文提到“from France”，因此A为答案。

Question 36 C.题干longer，problems为路标词，选项较简单，考生要快速浏览并尽量记住。原文在路标词后重读的词有：break，tension，wheels，都是与放映有关的问题，没有提到与subject或camera，因此选C。

Question 37 A.题干中专有名词Lantham Loop为路标词，A选项核心词removing tension，B选项核心词为three more，C选项为more effective，原文提到between the two main reels，and this took all the tension away，与A选项同义。而B选项意为“再加三个轮子”，与原文不符。

Question 38 Great Train Robbery.路标词first在答案会出现，在听到原文停顿后，考生应意识到后面是重要信息，答案是专有名词，要大写首字母。

Question 39 Sound effects.题干中时间1926为路标词，空格中填写名词。

Question 40 poor sound quality.题干subtitle和专有名词The light of New York为路标词，但是答案距离路标词较远，且句型变化大，考生需要根据上下文做一些推测。