美國偵探小說大師

　　提高英語的水平往往可以看一些英語的新聞和閱讀，還有英語的電視劇和電影，這樣可以很快的提高我們的英語口語，接下來小編給大家帶來英語新聞，需要的同學們可以看一看。

　　英語課外閱讀1

　　The author of the V. I. Warshawski novels, mostrecently "Critical Mass," was hugely influenced by "APortrait of the Artist as a Young Man": "I felt asthough I'd fallen into words and wanted to drown inthem."

　　“女偵探沃莎斯基"V. I. Warshawski系列小說的作者深受《一個青年藝術家的畫像》A Portrait of the Artist as aYoung Man的影響：“我感覺自己好像掉進了文字裡，想一直沉浸在其中。"她最近出版了《臨界物質》Critical Mass一書。

　　What books are currently on your night stand?

　　你的床頭櫃上現在放著什麼書?

　　I'm trying hard to read Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" but keepreturning to fiction. Right now: John Williams's "Stoner," Claude Izner's "Strangled in Paris."

　　我努力想讀托馬斯·皮克迪Thomas Piketty的《二十一世紀資本論》Capital in the Twenty-FirstCentury，但總想轉去看小說。現在正在看的是約翰·威廉姆斯John Williams的《斯托納》Stoner和克勞德·艾茲內Claude Izner的《巴黎扼殺案》Strangled in Paris。

　　Who is your favorite novelist of all time? And your favorite novelist writing today?

　　有史以來你最喜歡的小說家是誰?現在仍在寫作的小說家中你最喜歡的是誰?

　　I don't have an all-time favorite. There are books I reread or wish I'd written. I love theVictorians: Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, in that order. I loved "Gilead" and "Wolf Hall," which is a staggering achievement. I reread Barbara Pym and Jane Austen and myold detective favorites when I'm stressed out.

　　我沒有最喜歡的小說家。有些小說我會反覆讀，希望是自己寫的。我很喜歡維多利亞時代的小說家：依次是伊麗莎白·蓋斯凱爾Elizabeth Gaskell、查爾斯·狄更斯Charles Dickens和喬治·艾略特George Eliot。我很喜歡《基列家書》Gilead和《狼廳》Wolf Hall，後者是了不起的成就。壓力大的時候，我會重讀芭芭拉·皮姆Barbara Pym和簡·奧斯汀Jane Austen的小說以及我最喜歡的老偵探小說。

　　Who are your favorite writers of detective fiction?

　　你最喜歡的偵探小說作家是誰?

　　Margery Allingham among the classics. Peter Dickinson, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, DorothyHughes.

　　瑪格麗·阿林厄姆Margery Allingham是其中一位經典作家。還有彼得·迪金森Peter Dickinson、多蘿西·索爾茲伯裡·戴維斯Dorothy Salisbury Davis和多蘿西·休斯Dorothy Hughes。

　　Which do you consider the best detective stories of all time, and why?

　　你認為有史以來最好的偵探故事是哪些?為什麼?

　　Anna Katharine Green, for defining the consulting detective for the 19th century; WilkieCollins, for playing with the form and transforming it; Dashiell Hammett, for reinventing theform for the 20th century; the Holmes oeuvre, for making detective fiction popular in bothGreat Britain and America; Amanda Cross and Lillian O'Donnell, for opening the door thatenabled Marcia Muller, Linda Barnes, Sue Grafton and me to challenge the form in new ways.

　　安娜·凱瑟琳·格林Anna Katharine Green描繪了19世紀的顧問偵探;威爾基·科林斯Wilkie Collins嘗試並改造了這個題材;達希爾·哈米特Dashiell Hammett在20世紀重新創作了該題材;福爾摩斯系列讓偵探小說在英國和美國都很流行;阿曼達·克羅斯Amanda Cross和莉蓮·奧唐奈Lillian O'Donnell打開了一扇門，讓馬西婭·馬勒Marcia Muller、琳達·巴爾內斯Linda Barnes、蘇·格拉夫頓Sue Grafton和我能夠用新的方式挑戰這種題材。

　　What makes a good detective novel?

　　怎樣才能寫出一部好看的偵探小說?

　　Believable characters first, a good story, an understanding of how to pace dramatic action. Ilike commitment by a writer, to the form, to the story — there are lots of slick writers ofcrime fiction who aren't writing out of passion, but for the market. They write good Englishsentences, but for me, the lack of commitment makes them uninteresting.

　　首先要有可信的人物，然後得有個好故事，而且要知道如何推動情節發展。我喜歡作家的投入，對這種題材和這個故事的投入——有很多圓滑的犯罪小說作家不是出於熱愛而是為了市場寫作。他們寫出了很好的英文句子，但是在我看來，他們不夠投入，所以寫出的小說沒有趣味。

　　Of the books you've written, which is your favorite?

　　你最喜歡自己寫的哪本小說?

　　My books all have different strengths and weaknesses, but if I had to choose, I'd pick "Hardball." It's very personal because the back story is in the civil rights movement in Chicagoin the 1960s. That's when I first came here, working as a volunteer on the city's extremelyturbulent South Side.

　　我的書各有優缺點，但是如果我必須選一本的話，我會選《強硬手段》Hardball。它非常有個人色彩，因為它是以20世紀60年代芝加哥的民權運動為背景的。那時候我剛到這裡，在極度混亂的南區做志願者。

　　You earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago. Do you still enjoy reading history? Who are your favorite historians to read?

　　你在芝加哥大學獲得了歷史學博士學位。現在你還喜歡讀歷史學方面的書嗎?你最喜歡讀哪些史學家的作品?

　　Richard Hofstadter was a great stylist; 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of his "Paranoid Stylein American Politics," which is as insightful a dissection of our country today as it was when hefirst published it. My dissertation dealt with the 19th-century roots of fundamentalism inAmerica. I read a fair amount of natural history as background — Darwin, some of the earlygeologists, a lot of the moral philosophers. I still like to read natural history — Neil Shubin's "Your Inner Fish" is also on my night stand.

　　理查德·霍夫施塔特Richard Hofstadter有獨特的風格。2014年是他的《美國政治的偏執風格》ParanoidStyle in American Politics出版50週年。這本書是對我們國家的深刻剖析，和它剛出版時一樣意義重大。我的學位論文與19世紀美國基要主義的根源有關。為此我讀了大量自然歷史方面的書——達爾文Darwin的書、一些早期地質學家的書和很多道德哲學家的書。現在我仍然喜歡讀自然歷史方面的書，尼爾·舒賓NeilShubin的《你是怎麼來的》Your Inner Fish也在我的床頭櫃上。

　　What do you like to read when you travel?

　　你旅行的時候喜歡讀什麼書?

　　Partway through "Wolf Hall" I went to England on tour. I carried that big, fat book across theAtlantic, couldn't wait to finish my events so I could go back to it — I'd read until I couldn'tkeep my eyes open.

　　《狼廳》讀到一半時，我去英國旅行。我帶著那本厚重的書越過大西洋，往往是活動還沒結束我就迫不及待地想回去讀它，一直讀到眼睛睜不開才停下來。

　　What do you like reading right before bed?

　　你喜歡在入睡前讀什麼書?

　　Short stories, mostly. Joan Wickersham's "The News From Spain" and Jaan Kross's "TheConspiracy" are two that I've just finished. I have insomnia, and sometimes at 3 in themorning, I read from "The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon," a journal kept by a woman at the 11th-century Japanese imperial court, and then write in my own journal in her style: SevenThings That Bring Me Pleasure; Eight Things Over Which I Have No Control.

　　大多是短篇小說。我剛讀完的兩本——瓊·威克沙姆Joan Wickersham的《來自西班牙的訊息》The NewsFrom Spain和揚·克羅斯Jaan Kross的《陰謀》The Conspiracy。我經常失眠，有時會在凌晨3點讀清少納言的《枕草子》，它是11世紀日本宮廷的一個女子寫的日記，然後我也用她的風格寫日記：給我帶來快樂的七件事;我完全無法控制的八件事。

　　What kind of reader were you as a child?

　　你小時候是什麼樣的讀者?

　　I was a flashlight-under-the-covers reader. I loved books about girls doing active things — biographies of women like the astronomer Maria Mitchell, or Harriet Tubman or Marie Curie. Iread Laura Ingalls Wilder, all the Alcott books and a wonderful out-of-print German novel, "TheWicked Enchantment." As an adult, I realize it is a parable of the Nazi takeover of Germany, but as a child I loved the brave heroine, her little dog Winnie and the aunts who look afterthem both.

　　我小時候喜歡躲在被窩裡打著手電筒看書。我很喜歡關於積極主動的女孩子的書——比如天文學家瑪麗亞·米切爾Maria Mitchell，還有哈麗雅特·塔布曼Harriet Tubman和瑪麗·居里Marie Curie等女人的傳記。我讀過勞拉·英戈爾斯·懷爾德Laura Ingalls Wilder的書，奧爾科特Alcott所有的書，還有一部精彩的絕版德國小說《邪惡的魔法》The Wicked Enchantment。長大後，我才知道它是關於納粹控制德國的寓言故事，但小時候我很喜歡裡面那位勇敢的女主人公、她的小狗維尼以及照顧她倆的姨媽們。

　　If you had to name one book that made you who you are today, what would it be?

　　如果你必須選一本對你影響最大的書，你會選哪本?

　　When I first read "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," at 17, I felt as though I'd fallen intowords and wanted to drown in them. I reread the book 20 or 30 times and longed to write likeJoyce. I used to practice Joycean sentences and punctuation.

　　17歲時，我第一次讀《一個青年藝術家的畫像》，感覺自己好像掉進了文字裡，想一直沉浸在其中。這本書我讀了二三十遍，渴望自己能像喬伊斯那樣寫作。我過去常常練習喬伊斯式的句子和斷句方式。

　　If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?

　　如果你能要求總統讀一本書，你會選哪一本?

　　Kafka's "The Trial," so he realized how futile it is to try to find meaning in the ways Congressreacts to his initiatives.

　　卡夫卡Kafka的《審判》The Trial，這樣他就會明白，努力尋找國會對他提案的反應方式的意義是徒勞無功的。

　　You're hosting a literary dinner party. Which three writers are invited?

　　假如你要舉辦一個文學宴會派對，你會邀請哪三位作家?

　　P. D. James, who is always witty and engaging; Shakespeare, to hear that language spoken byhimself; and Sappho. The four of us would all miraculously understand modern andRenaissance English and ancient Greek.

　　P·D·詹姆斯P. D. James，他總是幽默迷人;莎士比亞Shakespeare，聽他本人朗讀自己的作品;薩福Sappho。而且我們四個奇蹟般地都能聽懂現代英語、文藝復興時期的英語和古希臘語。

　　Disappointing, overrated, just not good: What book did you feel you were supposed to like, anddidn't? Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing?

　　失望，評價過高，不好看：哪些書讓你覺得自己應該會喜歡但實際上不喜歡?你還記得上一本沒看完就放下的書嗎?

　　"War and Peace." I read all 1,400-plus pages. The first 100-page riff on the great Russian soulwas interesting. During the second hundred-page riff, I thought, This is dull, but maybe it's areinforcing literary device. When I got to the third, I wanted to take a blue pencil to the text. And then I reached the end, and it turns out that Natasha's brooding artistic yearnings aresymptoms of a mental illness for which pregnancy is the cure. She's become fat and isecstatically inspecting a soiled diaper.

　　《戰爭與和平》War and Peace。我讀完了全部1400多頁。前100頁反覆講述那個偉大的俄羅斯靈魂，挺有趣的。到第二個100頁，我心想，這很無趣，但它可能是個用於強化的文學手段。到了第三個100頁，我想刪除某些段落。讀到最後我發現，娜塔莎Natasha徘徊不去的藝術渴望是一種精神疾病的症狀，而懷孕能治這種病。她變胖了，如醉如痴地檢查一塊髒尿布。

　　Last book I didn't finish — "The Luminaries." I read 120 pages and couldn't get engaged byany of the characters.

　　我沒有讀完的上一本書是《發光體》The Luminaries。我讀了120頁，裡面沒有一個人物吸引我。

　　What's the one book you wish someone else would write?

　　你希望將來有人寫一本什麼書?

　　A history of the women in physics in the 20th century. I read as much as I could find forbackground to my recent novel, "Critical Mass." Maria Rentetzi has written some of that story, but very little is known about women who did major work in the field Ellen Gleditsch, MariettaBlau and others.

　　20世紀女物理學家的歷史。我在寫最新小說《臨界物質》時，為了瞭解背景知識讀了所有我能找到的書。瑪麗亞·倫特茨Maria Rentetzi寫了一些這方面的故事，但我們對在這一領域做出重要貢獻的女人埃倫·格萊迪奇[Ellen Gleditsch]和瑪麗埃塔·布勞[Marietta Blau]等知之甚少。

　　Whom would you want to write your life story?

　　你想讓誰來寫你的人生故事?

　　I'd love Elizabeth Gaskell to do for me what she did for Charlotte Bront?.

　　我想讓伊麗莎白·蓋斯凱爾Elizabeth Gaskell寫我的故事，就像她寫夏洛蒂·勃朗特Charlotte Bront?那樣。

　　What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet?

　　有哪些書你還沒讀過併為此感到難為情?

　　Lots. "Don Quixote," "The Canterbury Tales," "Gravity's Rainbow." I know I'll never read "Paradise Lost."

　　很多。《堂吉訶德》Don Quixote、《坎特伯雷故事集》The Canterbury Tales和《萬有引力之虹》Gravity's Rainbow。我知道我永遠都不會讀《失樂園》Paradise Lost。

　　What do you plan to read next?

　　你接下來打算讀什麼書?

　　I'm lucky to live a few blocks from a great bookstore — Seminary Co-op. I'll go there andbrowse and see what fits my mood at the moment.

　　幸運的是，就在我的住所幾個街區之外有個很棒的書店——神學院合作社Seminary Co-op。我會去那裡，四處瀏覽，看看有什麼書符合我那一刻的心情。