【正文】 Text 1Of all the changes that have taken place in Englishlanguage newspapers during the past quartercentury, perhaps the most farreaching has been the inexorable decline in the scope and seriousness of their arts coverage.過去的25年，在英文報紙發(fā)生的所有變化中，或許最具有深遠意義的變化就是這些報紙的文藝報道范圍不斷縮小，嚴肅性不斷減弱，這是個無法逆轉的必然趨勢。It is difficult to the point of impossibility for the average reader under the age of forty to imagine a time when highquality arts criticism could be found in most bigcity newspapers. Yet a considerable number of the most significant collections of criticism published in the 20th century consisted in large part of newspaper reviews. To read such books today is to marvel at the fact that their learned contents were once deemed suitable for publication in generalcirculation dailies.對于年齡低于40歲的普通讀者來講，讓他們想象一下當年可以在許多大城市報紙上讀到精品的文藝評論簡直幾乎是天方夜譚。然而，在20世紀出版的最重要的文藝評論集中，人們讀到的大部分評論文章都是從報紙上收集而來。現(xiàn)在，如果讀到這些集子，人們肯定會驚詫，當年這般淵博深奧的內容竟然被認為適合發(fā)表在大眾日報中。We are even farther removed from the unfocused newspaper reviews published in England between the turn of the 20th century and the eve of World War Ⅱ, at a time when newsprint was dirtcheap and stylish arts criticism was considered an ornament to the publications in which it appeared. In those faroff days, it was taken for granted that the critics of major papers would write in detail and at length about the events they covered. Theirs was a serious business, and even those reviewers who wore their learning lightly, like George Bernard Shaw and Ernest Newman, could be trusted to know what they were about. These men believed in journalism as a calling, and were proud to be published in the daily press. “So few authors have brains enough or literary gift enough to keep their own end up in journalism,” Newman wrote, “that I am tempted to define ‘journalism’ as ‘a term of contempt applied by writers who are not read to writers who are’ .” 從20世紀早期到二戰(zhàn)以前，當時的英國報紙上的評論主題廣泛，包羅萬象，我們現(xiàn)在離此類報紙評論越來越遠。當時的報紙極其便宜，人們把高雅時尚的文藝批評當作是所刊登報紙的一個亮點。在那些遙遠的年代，各大報刊的評論家們都會不遺余力地詳盡報道他們所報道的事情，這在當時被視為是理所當然的事情。他們的寫作是件嚴肅的事情，人們相信：甚至那些博學低調不喜歡炫耀的評論家，比如George Bernard Shaw和Ernest Newman也知道自己在做什么（即他們的文章會高調出現(xiàn)在報紙上）。這些批評家們相信報刊評論是一項職業(yè)，并且對于他們的文章能夠在報紙上發(fā)表感到很自豪?！拌b于幾乎沒有作家能擁有足夠的智慧或文學天賦以保證他們能在新聞報紙寫作中堅持不懈”， Newman曾寫道，“以至于我非常想把‘新聞寫作’定義為不受讀者歡迎的作家用來嘲諷受讀者歡迎的作家的一個 ‘輕蔑之詞’ ”注：tempted to do sth的意思是：To cause to be strongly inclined:很想做：使很傾向于，所以可以翻譯為“很想做某事，很傾向于做某事”。另外，keep one39。s end up的英文解釋為：(Brit infml) continue to be cheerful and play one39。s part despite difficulties （不顧困難）仍樂觀而盡本分, 不泄氣。Unfortunately, these critics are virtually forgotten. Neville Cardus, who wrote for the Manchester Guardian from 1917 until shortly before his death in 1975, is now known solely as a writer of essays on the game of cricket. During his lifetime, though, he was also one of England’s foremost classicalmusic critics, and a stylist so widely admired that his Autobiography (1947) became a bestseller. He was knighted in 1967, the first music critic to be so honored. Yet only one of his books is now in print, and his vast body of writings on music is unknown save to specialists.不幸的是，這些批評家們現(xiàn)在實際上已被人們遺忘。從1917年開始一直到1975年去世不久前還在為曼徹斯特《衛(wèi)報》寫文章的Neville Cardus，如今僅僅作為一個撰寫關于板球比賽文章的作家被人們所知。但是，在他的一生當中，他也是英國首屈一指的古典音樂評論家之一。他也是一位深受讀者青睞的文體家，所以1947年他的《自傳》一書就成為熱銷讀物。 1967年他被授予爵士稱號，也是第一位獲此殊榮的音樂評論家。然而，他的書現(xiàn)在只有一本可以在市面上買到。他大量的音樂批評，除了專門研究音樂評論的人以外，已鮮為人知。Is there any chance that Cardus’s criticism will enjoy a revival? The prospect seems remote. Journalistic tastes had changed long before his death, and postmodern readers have little use for the richly upholstered Vicwardian prose in which he specialized. Moreover, the amateur tradition in music criticism has been in headlong retreat.Cardus的評論有沒有機會重新流行？前景似乎渺茫。在他去世之前，新聞業(yè)的品味早已改變很長時間了，而且他所擅長的措詞華麗的維多利亞愛德華時期的散文風格對后現(xiàn)代的讀者沒有什么用處。何況，由業(yè)余愛好者作音樂批評的傳統(tǒng)早已經(jīng)成為昨日黃花了。Text 2Over the past decade, thousands of patents have been granted for what