2023考研英語閱讀惠特妮休斯頓
Whitney Houston
惠特妮?休斯頓
Whitney Elizabeth Houston, pop singer, died onFebruary 11th, aged 48.
流行歌手惠特妮?伊麗莎白?休斯頓于2月11日逝去，享年48歲。
THE year was 1985, the scene Whitney Houston ssecond sellout concert in Carnegie Hall in NewYork.
那是1985年，惠特妮?休斯頓在紐約卡內基音樂廳第二場座無虛席的演唱會。
There were almost 3,000 in the audience, and from somewhere among them, as shelaunched into I am Changing, a voice rang out: Sing it, Whitney honey! Sing us the truth!
當她開始投入演唱歌曲我在改變中時，突然,不知從全場近3000人中的哪個角落里，跑出一個聲音,喊道，盡情唱吧，惠特妮?休斯頓!為我們唱出真實的自我!
But what was the truth? Apparently it blazedbefore them, a huge, pure, beautiful voice from an impeccably poised young woman whohad strode out in an evening gown, radiating self-confidence.
但是，真正的惠特尼?休斯頓是怎樣的呢?表面上，這把聲音在觀眾面前熊熊燃放著自己的光芒。這把強大的，純凈的，美妙的聲音，是從一個無懈可擊的，蓄勢待發的，渾身散發著自信光芒的，正大步流星走向晚禮服世界的年輕女人發出來的。
She didn t move much on stage: every ounce of power was reserved for filling the hall withspine-tingling ballads of longed-for love.
在舞臺上，她沒有怎么移動。是因為她蓄發著全身的力量，只為了用讓人驚嘆喜愛的歌喉，為觀眾演唱那些表達對愛情極度渴求的歌謠。
Her fans could see that this was God-given, a gift hauled up from deep inside,
粉絲們會認為，惠特妮?休斯頓是上帝賜予的禮物，一個他們從內心深處渴望的禮物。
as when the little girl in the New Hope gospel choir had closed her eyes tight andsoloedGuide me, O thou Great Jehovah in church,
正如當年在紐霍普福音唱詩班，那個小女孩惠特妮?休斯頓緊閉雙眼，在教堂里，獨唱著引導我，哦偉大的耶和華時，圣靈在信眾上空涌動一樣。
and the Holy Spirit had rolled out over that congregation. Others, though, could see shewas a product of careful packaging by Clive Davis of Arista Records,
然而有些人，卻認為她是愛麗絲塔唱片公司的克萊夫?戴維斯精心包裝的產品。
who had spotted her in a New York night club, signed her at 19 and then waited two years forthe right string-lush ballads to come along;
克萊夫?戴維斯在紐約的夜總會發掘了惠特妮?休斯頓，并在她19歲那年與其簽約。直到兩年后，那些為惠特妮?休斯頓量身定造，蕩氣回腸的音樂作品面世后，
who had cut back the frizzy hair, lightened the make-up, changed the dress, and launchedheron the world so perfect hat by 1986 she was Billboard artist of the year, an instantsensation.
她削減了鬈發，換上了奪目的妝容，穿上連衣裙，登上了世界的舞臺。她是如此完美以至于在1986年成為了公告牌的年度藝人之后，瞬間轟動世界。
Like Cinderella, she said. And, like Cinderella, she claimed her ambitions were small.
我就像灰姑娘，她說。同樣，就像灰姑娘一樣，她聲稱自己野心很小。
All she wanted was to go to the mall and find true love, like any other 21-year-old.
她所有的愿望不過是去購物廣場購物，還有找到真愛，就像任何一個21歲的年輕人那樣。
But as a soul singer her heritage was already royal rather than rags: daughter of CissyHouston of the Sweet Inspirations,
但作為一個靈樂歌手，她已經繼承了一流的遺產寶藏而非一無所有。她是甜美靈感樂隊茜茜?休斯頓的女兒，
cousin of Dionne Warwick, god-daughter of Aretha Franklin , all of whom she dlearned from when her braids still got in the way of the microphone.
是狄昂?華薇克的堂妹，是艾瑞莎?弗蘭克林的教女。小時候，她們都是她的學習對象。
Hard-headed, she had chosen to build her career the way Mr Davis advised her: Longevity,that s what it s all about.
頭腦冷靜的她已經選擇了戴維斯先生建議的事業路線。做樂壇的常青樹，這就是一切。
Besides, she enjoyed being a princesspossessor of multiple platinum discs, holder of sixGrammys, earner of more money and seller of more records than any female star beforeher.
除此之外，她享受成為一名公主擁有多張白金唱片，擁有六座格萊美大獎，從音樂事業賺取更多的金錢，以及成為有史以來銷量最好的女歌手。
She would order her entourage around and sack them repeatedly, trusting only her mothernot to talk shit to my ear or blow smoke up my ass.
因為相信只有母親不會罵她，騙他，她會對隨行人員發號施令，以及多次解雇他們。
Fame brought her a five-bedroom house in the New Jersey countryside, with a built-inrecording studio and an Olympic pool.
名聲給她帶來了一幢坐落在新澤西鄉村，擁有五間臥室的住宅。住宅里面還有內嵌式的錄音室以及一個奧林匹克規格的游泳池。
It also brought a train of big-voiced imitators, from Mariah Carey to Celine Dion to Beyonc
名聲也帶來了一眾擁有渾厚嗓音的模仿者，從瑪麗亞?凱莉，席琳?迪翁到碧昂斯。
she never worried about any of them, because whoever comes got to come after me.
對此，她從來都不擔憂，因為她說我被模仿，卻從未被超越。
Even after 1992, when she took to disappearing for years at a time, her giant voice went onreverberating.
甚至1992年之后，有一次她在公眾面前消失了數年，但她那突出的嗓音卻仍然繞梁三尺，余音不絕。
Songs such as I Will Always Love You, I m Every Woman and One Moment in Timesolong in the charts and in wine-bar Muzak that they seemed to get into the bloodstreamof theworld.
歌曲諸如我將永遠愛你, 我也如普通女人和 在那一刻在排行榜以及白葡萄酒吧的助興音樂中占據了如此之長的時間，以至于這些歌曲就好像融入了世的血液之中。
Sweetheart dethroned
甜心隕落
For some years she held the post of America s Sweetheart, pretty, God-fearing andpatriotic.
曾經有許多年，她是美國人心目中的甜心。她美麗動人，虔誠愛主，忠誠愛國。
She went to the White House to discuss youth projects, and set up a foundation to fightilliteracy.
她曾在白宮討論過青年計劃，也曾建立以消除文盲為目的的基金會。
Her rendering of The Star-Spangled Banner at the Superbowl in 1991,
她曾在1991年的超級碗上演唱美國國歌。
during the Gulf warcuddly as a teddy-bear in a white tracksuitwas so joyously rousing thatit was reissued in the wake of the September 2001 attacks.
當時正值海灣戰爭期間，她穿著白色運動服，就像一只可愛的泰迪熊。她當時如此歡快地歌唱致使這場演唱的唱片后來被重新發行，以喚醒2001年9?11襲擊過后美國人的活力。
But she was bad, too. She liked to shock and cuss, saying that anyone who claimed thatrecording songs was creative, rather than commercial, was a fucking liar.
但她那時也不好過。那時候的她時有驚人之舉，偶爾還爆粗口，她說任何聲稱灌錄歌曲是為了創造，而非為了商業的人，都是該死的大騙子。
Her private life grew raunchy, with marriage to bad-boy Bobby Brown in 1992 propelling herinto a whirl of boastful sex, violent rows and cocaine.
1992年嫁給壞男孩鮑比?布朗，促使她陷入了自我夸張的大量性愛，暴力般的爭吵，以及可卡因之中，她的生活變得荒淫無度。
Her sequinned act was just a performance, she said; Bobby, by contrast, she could be realwith. As for what real meant,
她說，她那光彩熠熠的演出只是一個表演。而鮑比，卻不一樣，和他在一起，她可以釋放真正的自己。
she was either her own best friend or her worst enemy, she said once. The biggest devil isme.
至于真正意味著什么，她曾經解釋過，那就是她可以是自己最好的朋友，或者是最糟糕的敵人。最大的魔鬼是我自己。
Through it all, there remained an anodyne constancy about the songs.
經歷過風風雨雨，音樂始終是惠特妮?休斯頓永恒不變的止痛藥。
Miss Houston had placed herselfor been placedso solidly in the mainstream that she couldnot easily wriggle out of it.
休斯頓女士已經把自己擺放在，或者說被別人擺放在一個如此堅定的主流想法中,那就是她無法輕易找借口與音樂擺脫關系。
There was a point to this: it allowed her to break onto MTV and the late-night chat shows,forging a new path for black women as Michael Jackson had done for the men.
有這樣一件事實驗證了這個觀點。正如邁克杰克遜為黑人男子所作出的貢獻一樣，在音樂的世界里，惠特妮?休斯頓也為黑人女子鍛造了一條新的道路，不管是在音樂電視里還是在深夜談話節目的突破。
It also proved, to many blacks, that she was not black enough, showing none of their fury andvery little of the soulful gospel depths of Auntie Ree and Cousin Dionne.
在許多黑人看來，音樂同樣暴露了她不是一個合格的黑人。她沒有展現黑人的暴怒，也很少像其教母安蒂娜?雷和堂姐狄昂那樣展示福音歌的靈魂深度。
The cutting urban hip-hop of the 1980s she found ugly, like listening to her brothersboast ofthe women they d laid. 。
她覺得80年代用語尖刻的城市hip-hop粗俗難聽，就像聽她的兄弟在吹噓他們睡過的姑娘那樣。后來她開始嘗試演唱那些憤怒的歌曲，諸如在1998年演唱的不對但是沒關系
When she tried angrier songs herselfas in It s not Right But it s Okay, in 1998 they stillseemed as cool and glossy as her blue sheath dress.
這些歌曲聽起來仍然像她那件藍色女緊身連衣裙那樣，冷淡而又大氣。
The scratchy defiance of later albums , owedmore to the drug-ravaged thinness of her voice than the miseries of her recent life.
她后來的專輯中透出的嘶啞叛逆感，更多是因為她那被毒品摧毀而變得細弱的聲音而非她近期痛苦生活的感悟。
Who she was, and what she really wanted, remained as unclear as her bathtub death in aLos Angeles hotel on the night before the Grammys,
她是怎樣的人，她真正想要的是什么，正如她在洛杉磯酒店浴缸里的死那樣，仍然撲朔迷離。
at which Adele, another big belter in the Houston style, carried away most of the prizes.
她死去的那一天正值格萊美頒獎的前一天，隔天，另一個休斯頓風格的巨星阿黛兒，
She needed the give and take of an audience, Miss Houston said. Besides, God had given herthis gift to use.
休斯頓女士曾經說過，她需要觀眾的互敬互讓。此外，上帝賜予了她天賦以供她發揮。
Yet told by Oprah Winfrey in 2009 that her voice was a national treasure, and that somepeople thought she had squandered it,
然而，奧普拉?溫弗瑞曾于2009年說過，惠特妮?休斯頓的嗓音是國家的財富，而有些人覺得她浪費了這個財富。
she could only whisper, terror-struck, That s heavy. Too heavy, was perhaps the truth.
對于這些言論，惠特妮?休斯頓受寵若驚，她只能低聲耳語地說，這，很沉重。太沉重了，也許這就是惠特妮?休斯頓的真正境遇。
Whitney Houston
惠特妮?休斯頓
Whitney Elizabeth Houston, pop singer, died onFebruary 11th, aged 48.
流行歌手惠特妮?伊麗莎白?休斯頓于2月11日逝去，享年48歲。
THE year was 1985, the scene Whitney Houston ssecond sellout concert in Carnegie Hall in NewYork.
那是1985年，惠特妮?休斯頓在紐約卡內基音樂廳第二場座無虛席的演唱會。
There were almost 3,000 in the audience, and from somewhere among them, as shelaunched into I am Changing, a voice rang out: Sing it, Whitney honey! Sing us the truth!
當她開始投入演唱歌曲我在改變中時，突然,不知從全場近3000人中的哪個角落里，跑出一個聲音,喊道，盡情唱吧，惠特妮?休斯頓!為我們唱出真實的自我!
But what was the truth? Apparently it blazedbefore them, a huge, pure, beautiful voice from an impeccably poised young woman whohad strode out in an evening gown, radiating self-confidence.
但是，真正的惠特尼?休斯頓是怎樣的呢?表面上，這把聲音在觀眾面前熊熊燃放著自己的光芒。這把強大的，純凈的，美妙的聲音，是從一個無懈可擊的，蓄勢待發的，渾身散發著自信光芒的，正大步流星走向晚禮服世界的年輕女人發出來的。
She didn t move much on stage: every ounce of power was reserved for filling the hall withspine-tingling ballads of longed-for love.
在舞臺上，她沒有怎么移動。是因為她蓄發著全身的力量，只為了用讓人驚嘆喜愛的歌喉，為觀眾演唱那些表達對愛情極度渴求的歌謠。
Her fans could see that this was God-given, a gift hauled up from deep inside,
粉絲們會認為，惠特妮?休斯頓是上帝賜予的禮物，一個他們從內心深處渴望的禮物。
as when the little girl in the New Hope gospel choir had closed her eyes tight andsoloedGuide me, O thou Great Jehovah in church,
正如當年在紐霍普福音唱詩班，那個小女孩惠特妮?休斯頓緊閉雙眼，在教堂里，獨唱著引導我，哦偉大的耶和華時，圣靈在信眾上空涌動一樣。
and the Holy Spirit had rolled out over that congregation. Others, though, could see shewas a product of careful packaging by Clive Davis of Arista Records,
然而有些人，卻認為她是愛麗絲塔唱片公司的克萊夫?戴維斯精心包裝的產品。
who had spotted her in a New York night club, signed her at 19 and then waited two years forthe right string-lush ballads to come along;
克萊夫?戴維斯在紐約的夜總會發掘了惠特妮?休斯頓，并在她19歲那年與其簽約。直到兩年后，那些為惠特妮?休斯頓量身定造，蕩氣回腸的音樂作品面世后，
who had cut back the frizzy hair, lightened the make-up, changed the dress, and launchedheron the world so perfect hat by 1986 she was Billboard artist of the year, an instantsensation.
她削減了鬈發，換上了奪目的妝容，穿上連衣裙，登上了世界的舞臺。她是如此完美以至于在1986年成為了公告牌的年度藝人之后，瞬間轟動世界。
Like Cinderella, she said. And, like Cinderella, she claimed her ambitions were small.
我就像灰姑娘，她說。同樣，就像灰姑娘一樣，她聲稱自己野心很小。
All she wanted was to go to the mall and find true love, like any other 21-year-old.
她所有的愿望不過是去購物廣場購物，還有找到真愛，就像任何一個21歲的年輕人那樣。
But as a soul singer her heritage was already royal rather than rags: daughter of CissyHouston of the Sweet Inspirations,
但作為一個靈樂歌手，她已經繼承了一流的遺產寶藏而非一無所有。她是甜美靈感樂隊茜茜?休斯頓的女兒，
cousin of Dionne Warwick, god-daughter of Aretha Franklin , all of whom she dlearned from when her braids still got in the way of the microphone.
是狄昂?華薇克的堂妹，是艾瑞莎?弗蘭克林的教女。小時候，她們都是她的學習對象。
Hard-headed, she had chosen to build her career the way Mr Davis advised her: Longevity,that s what it s all about.
頭腦冷靜的她已經選擇了戴維斯先生建議的事業路線。做樂壇的常青樹，這就是一切。
Besides, she enjoyed being a princesspossessor of multiple platinum discs, holder of sixGrammys, earner of more money and seller of more records than any female star beforeher.
除此之外，她享受成為一名公主擁有多張白金唱片，擁有六座格萊美大獎，從音樂事業賺取更多的金錢，以及成為有史以來銷量最好的女歌手。
She would order her entourage around and sack them repeatedly, trusting only her mothernot to talk shit to my ear or blow smoke up my ass.
因為相信只有母親不會罵她，騙他，她會對隨行人員發號施令，以及多次解雇他們。
Fame brought her a five-bedroom house in the New Jersey countryside, with a built-inrecording studio and an Olympic pool.
名聲給她帶來了一幢坐落在新澤西鄉村，擁有五間臥室的住宅。住宅里面還有內嵌式的錄音室以及一個奧林匹克規格的游泳池。
It also brought a train of big-voiced imitators, from Mariah Carey to Celine Dion to Beyonc
名聲也帶來了一眾擁有渾厚嗓音的模仿者，從瑪麗亞?凱莉，席琳?迪翁到碧昂斯。
she never worried about any of them, because whoever comes got to come after me.
對此，她從來都不擔憂，因為她說我被模仿，卻從未被超越。
Even after 1992, when she took to disappearing for years at a time, her giant voice went onreverberating.
甚至1992年之后，有一次她在公眾面前消失了數年，但她那突出的嗓音卻仍然繞梁三尺，余音不絕。
Songs such as I Will Always Love You, I m Every Woman and One Moment in Timesolong in the charts and in wine-bar Muzak that they seemed to get into the bloodstreamof theworld.
歌曲諸如我將永遠愛你, 我也如普通女人和 在那一刻在排行榜以及白葡萄酒吧的助興音樂中占據了如此之長的時間，以至于這些歌曲就好像融入了世的血液之中。
Sweetheart dethroned
甜心隕落
For some years she held the post of America s Sweetheart, pretty, God-fearing andpatriotic.
曾經有許多年，她是美國人心目中的甜心。她美麗動人，虔誠愛主，忠誠愛國。
She went to the White House to discuss youth projects, and set up a foundation to fightilliteracy.
她曾在白宮討論過青年計劃，也曾建立以消除文盲為目的的基金會。
Her rendering of The Star-Spangled Banner at the Superbowl in 1991,
她曾在1991年的超級碗上演唱美國國歌。
during the Gulf warcuddly as a teddy-bear in a white tracksuitwas so joyously rousing thatit was reissued in the wake of the September 2001 attacks.
當時正值海灣戰爭期間，她穿著白色運動服，就像一只可愛的泰迪熊。她當時如此歡快地歌唱致使這場演唱的唱片后來被重新發行，以喚醒2001年9?11襲擊過后美國人的活力。
But she was bad, too. She liked to shock and cuss, saying that anyone who claimed thatrecording songs was creative, rather than commercial, was a fucking liar.
但她那時也不好過。那時候的她時有驚人之舉，偶爾還爆粗口，她說任何聲稱灌錄歌曲是為了創造，而非為了商業的人，都是該死的大騙子。
Her private life grew raunchy, with marriage to bad-boy Bobby Brown in 1992 propelling herinto a whirl of boastful sex, violent rows and cocaine.
1992年嫁給壞男孩鮑比?布朗，促使她陷入了自我夸張的大量性愛，暴力般的爭吵，以及可卡因之中，她的生活變得荒淫無度。
Her sequinned act was just a performance, she said; Bobby, by contrast, she could be realwith. As for what real meant,
她說，她那光彩熠熠的演出只是一個表演。而鮑比，卻不一樣，和他在一起，她可以釋放真正的自己。
she was either her own best friend or her worst enemy, she said once. The biggest devil isme.
至于真正意味著什么，她曾經解釋過，那就是她可以是自己最好的朋友，或者是最糟糕的敵人。最大的魔鬼是我自己。
Through it all, there remained an anodyne constancy about the songs.
經歷過風風雨雨，音樂始終是惠特妮?休斯頓永恒不變的止痛藥。
Miss Houston had placed herselfor been placedso solidly in the mainstream that she couldnot easily wriggle out of it.
休斯頓女士已經把自己擺放在，或者說被別人擺放在一個如此堅定的主流想法中,那就是她無法輕易找借口與音樂擺脫關系。
There was a point to this: it allowed her to break onto MTV and the late-night chat shows,forging a new path for black women as Michael Jackson had done for the men.
有這樣一件事實驗證了這個觀點。正如邁克杰克遜為黑人男子所作出的貢獻一樣，在音樂的世界里，惠特妮?休斯頓也為黑人女子鍛造了一條新的道路，不管是在音樂電視里還是在深夜談話節目的突破。
It also proved, to many blacks, that she was not black enough, showing none of their fury andvery little of the soulful gospel depths of Auntie Ree and Cousin Dionne.
在許多黑人看來，音樂同樣暴露了她不是一個合格的黑人。她沒有展現黑人的暴怒，也很少像其教母安蒂娜?雷和堂姐狄昂那樣展示福音歌的靈魂深度。
The cutting urban hip-hop of the 1980s she found ugly, like listening to her brothersboast ofthe women they d laid. 。
她覺得80年代用語尖刻的城市hip-hop粗俗難聽，就像聽她的兄弟在吹噓他們睡過的姑娘那樣。后來她開始嘗試演唱那些憤怒的歌曲，諸如在1998年演唱的不對但是沒關系
When she tried angrier songs herselfas in It s not Right But it s Okay, in 1998 they stillseemed as cool and glossy as her blue sheath dress.
這些歌曲聽起來仍然像她那件藍色女緊身連衣裙那樣，冷淡而又大氣。
The scratchy defiance of later albums , owedmore to the drug-ravaged thinness of her voice than the miseries of her recent life.
她后來的專輯中透出的嘶啞叛逆感，更多是因為她那被毒品摧毀而變得細弱的聲音而非她近期痛苦生活的感悟。
Who she was, and what she really wanted, remained as unclear as her bathtub death in aLos Angeles hotel on the night before the Grammys,
她是怎樣的人，她真正想要的是什么，正如她在洛杉磯酒店浴缸里的死那樣，仍然撲朔迷離。
at which Adele, another big belter in the Houston style, carried away most of the prizes.
她死去的那一天正值格萊美頒獎的前一天，隔天，另一個休斯頓風格的巨星阿黛兒，
She needed the give and take of an audience, Miss Houston said. Besides, God had given herthis gift to use.
休斯頓女士曾經說過，她需要觀眾的互敬互讓。此外，上帝賜予了她天賦以供她發揮。
Yet told by Oprah Winfrey in 2009 that her voice was a national treasure, and that somepeople thought she had squandered it,
然而，奧普拉?溫弗瑞曾于2009年說過，惠特妮?休斯頓的嗓音是國家的財富，而有些人覺得她浪費了這個財富。
she could only whisper, terror-struck, That s heavy. Too heavy, was perhaps the truth.
對于這些言論，惠特妮?休斯頓受寵若驚，她只能低聲耳語地說，這，很沉重。太沉重了，也許這就是惠特妮?休斯頓的真正境遇。
