本篇为 2019年3月的高级口译考试，包括 Pop Art, Mini-cab Complaint, News。

1903 - Pop Art

Pop Art is an artistic development that began in the late 1950s and became the most powerful art movement of the 1960s. Although it was a strong cultural force in Europe, this lecture will concentrate on Pop Art in the Unted States. Pop Artists were inspired by mass-produced visual media, such as television, magazines, comic books, billboards, and the design of common household objects, and used these things as the starting point for their art.

Pop Art differed from earlier art movements. To understand Pop Art, it is helpful to know a little bit about the artstic movement that immediately preceded it. This movement was called Abstract Expressionism. Jackson Pollock is an example of an Abstract Expressionist. If we look at Pollock's painting entitled Autumn Rhythm, we see a field of dense overlapping lines that swirl and move all over the surface of the canvas. This painting refers to the process of making the painting more than it relers to anything in the actual world. Pollock believed that his intutive approach to making paintings could show his inner self.

Abstract Expressionism reflected the internal struggles of individual artists. Pop Artists were not at all interested in this internal search. Instead, Pop Artists believed that art should have a more direct relationship to things in their world.

Robert Rauschenberg was one of the first Pop Artists. He wanted to move art away from the personalities of individual artists and direct it towards the world. The intuitive swirling forms of a Pollock painting said nothing to Rauschenberg about the rapidly changing world that he was experiencing.

By the late 1950s, Robert Rauschenberg was using everyday objects, which he found on the street, as the maternal for his art. Imagine taking a long walk around New York and picking up stuff, like old magazines and crumbled cigarette boxes. What would happen if you tried to make art from this material? This is what Rauschenberg did. He wanted to have his art reflect the world he lived in.

Compared with Abstract Expressionists, Pop Artists concentrated more on visual communication because they believed that these images reflected the cultural values of contemporary society.

1903 - Mini-cab Complaint

M: Central Min-cabs Can I belp you?

W: Yes, I'm rnging to make a complaint about Central Mini-cabs. Are you the manager?

M: Yes, I am. How can I help?

W: Well, my office ordered a mini-cab for yesterday, as I needed to travel across the city with three colleagues and we had lots of heavy files to carry.

M: When did you book the mini-cab?

W; My office made the booking on Monday, but I actually wanted the mini-cab for yesterday, Wednesday. and it didn't come. I was furious, and that's why I'm calling you now, as it wasted a lot of time and meant we were late for a very important meeting with our clients.

M: You'll have to give me your name and the booking reference number you were given, so I can look into it.

W: My name's Joan Smith. I'm at Brooks Consultants. Hold on--I've got the booking number somewhere here. I think ... Yes, here it is 770061/P.

M: 770061/P--OK. I'm just looking at the records. It says you were booked for a six-seater mini-cab to collect you from the Brooks Buildings at 10:15.

W: That's right, that's what I wanted. But it didn't come. I rang your number at 10:30 to ask where it was and someone told me it was on the way.

M: Who did you speak to?

W: I don't know who it was, but it was a woman who said we should wait where we were. She also said she'd ring me back on my mobile, but she didn't, and I still haven't heard anything from her, so for all she knows, we're still waiting.

M: Oh, that doesn't sound good.

W: No, it's not, and that's why I'm ringing you myself now, even though I'm extremely busy. Anyway, it still at 11 o'clock, so when an empty taxi drove past, we gave up on your min-cab and went to our meeting by taxi. It meant we got to the client's office nearly an hour late, and we weren't feeling all that calm either by then. It may not sound much to you, but these are our most important clients and it made us look unprofessional.

M: I'm very sorry about this. As you know, we do regular business with Brooks Consultants, and I'm sure you'll agree we're normally very reliable.

W: Yes, I know, and that's why yesterday was such a nuisance. I've already told my colleague who arranges our office transport all about it, and said I don't want to use Central Mini-cabs again--I can't afford to be let down again.

M: I can only apologise for yesterday's failure. I really don't know what happened, but I'll look into it myself as soon as we get off the phone and make sure it never happens again.

W: Well, I just wanted to register my complaint direct to you. I'll leave you to it. Bye for now.

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1903 - News

Abuja, Nigeria

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has denied claims that he died and was replaced by a clone. Buhari tweeted on Sunday that he addressed the reports while at a meeting in Poland. “One of the questions that came up today in my meeting with Nigerians in Poland was on the issue of whether I've been cloned or not,” Buhari said “The ignorant rumors are not surprising--when I was away on medical vacation last year a lot of people hoped I was dead.”

Buhari spent long periods in London receiving medical treatment in 2017, on one occasion leaving Nigeria for more than three months.

His absence prompted intense speculation in the country about the President's health and many false reports circulated online saying he had died.

Illinois, USA

As of mid-November, only 43% of surveyed people 18 or older said they had gotten vaccinated against the flu, according to the National Immunization Survey by the University of Chicago for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Another 14% who remain unvaccinated claim that they will get the shot. Even if they do as they intend. that leaves considerably more than a third of adults who have not -- and will not -- get a flu shot.

The report comes early in what has been a mild season. Thirty-eight states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico experienced minimal flu activity for the week ending December 1, while New York City and 10 states experienced low or moderate activity, according to Friday's weekly flu report from the CDC. Only two states. Georgia and Louisiana, experienced high activity during the week.

The mild season is a dramatic shift from the previous flu season, which was the deadliest in decades, with more than 80,000 flu-related deaths in the United States.

Wellington, New Zealand

A powerful earthquake that struck in the southern Pacific Ocean on Wednesday sent jitters around the region after authorities warned of possible tsunamis, but there were no initial reports of destructive waves or major damage.

The magnitude 7.5 quake hit in the afternoon near New Caledonia at a shallow depth, where earthquakes are generally more damaging. It was felt as far away as Vanuatu.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said tsunami waves of between 3 and 10 feet were possible along same coasts of New Caledonia and Vanuatu before later lifting the warning.

Judith Rostain, a freelance journalist based in New Caledonia's capital Noumea, said there was no damage to the city and that the threat of a tsunami appeared to have passed. She said the situation remained unclear on the east coast and scattered outer islands.

Sidney, Australia

The majority of foreign au pairs working in Australia are being asked to do housework on top of their childcare duties by families taking advantage of cheap labor, a new report has found. The report, “Cultural Exchange or Cheap Housekeeper?” released by researchers at University of Technology Sydney and Macquarie University, found that many households tend to “super-size” au pair tasks, without paying extra for their services. Most of the au pairs surveyed are young women from Europe, including Germany, France and the UK, who went to Australia to experience life there and improve their language skills.

While the standard expectation of an au pair is childcare, the tasks undertaken by a clear majority, almost 59%，more closely resembled those of live-in housekeepers, the report said.

Given the opaque nature of the job and its connotations of cultural exchange, the report also found that the participants were often working for less than minimum wage.

London, United Kingdom

One in every 103 children in the UK will be homeless this Christmas, a new study has found, further revealing the scale of the country's housing crisis.

A total of 130,000 children are now estimated to be homeless--around 50,000 more than five years ago, or arise of 59%--according to an analysis of government statistics by homelessness charity Shelter.

Compared with the end of 2017, 3,000 more children are believed to be homeless.

These calculations mean that an average school in Britain now includes five homeless children. In London, where the crisis is at its worst, there is an average of 28 homeless children for every school.

An estimated 9,500 children will spend Christmas Day in a hostel or bed and breakfast, the charity added, warning that the UK's housing crisis is now being “felt across a generation.”

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