『新东方在线托福听力』为托福考生准备了ETS托福TPO/Official 34 Con 2听力练习：Why does the professor mention O. Henry’s story, “The Gift of the Magi,” and William Faulkner’s story, “The Bear”?原文题目答案解析，TPO/Official 34 Con 2听力原文范文音频翻译。

托福TPO/Official 34 Con 2听力原文Why does the professor mention O. Henry’s story, “The Gift of the Magi,” and William Faulkner’s story, “The Bear”?【新东方在线】

旁白：听一段学生和她创意写作老师之间的对话。

Narrator: Listen to a conversation between a student and her creative writing professor.

学生：是的。我病了好几天了。

Student: Yeah. I was sick for a few days.

Um…I was wondering...did I miss a lot of work?

教授：让我想想，我们讨论了布置给你们回家阅读的那篇故事——

Professor: Let's see…well, we discussed the story that you have been assigned to read for class.

尤多拉•韦尔蒂写的《记忆》。

接着我们就听了一段对韦尔蒂的采访。

And then we listened to a recording of an interview with Welty.

The recording is on reserve at the library.

So…did you have a chance to read the story?

Student: Well…I was a little surprised.

我的意思是，这是我第一次读。

学生：在故事中好像什么也没发生。

Student: You know, it just seemed like there was nothing going on in the story.

我指的是小姑娘只是坐在沙滩上思考她的记忆。

I mean, a girl is just sitting at the beach thinking about one of her memories.

同时，她也看着其他在沙滩上的游泳者，想着他们在做什么。

And at the same time, she is watching other bathers on the beach, and sort of just thinking about what they are doing too.

因此，在故事的结尾，我想，这就结束了？

So at the end of the story, I thought, that's it?

这样的结局并不像欧亨利故事《麦琪的礼物》或者福克纳写的《熊》里的大探险那样有惊喜。

There's no surprise ending like in O. Henry's story The Gift of the Magi or some big adventure like in Faulkner's The Bear.

学生：事实上，我正在第二次阅读这个故事，我有点意识到一个好的故事不一定要有惊喜或者兴奋。

Student: Well, actually, while I was reading it the second time, I sort of realized that you don't need surprises or excitement to have a great story.

读一读这个女孩的记忆以及当她在观察到在沙滩上的其他人时所思考的内容也是挺有意思的。

The girl's memory and the stuff she was thinking about while she was watching the other people on the beach were really interesting to read about.

你知道，这让我开始思考当我为我们课程写我的故事的时候，我也许可以从我自己的记忆开始写。

And you know, it made me think that when I write my story, the one we have to write for this class, I can maybe use my own memories to get me started.

教授：事实上，我也希望你意识到这点。

Professor: Well, in fact, I'd hoped you'd see that.

Of course, there are many levels to the story.

但是，我想让班级里的学生在写你们的故事时，去掉你们所不需要写的精彩的世界。

But what I really wanted the class to take away from it was that you don't need to write about the great exciting world when you write you stories.

即使是写一段记忆也是可以的。

学生：就像是我描述一段当我还是孩子时在树林中散步。

Student: Like I could write about one of the times I took a walk in the woods when I was a kid.

教授：非常正确！你知道，在你们截止日期快要临近时，我听到很多学生说他们很担心因为他们并没有什么激动人心的事情去写。

Professor: Exactly! You know, as the due day of your stories approaches, I am hearing from a lot of students that they are worried because they don't have anything exciting enough to write about.

但是韦尔蒂在采访中和她的自传中说，她写的最糟糕的故事都是关于那些她所不熟悉的地方或者人们。

But Welty said in the interview we listened to and in her autobiography that her worst stories were the ones where she tried to write about people or places that were unfamiliar to her.

这是为什么她很多的故事都是设定在她自己的故乡密西西比。

That's why a lot of her stories are set in Mississippi, where she is from.

韦尔蒂说，对她来说一个成功的故事最关键的是熟悉度。

Welty stressed that, for her anyway, familiarity with her subject matter was the key to a successful story.

Now, don't forget to listen to that recording.

Why does the professor mention O. Henry’s story, “The Gift of the Magi,” and William Faulkner’s story, “The Bear”?

Why does the woman mention walking in the woods?

What point does the professor make when he mentions the interview with Welty and her autobiography?

What was the student's reaction to Welty's story after first reading it?

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