剑桥雅思9阅读Test4Passage3原文翻译

段落A

The conviction that historical relics provide infallible testimony about the past is rooted in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when science was regarded as objective and value free. As one writer observes: ‘Although it is now evident that artefacts are as easily altered as chronicles, public faith in their veracity endures: a tangible relic seems ipso facto real.’ Such conviction was, until recently, reflected in museum displays. Museums used to look – and some still do – much like storage rooms of objects packed together in showcases: good for scholars who wanted to study the subtle differences in design, but not for the ordinary visitor, to whom it all looked alike. Similarly, the information accompanying the objects often made little sense to the lay visitor. The content and format of explanations dated back to a time when the museum was the exclusive domain of the scientific researcher.

 段落A:

19世纪和20世纪初，科学被视为客观和无价值的，这种对历史文物提供绝对证据的坚定信念就扎根于此。正如一位作家所观察到的：“虽然现在明显看到，文物和编年史一样容易被篡改，但公众对它们真实性的信任仍然存在：有形的遗物似乎本身就是真实的。”这种信念直到最近在博物馆展示中仍有体现。博物馆过去看起来（有些至今仍然如此）更像是堆满物品的储藏室：对于想研究设计差异的学者来说很好，但对于普通游客来说，这一切看起来都一样。同样，陈列物品的信息常常对普通游客来说毫无意义。解释的内容和格式过时，还停留在博物馆曾经是科学研究人员的专属领域的时代。

段落B

Recently, however, attitudes towards history and the way it should be presented have altered. The key word in heritage display is now ‘experience’, the more exciting the better and if possible, involving all the senses. Good examples of this approach in the UK are the Jorvik Center in York; the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford; and the Imperial War Museum in London. In the US the trend emerged much earlier: Williamsburg has been a prototype for many heritage developments in other parts of the world. No one can predict where the process will end. On so-called heritage sites the re-enactment of historical events is increasingly popular, and computers will soon provide virtual reality experiences, which will present visitors with a vivid image of the period of their choice, in which they themselves can act as if part of the historical environment. Such developments have been criticized as an intolerable vulgarization, but the success of many historical theme parks and similar locations suggests that the majority of the public does not share this opinion.

段落B:

然而，最近对待历史及其呈现方式的态度发生了变化。遗产展示的关键词现在是“体验”，而且越刺激越好，如果可能的话，还要涉及所有感官。英国的好例子包括约克的乔维克中心、布拉德福德的国家摄影、电影和电视博物馆以及伦敦的帝国战争博物馆。在美国，这种趋势早在很久以前就出现了：威廉斯堡已成为世界其他地方许多遗产开发的原型。没有人能够预测这个过程将以什么样的方式结束。在所谓的遗产景区上，历史事件再现变得越来越受欢迎，计算机很快将提供虚拟现实体验，使游客可以栩栩如生地体验他们选择的时代，并且可以自己扮演历史环境的一部分。这样的发展遭到了一些人的批评，认为是一种无法容忍的庸俗化，但许多历史主题公园和类似场所的成功表明，大多数公众并不持有这种观点。

段落C

In a related development, the sharp distinction between museum and heritage sites on the one hand, and theme parks on the other, is gradually evaporating. They already borrow ideas and concepts from one another. For example, museums have adopted story lines for exhibitions, sites have accepted ‘theming’ as a relevant tool, and theme parks are moving towards more authenticity and research-based presentations. In zoos, animals are no longer kept in cages, but in great spaces, either in the open air or in enormous greenhouses, such as the jungle and desert environments in Burgers’ Zoo in Holland. This particular trend is regarded as one of the major developments in the presentation of natural history in the twentieth century.

段落C:

相关发展中，博物馆和遗址之间的鲜明界限正在逐渐消失。它们已经从彼此借鉴了想法和概念。例如，博物馆采用了展览的故事情节，遗址接受了“主题化”作为一个相关工具，主题公园正朝着更加真实和基于研究的展示方向发展。在动物园中，动物不再被关在笼子里，而是在广阔的空间中，可以是室内也可以是巨大的温室，例如荷兰的布尔格斯动物园中的丛林和沙漠环境。这种特定趋势被认为是20世纪自然历史展示中的重大发展之一。

段落D

Theme parks are undergoing other changes, too, as they try to present more serious social and cultural issues, and move away from fantasy. This development is a response to market forces and, although museums and heritage sites have a special, rather distinct, role to fulfil, they are also operating in a very competitive environments, where visitors make choices on how and where to spend their free time. Heritage and museum experts do not have to invent stories and recreate historical environments to attract their visitors: their assets are already in place. However, exhibits must be both based on artefacts and facts as we know them, and attractively presented. Those who are professionally engaged in the art of interpreting history are thus in a difficult position, as they must steer a narrow course between the demands of ‘evidence’ and ‘attractiveness’, especially given the increasing need in the heritage industry for income-generating activities.

段落D:

主题公园也正在发生其他变化，以试图呈现更严肃的社会和文化问题，并摆脱幻想。这种发展是对市场力量的回应，尽管博物馆和遗址有特殊而独特的角色要发挥，但它们也在一个非常竞争的环境中运作，在这个环境中，游客会根据如何以及在哪里度过他们的闲暇时间来做出选择。历史和博物馆专家不必发明故事和重新创造历史环境来吸引游客：它们的资产已经就位。然而，展品必须既基于我们所知道的文物和事实，又具有吸引力。对于专业从事历史解读艺术的人来说，他们处于一个困难的境地，因为他们必须在“证据”和“吸引力”之间保持狭小的航道，特别是考虑到遗产行业对创收活动的需求越来越大。

段落E

It could be claimed that in order to make everything in heritage more ‘real’, historical accuracy must be increasingly altered. For example, is depicted in an Indonesian museum with Malay facial features, because this corresponds to public perceptions. Similarly, in the Museum of Natural History in Washington, Neanderthal man is shown making a dominant gesture to his wife. Such presentations tell us more about contemporary perceptions of the world than about our ancestors. There is one compensation, however, for the professionals who make these interpretations: if they did not provide the interpretation, visitors would do it for themselves, based on their own ideas, misconceptions and prejudices. And no matter how exciting the result, it would contain a lot more bias than the presentations provided by experts.

段落E:

可以说，为了使遗产中的所有事物更“真实”，历史的准确性必须不断改变。例如，在印度尼西亚的一个博物馆中，所描述的人物具有马来特征，因为这与公众的认知相符。同样，在华盛顿的自然历史博物馆中，尼安德特人被显示为向妻子做出主导性姿势的形象。这样的展示向我们展示了关于当代世界感知的更多信息，而不是关于我们的祖先。然而，对于进行这些解释的专业人士来说，有一个补偿：如果他们不提供解释，游客会根据自己的想法、误解和偏见来进行解释。而无论结果多么激动人心，它都会包含比专家提供的展示更多的偏见。

段落F

Human bias is inevitable, but another source of bias in the representation of history has to do with the transitory nature of the materials themselves. The simple fact is that not everything from history survives the historical process. Castles, palaces and cathedrals have a longer lifespan than the dwellings of ordinary people. The same applies to the furnishings and other contents of the premises. In a town like Leyden in Holland, which in the seventeenth century was occupied by approximately the same number of inhabitants as today, people lived within the walled town, an area more than five times smaller than modern Leyden. In most of the houses several families lived together in circumstances beyond our imagination. Yet in museums, fine period rooms give only an image of the lifestyle of the upper class of that era. No wonder that people who stroll around exhibitions are filled with nostalgia; the evidence in museums indicates that life was so much better in the past. This notion is induced by the bias in its representation in museums and heritage centers.

段落F:

人类的偏见是不可避免的，但历史再现中的另一个偏见源于材料本身的暂时性。简单的事实是，并非所有来自历史的东西都能幸存下来。城堡、宫殿和大教堂的寿命比普通人的住所更长。同样适用于房屋的家具和其他物品。例如，荷兰的莱顿市在17世纪被大约与现代相同数量的居民占据，人们居住在比现代莱顿大五倍的城墙内。在大多数房屋中，几个家庭一起生活，情况超出了我们的想象。然而，在博物馆中，精美的时期房间只展示了那个时代上层阶级的生活方式的形象。难怪在展览的周围漫步的人都充满了怀旧之情；博物馆中的证据表明过去的生活要好得多。这种观念是由博物馆和遗产中心的再现中的偏见引起的。