英王室“权力的游戏”

美剧《权力的游戏》风靡全球，在英国也颇受欢迎。FT讽刺专栏作家施里姆斯利(Robert Shrimsley)“自黑”说：我们失去了一个帝国，我们球踢得不好，而我们的王室跟剧中的比起来也特没意思。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

gone off the boil 过了沸腾时期，过了顶峰

lechery['let?(?)r?] 好色，淫荡

heady ['hed?] 兴奋的，使人头晕的

saga ['sɑ?g?] 传说

Dodi Fayed 埃及电影制片人，戴安娜王妃离婚后的男友，两人在1997年在法国的一场车祸中去世

Maori ['mauri] 新西兰毛利人

King Edward VIII 爱德华八世，即为与辛普森夫人结婚而退位的国王。他的弟弟接任王位，即《国王的演讲》中的乔治六世国王

spin-off ['spin?:f, -?f] 影视的续集，副产品

debauchery [d?'b??t?(?)r?] 纵情酒色

double-cross 两面三刀，出卖

Lift your game, House of Windsor （697 words）

By Robert Shrimsley

Everyone seems terribly excited about the new series of Game of Thrones.

There are many explanations for the popularity of GoT but, in Britain at least, it is clear that the real secret of its success is that our own homegrown royal drama has really gone off the boil.

For centuries we had a monarchy that cornered the market in lechery and treachery, but now viewers are abandoning it for the land of Westeros and the intrigues of House of Lannister for their entertainment. So there it is, the final indignity. We've lost the empire, we can't play football and our monarchy is being bested by a TV series set in what sounds like a furniture store.

This week, while Game of Thrones featured its usual heady mixture of dwarfs, dragons and death, the best the British Game of Thrones could come up with was Princess Kate, Prince William and baby Prince George(future King, if the monarchy remains) in New Zealand, where they weren't captured by Maoris but pretended to play cricket and waved at crowds.

In just a few years we've gone from Game of Thrones to Lame as Clones. Do you realise we haven't even had a decent beheading since 1697? Game of Thrones wouldn't go more than 20 minutes without a good decapitation but, oh no, we haven't had one since the Jacobite Rebellion (the House of Stuart had been deposed by the Parliament in the Glorious Revolution, between 1688 and 1746, there were uprisings aimed to restore them to the throne. Had nothing to do with the Jacobins in the French Revolution). Prince George is nearly nine months old and he's unlikely to murder a single cousin. As for violence, in general the best you can hope for these days is Prince Harry charging at a photographer. No wonder the Scots are threatening independence.

There was a time when you could tune into our own saga in the certain knowledge that something exciting would happen. You may not have got dragons or sorcery but you could count on divorce, adultery and abdication. You had Princess Diana lounging on Dodi Fayed's yacht in her swimsuit; now the best you can get is Princess Kate in a terribly fetching scarlet jacket. What's more, there's only two of them in this marriage, which may work well in conventional terms but is, frankly, useless in narrative terms.

Admittedly, it did get a bit dull after the first world war, but from the moment King Edward VIII ran off with Mrs Simpson, we were into several decades of absolutely fizzing stories. Those writers really knew their trade. You would not have thought that some old royal with a speech impediment was particularly original but, 75 years later, it wins an Oscar for best picture.

And the 1980s were terrific. Princess Diana, Sarah Ferguson(a commoner married to Prince Andrew and then divorced), the brilliant comic invention that was Prince Edward(third son of Queen Elithebeth II, he had started a television programs production company which went bankrupt) – any one of them could have secured their own spin-off series and, indeed, several tried.

There are those who feel the royals should be a model family – a blank canvas on to which we can all paint our aspirations.

But if there is one thing we know about modern society, it is that it has absolutely no attention span. What the modern royals don't realise is that they are now competing with a far wider range of entertainment, fighting for eyeballs with Grand Theft Auto V and Breaking Bad. On the daily commute, people who could be reading about the royals are instead playing Candy Crush. At this rate, I do worry about how many more series will be commissioned.

The British monarchy has not endured for centuries on the back of calm and courtesy; it has held the union(UK) together on tales of violence, debauchery and double-cross. At such a delicate stage in the UK's history, this is no time to mess with a winning formula.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What's the secret that Game of Thrones is popular in Britain, according to the writer?

A.The story is based on the true history of British Monarchy.

B.The Monarchy ceased to produce eye-catching gossips.

C.The Britons no longer have an empire or good football.

D.The House of Lannister is as intriguing as any real monarch.

答案(1)

2.What do we know about modern people?

A.They are no longer interested in stories of .

B.They have far wider range of entertainment.

C.They prefer games and TV series instead of gossip stories.

D.They are tired of violence, conspiracies and debauchery.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following depicts that today's royal family is dull and unexciting?

A.King Edward VIII renounced the throne and ran off with Mrs Simpson.

B.The story of a King with a speech impediment won the Oscar award.

C.“You may not have got dragons or sorcery but you could count on divorce, adultery and abdication.”

D.Prince William and Princess Kate played cricket and waved at crowds on visiting to New Zealand

答案(3)

4.What's the point the writer trying to make in the last paragraph?(You are encouraged to look back.)

A.Violence, debauchery and double-cross ensured the reign of the Monarchy.

B.The Monarchy is valuable in holding the United Kingdom together.

C.The Monarchy must now rely on courtesy and keeping calm.

D.Better not to mess up with the complicated Manarchy.

答案(4)

* * *

(1)答案：B.The Monarchy ceased to produce eye-catching gossips.

解释：our own homegrown royal drama has really gone off the boil，意思是王室过了自己（出产八卦新闻）的巅峰期了。

(2)答案：B.They have far wider range of entertainment.

解释：在倒数第二段说，那些曾经会关注王室八卦故事的人们，现在的娱乐方式多了去了，他们可以看《绝命毒师》、玩《侠盗猎车手》或《糖果粉碎传奇》。因此作者说“担心王室连续剧还能持续多久”。至于D，怎么可能呢。

(3)答案：D.Prince William and Princess Kate played cricket and waved at crowds on visiting to New Zealand

解释：王室什么时候有意思呢？一个时候是古代，tales of violence, debauchery and double-cross，另一个时代是一战后。文章倒数第五段有这么一句话Admittedly, it did get a bit dull after the first world war, but from the moment King Edward VIII ran off with Mrs Simpson… 也就是战后从爱德华八世到戴安娜王妃之间，有着不少divorce, adultery and abdication题材的故事。 D显然并非很有意思。

(4)答案：B.The Monarchy is valuable in holding the United Kingdom together.

解释：最后一句a delicate stage in the UK's history，当然是指今天面临的苏格兰独立公投， no time to mess with a winning formula，结合前文，意思是历史上英王室保障了联合王国的统一，虽然不是靠calm and courtesy，但也算是成功的秘诀。虽然王室不可能是高端华贵的道德楷模，但留着又何妨？

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