最近，因?yàn)椤稒?quán)力的游戲》結(jié)局飽受爭(zhēng)議的HBO電視臺(tái)，推出了五集迷你劇《切爾諾貝利》，并大獲成功。這部劇在IMDB評(píng)分榜上達(dá)到了9.7分，成為史上評(píng)分最高的劇。這部劇為什能得到如此好評(píng)？它聚焦的切爾諾貝利事件，又是怎么一回事？一起來聽今天的課程。
本篇課程首發(fā)于2019年6月7日，選自The Economist https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/06/04/chernobyl-is-the-highest-rated-tv-series-ever
文本難度：★★★☆☆ 話題難度：★★★☆☆
“Chernobyl” is the highest-rated TV series ever
《切爾諾貝利》成為史上評(píng)分最高劇集
① At twenty-three minutes past one in the morning of April 26th 1986, a safety test at a nuclear reactor in Soviet Ukraine went catastrophically wrong. The resulting steam explosion at the plant near the city of Pripyat, 70 miles north of Kiev, spewed out so much radiation that much of the surrounding area will be uninhabitable for 20,000 years. Harmful isotopes were carried by the winds as far as Ireland within a week. According to some accounts, first responders who were exposed to large doses of radiation suffered agonising deaths.
1986年4月26日凌晨1點(diǎn)23分，在蘇聯(lián)烏克蘭一座核反應(yīng)堆進(jìn)行的安全測(cè)試出現(xiàn)災(zāi)難性故障。該核電站臨近基輔以北70英里的普里皮亞季市，事故引發(fā)的蒸汽爆炸使大量輻射噴涌而出，導(dǎo)致周邊大部分區(qū)域在兩萬年內(nèi)都不宜居住。短短一周內(nèi)，有害的同位素被風(fēng)吹向各地，最遠(yuǎn)的到達(dá)了愛爾蘭。根據(jù)一些相關(guān)記錄，暴露在大量輻射中的現(xiàn)場(chǎng)急救人員后來均在痛苦中死去。
② These events, as well as the political intrigue of the Soviet government’s actions, are the subject of HBO’s historical drama series, “Chernobyl”. Following the final episode, which aired in America on June 3rd, it is the highest-rated television series of all time, according to crowd-sourced reviews on IMDb, a film and television rating site.
這些事件以及蘇聯(lián)政府行動(dòng)背后的政治陰謀，均是HBO歷史連續(xù)劇《切爾諾貝利》的主題。美國(guó)時(shí)間6月3日最后一集播出后，電影電視評(píng)分網(wǎng)站IMDb上的觀眾評(píng)論顯示，該劇成為有史以來評(píng)分最高的劇集。
③ All of this is even more impressive given its subject matter. Documentaries typically struggle to gain as much attention as action and fantasy shows such as “Game of Thrones”, and the same is true of historical dramas.
考慮到該劇的主題，上述成績(jī)就更令人贊嘆了。通常，紀(jì)錄片很難像《權(quán)力的游戲》等動(dòng)作片和奇幻片一樣廣受關(guān)注，而歷史類劇集也同樣如此。
④ The show has also caused a massive spike in interest about the actual disaster. Web traffic to the entry for the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, has increased 56-fold since the start of the year.
該劇也激起了許多人對(duì)這場(chǎng)真實(shí)災(zāi)難的興趣。自今年年初至今，網(wǎng)絡(luò)百科全書維基百科上“切爾諾貝利核事故”詞條的流量飆升了56倍。
▍生詞好句
Chernobyl/t?i?'n?:bil/n. 切爾諾貝利 rate/re?t/vt. 評(píng)估；評(píng)分；評(píng)級(jí)
The movie has been highly rated since its release. 這部電影出來以后好評(píng)如潮，口碑很好。 audience rating 收視率 review vt. （具體）評(píng)價(jià) rate and review 評(píng)分+評(píng)價(jià)
ever/'ev?/adv. 有史以來 reactor/r?'?kt?/n. 反應(yīng)堆 catastrophically/k?t?'str?f?kli/adv. 災(zāi)難性地
catastrophic adj. 災(zāi)難性的 catastrophe n. 災(zāi)難（a momentous tragic event）
resulting/r?'z?lt??/adj. 由此引起的；作為結(jié)果的
June is Beijing’s wind season and the resulting flight delays could go up to thousands a day. 六月是北京傳統(tǒng)的風(fēng)季，由此引起的航班延誤會(huì)達(dá)到數(shù)千班次一天。
plant/plɑ?nt/n. 工廠 Pripyatn. 普里皮亞季 Kiev/'ki:jef/n. 基輔 spew out噴出；涌出 radiation/?re?di'e???n/n. 輻射 uninhabitable/??n?n'h?b?t?b?l/adj. 不適宜居住的
inhabit vt. 居??；棲居 More than one hundred species of birds inhabit the island. 超過一百種鳥類棲居在這座島上。 The valley used to be inhabited by aboriginal tribes. 這座山谷曾經(jīng)居住著原始部落。 inhabitable adj. 適宜居住的 the world’s most inhabitable cities 全球最適宜居住的城市
isotope/'a?s?t??p/ n. 同位素 first responder第一反應(yīng)人 dose/d??s/n. 劑量 agonising/'?ɡ??naizi?/adj. 煩惱的；苦悶的
agony n. 痛苦
intrigue/?n'tri?g/n. 陰謀；詭計(jì) air/e?/vi. （電視劇和廣播）播放
screen/show vt. 放映（電影）
crowd-sourced adj. 來源很廣的 given prep.考慮到
同義表達(dá)：considering/in view of given the circumstances 考慮到當(dāng)前的情況 Given that you have limited time, what you have achieved is already very great. 鑒于你時(shí)間有限，你完成得已經(jīng)非常好了。
subject matter（文學(xué)或者藝術(shù)作品）主題；題材 the same is true of something……也是一樣
Architects are the combination of artist and engineer, and the same is true of web designers. 建筑師是藝術(shù)家和工程師的合體，網(wǎng)頁設(shè)計(jì)師也同樣如此。
spike/spa?k/ n. 激增 同義表達(dá)：sharp increase
web traffic 網(wǎng)絡(luò)流量 entry/?entr?/ n. 詞條 encyclopedia/?n?sa?kl??pi?di?/ n. 百科全書
