BBC双语新闻讲解附字幕:对薇拉·布里顿回忆录的思考听力文本On this day in 1920 the United States voted not to join the League of Nations that had emerged out of the ‘never again’tide of feeling that accompanied the end of the First World War. Although President Woodrow Wilson had been appalled at the scale of human suffering he had seen, the increasingly isolationist tendencies of the US meant that the first organisation with an international peace agenda began its life without one of its potentially most powerful members.One of the early supporters of the League of Nations was Vera Brittain, whose classic memoir of the Great War, ‘Testament of Youth’, was released as a film on 16 January. Having read a review that found it sentimental I went to see it on Friday with mixed expectations.The film is primarily, like Brittain’s book, a commemoration of the lives and deaths of the young men whom she had loved and lost rather than an attempt to make a contemporary point. But the act of remembrance itself, can be a subversive and not just a sentimental act. Urged to forget and move on by those around her, Vera determined not only that she would not forget these young men, but that she would not forget what she herself had witnessed and learned as a V oluntary Nurse whilst at a military hospital in étaples.Confronted there with a hut full of German wounded Vera recognized, with shock, that these enemies were young men too, bleeding, suffering and dying far from home; the memory led to her initial support for the League of Nations, and in the face of the growing militarism of the 1930s, eventually to become one of the 20th century’s leading pacifists.As this month’s events in France continue to reverberate, and the release of the Guantanamo diaries raises inconvenient moral questions about western values, what we do with our memories is a key question. ‘Forgive and forget’is often not realistic, ignores the claims of justice, and is simply not safe, whilst the memory driven cycle of defending our own ‘high ground’runs the risk of causing more and more damage and of failing to see how our attitudes and actions –whoever we are - also need scrutiny.An alternative way to remember is offered by Miroslav V olf, a Croat theologian, writing out of the Balkan conflict of the 1990s. What he offers is a twofold way of remembering –a remembrance of harm done to us and ours that honours real anxiety and protects the vulnerable, but a remembrance which also honours the humanity of our enemies –a remembrance that restrains our desire for vengeance, opens up space for the scrutiny of our own actions, and constrains us to work for thereconciliation of all peoples –even if that day is beyond our sight.The League of Nations failed for lots of reasons, and was succeeded by a variety of international institutions, but it did hold out a vision of common humanity in the years after the Great War. Who, or what, now, amidst ricocheting fears and outrages, might we allow, not to help us forget, nor even just to remember, but to remember well?词汇解释1.appalled adj. 惊骇的；丧胆的She said that the Americans are appalled at the statements made at the conference.她说美国人对在该大会中作的声明感到震惊。
2.testament n. [法] 遗嘱；圣约；确实的证明The falsification of the testament [will] was discovered by them.他们发现这份遗嘱被窜改了。
3.subversive adj. 破坏性的；从事颠覆的n. 危险分子；颠覆分子The play was promptly banned as subversive and possibly treasonous.该剧被认为是颠覆性的且可能是叛国性的而立即被禁演了。
4.reverberate vt. 使回响；使反射；使弹回vi. 回响；反响；弹回；不断发生后效adj. 回响的；反射的The controversy surrounding the takeover yesterday continued to reverberate around the television industry.围绕昨天的接管问题的争议继续在电视业产生反响。
5.ricochet n. 跳弹；跳飞；vi. 跳飞vt. 使跳飞The bullets ricocheted off the hood and windshield.子弹从汽车引擎盖和挡风玻璃上弹走了。
内容解析1.The League of Nations failed for lots of reasons, and was succeeded by a variety of international institutions, but it did hold out a vision of common humanity in the years after the Great War.hold out 坚持；伸出；提供；维持；抵制；主张；扣留；寄予(希望)He still holds out hope that they could be a family again.他仍然希望他们能够再次成为一家人。
In those impregnable mountains, the guerrillas could hold out for years.在那些易守难攻的大山里，游击队可以坚持很多年。
参考译文1920年的今天，美国投票决定不加入国际联盟，该组织是在一战后“永远不再这样”的思潮应运而生的。
尽管伍德罗·威尔逊总统对亲眼目睹人类苦难甚为震惊，美国日益加强的孤立主义者倾向意味着，第一个有着国际和平议程的组织在诞生时并没有可能成为强国的成员国。
国际联盟最初的支持者之一是薇拉·布里顿，她有关一战的经典回忆录《青年遗嘱》于1月16日以电影的形式上映。
我读过其影评，发现它很感人，周五在欣赏它时怀着复杂的期待之情。
这部电影像布里顿的书一样，主要讲述的是她所爱过并失去的年轻人的生死故事，而不是试图表述当代的观点。
但这种纪念行为本身是颠覆性的，不仅是在抒发感情。