托福阅读TPO真题解析之the actor and the audience

　　演员和观众从功能和目的上来看是不一样的，但是他们都是一场表演中不可或缺的组成部分。演员是表演的灵魂，通过动作、姿态、神情和语言来赋予表演以生命，但观众是演员表演的目的和意义，观众通过欣赏和解读来接收演员通过角色传递出来的信息。因此，演员和观众看似相隔甚远，其实却有着千丝万缕的联系。本期新航道常州托福培训班老师的这篇The actor and the audience就深入讨论了演员和观众之间的相互影响。

　　P1:

　　Actors, even when they are well rehearsed, can never fully anticipate how well they will perform before an actual audience. 首句引入话题，开门见山。The actor who has been brilliant in rehearsal can crumble before an audience and completely lose the “edge” of his or her performance in the face of stage fright and apprehension. The presence of an audience can affect performance in other ways as well. Or—and this is more likely—an actor who seemed fairly unexciting at rehearsal can suddenly take fire and dazzle the audience with unexpected energy, subtlety, and depth.紧接着话题从排练和现场表演之间的差异讨论演员在观众面前临场发挥的不可预测性。One celebratedexample of this phenomenon was achieved by Lee J. Cobb in the original production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, in which Cobb had the title role.举例再一次印证前文观点 Roles rehearsed in all solemnity can suddenly turn comical in performance; conversely, roles developed for comic potential in rehearsal may be received soberly by an audience and lose their comedic aspect entirely.进一步通过角色排练时的不同设定对最终现场表演性质的影响来论证现场发挥的不可预测性。

　　这一段的结构比较清晰，以其中一道推理题为例:

　　Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 1 about Lee J .Cobb's performance in Death of a Salesman?

　　A.His performance showed that an actor can change the nature of a role intended to be serious to a comic role.

　　B.His performance before the live audience probably would have been different if there had been more time spent on rehearsal.

　　C.Those who had observed his acting of the part in rehearsal were unprepared for the quality of his performance before a live audience.

　　D.His way of presenting the main character in the original production of the play became the usual way that character was portrayed in later productions.

　　由题中的infer我们知道出题人是希望大家推出作者举‘Lee J. Cobb’s performance in Death of a Salesman’这个例子想表达的观点，首先用人名及作品名可以轻易进行定位，该句前面‘this phenomenon’这边的指代可以看出举例是为了印证前文观点，由此往前看两句：The presence of an audience can affect performance in other ways as well. Or—and this is more likely—an actor who seemed fairly unexciting at rehearsal can suddenly take fire and dazzle the audience with unexpected energy, subtlety, and depth. 这两句主要说的是在场观众也可以从其他方面影响表演。或者，更有可能的是一个平时排练看起来相当没有激情的演员能意想不到地从能量、微妙和深度上突然间就充满激情并让观众惊艳。那么对应的只有C选项，演员在面对现场观众时会爆发出跟排练时不一样的令人赞叹的表现。其他选项例如B(排练时多花时间)和D(对后期作品的影响)均未在段中出现，A选项(演员改变喜剧角色本质)位置在题中例子之后，所以跟题目无关，故排除。

　　还有一道句子简化题：

　　原句大意为：这种转变是由一个基本的反馈建立起来的:演员(至少他或者她的想法的一部分)会不可避免地意识到观众对他或她自己的表演亦或其他演员表演是有反应的;在任何表演中，总是有一种针对于观众而进行的微妙的调整。

　　主句核心信息为：演员意识到观众对他们自己或者其他演员的反应并且总会针对观众的反应进行微调。

　　A.Actors always devote some portion of their minds to establishing an elementary feedback between their own performance and the reactions of others to it. (主干：Actors...devote ...to establishing a ...feedback...between...关于演员建立反馈，跟原句主干不符，故排除)

　　B.An elementary feedback makes actors aware of changes in the reactions of the other actors and of the audience. (主干：A ...feedback makes actors aware of changes in... reactions of ...other actors...and audiences, 关于演员和其他演员之间相互影响，原句主干没提到，故排除)

　　C.On some level, actors are always aware of the audience's reactions both to them and to the other actors and make slight changes in response to them.(主干：...actors are aware if the audience’s reactions both to them and other actors and make..changes...，和原句主干一致，故选C)

　　D.During a performance, actors inevitably shift their focus from the reactions of the other actors to the reactions of the audience. (主干：actors ...shift ...focus from the reactions of ... actors to the ...audience, 关于演员把重心从其他演员反应转移到观众反应上，与原句主干不符，故排除)