托福听力短文 II-03-3

(MA) Now let's focus on comics in the 1950's. Early in the decade sales were down, so publishers started looking for some new angle to get their readers interested again. They found what they were looking for with horror comics --- stories about ghosts and demons¹ that were often graphically² violent.

Before long, most of the major publishers were printing horror comics --- but it all came to an end a few years later. You see, there was a psychologist named Frederic [FRED-rick] Wertham who claimed that comic books --- the horror books in particular --- were a bad influence on children and turned them into juvenile³ delinquents⁴. Wertham even wrote a book called Seduction of the Innocent that showed specific scenes from comics that he thought were a particularly bad influence on kids.

Wertham wasn't the only one down on comics. The United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency also released a report very critical of comics. The result of all this fuss was the creation of the Comics Code Authority in 1995. This is a self-censoring body created by the publishers. Essentially⁵, for a comic book to be approved by the code, it had to be free of the blood and gore⁶ that was usually depicted⁷ in most horror comics, and evil could never triumph over good. Children had to be shown that crime did not pay.

Well, if comic sales were bad in 1950, things got even worse in 1955. Many small publishers actually went out of business. But the industry rebounded⁸ by introducing a new lineup of superheroes, characters like Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. Now, I've brought with me today some comic books from this era to pass around. They're from my own personal collection, so please be extra careful when handling them.

1 demons   

n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念

参考例句：

• demons torturing the sinners in Hell 地狱里折磨罪人的魔鬼
• He is plagued by demons which go back to his traumatic childhood. 他为心魔所困扰，那可追溯至他饱受创伤的童年。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 graphically   

adv.通过图表；生动地，轮廓分明地

参考例句：

• This data is shown graphically on the opposite page. 对页以图表显示这些数据。
• The data can be represented graphically in a line diagram. 这些数据可以用单线图表现出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 juvenile   

n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的

参考例句：

• For a grown man he acted in a very juvenile manner.身为成年人，他的行为举止显得十分幼稚。
• Juvenile crime is increasing at a terrifying rate.青少年犯罪正在以惊人的速度增长。

4 delinquents   

n.（尤指青少年）有过失的人，违法的人( delinquent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The robbery was committed by a group of delinquents. 那起抢劫案是一群青少年干的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There is today general agreement that juvenile delinquents are less responsible than older offenders. 目前人们普遍认为青少年罪犯比成人罪犯的责任小些。 来自辞典例句

5 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

6 gore   

n.凝血，血污；v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破；缝以补裆；顶

参考例句：

• The fox lay dying in a pool of gore.狐狸倒在血泊中奄奄一息。
• Carruthers had been gored by a rhinoceros.卡拉瑟斯被犀牛顶伤了。

7 depicted   

描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• Other animals were depicted on the periphery of the group. 其他动物在群像的外围加以修饰。
• They depicted the thrilling situation to us in great detail. 他们向我们详细地描述了那激动人心的场面。

8 rebounded   

弹回( rebound的过去式和过去分词 )； 反弹； 产生反作用； 未能奏效

参考例句：

• The ball rebounded from the goalpost and Owen headed it in. 球从门柱弹回，欧文头球将球攻进。
• The ball rebounded from his racket into the net. 球从他的球拍上弹回网中。