万花筒 2008-08-09&-08-11 烟火大师点燃奥运

To say that the Chinese artist Cai Guo Qiang has exploded on his contemporary art scene is no exaggeration. Best known for making art by exploding gun powder on the paper as well as using explosives in mass-scale public events, Cai was tapped to be the Visual Director of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies where he'll stage his biggest ever pyrotechnic spectacle in a country where fireworks were first invented.

 

In people's eyes, it's just a show. This is a pitfall¹ for me. But this pitfall is also challenging to me to see if we can shake it up a little, turn it into art.

 

Cai has spent more than 2 years preparing for the event which promises to be an aesthetic² feat³ in itself. 35,000 shells will be launched from dozens of different sites spanning more than 2 miles from Tian’anmen Square to the Bird's Nest.  While no longer a resident of his native China, this won't be the first time Cai's designs light up China’s skies. In 1994, he added on to the Great Wall with fire and gun smoke.

 

He was able to bring a hundred volunteers from Japan to lay down those ten thousand meters of fuels lines to, to extend the Great Wall, literally⁴ and metaphorically⁵ out into the Gobi Desert by ten thousand meters.

 

Cai has been celebrated⁶ for the grand scope of his works. A retrospective of his works at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, brought in record numbers. But he is understandably a little gun-shy about putting on the world's biggest fireworks display.

 

At the Olympics, there's just this one moment. But the whole world is waiting in anticipation⁷, watching for that one moment, to see if anything will go wrong, whether the machines will mal-function?  Or natural forces, like torrential rains, which you can't control. It makes you worry.

 

But his efforts are certain to go off with a bang, as his show ushers⁸ in the 2008 Olympic Games.

 

Dara Brown, NBC News.
 

1 pitfall   

n.隐患，易犯的错误；陷阱，圈套

参考例句：

• The wolf was caught in a pitfall.那只狼是利用陷阱捉到的。
• The biggest potential pitfall may not be technical but budgetary.最大的潜在陷阱可能不是技术问题，而是预算。

2 aesthetic   

adj.美学的，审美的，有美感

参考例句：

• My aesthetic standards are quite different from his.我的审美标准与他的大不相同。
• The professor advanced a new aesthetic theory.那位教授提出了新的美学理论。

3 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。

4 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

5 metaphorically   

adv. 用比喻地

参考例句：

• It is context and convention that determine whether a term will be interpreted literally or metaphorically. 对一个词的理解是按字面意思还是隐喻的意思要视乎上下文和习惯。
• Metaphorically it implied a sort of admirable energy. 从比喻来讲，它含有一种令人赞许的能量的意思。

6 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

7 anticipation   

n.预期，预料，期望

参考例句：

• We waited at the station in anticipation of her arrival.我们在车站等着，期待她的到来。
• The animals grew restless as if in anticipation of an earthquake.各种动物都变得焦躁不安，像是感到了地震即将发生。

8 ushers   

n.引座员( usher的名词复数 )；招待员；门房；助理教员v.引，领，陪同( usher的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Seats clicked, ushers bowed while he looked blandly on. 座位发出啪啦啪啦的声响，领座员朝客人们鞠躬，而他在一边温和殷勤地看着。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• The minister then offers a brief prayer of dedication, and the ushers return to their seats. 于是牧师又做了一个简短的奉献的祈祷，各招待员也各自回座位。 来自辞典例句