英语听力：Beethoven 贝多芬 - 13

 On July 5th, 1812, Beethoven arrived in Teplitz from Prague, and over three days wrote a passionate¹ love letter.

 

"My angel, my all, my very self, only a few words today…Can our love endure except through sacrifices? Through not demanding everything? Can you change the fact that you are not wholly mine? I’m not wholly thine? Oh, God!...my heart is full of so many things to say to you. Others are moments when I feel that speech amounts to nothing at all. Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my immortal² beloved. Oh, continue to love me, never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved, ever thine, ever mine, ever ours.”

 

We know her only as the immortal beloved. He never named the woman of the heart of this extraordinary passion. Her identity remains³ a mystery.

 

"A lot of people question whether there is ever going to be enough evidence to settle the immortal beloved letter to everyone’s satisfaction. In Germany and on the Continent, people tend to believe that it's Josephine Brunsvik, and in the United States and England, people tend to believe it is Antonie Brentano. So the controversy⁴ continues.”

 

Antonie Brentano, a married woman with four children was in the right places at the right times. For example, she was in Prague with her husband just before the letter was written. And then she went to Carlsbad, so she fits the clues found in the letter. Emotionally though the evidence favors an old love, Josephine Brunsvik. The letters which survived from her earlier relationship with Beethoven, match the 1812 letter in passion, vocabulary and style.

 

"Interestingly, both of the women that are candidates for the immortal beloved had children 9 months or 8 months after the immortal beloved letter was written, and so there is this possibility that one of these two children could have been Beethoven’s child. And since Beethoven didn’t have any children that we know about this would be quite interesting. Antonie’s child turned out to be a boy, who had a very tragic⁵ life. He was epileptic and prone⁶ to seizures⁷. Josephine Brunsvik had a daughter, and she turned out to be exquisitely⁸ musical, and in fact she made her living as a piano teacher. One of the things that’s curious is in that one of the conversation books which are from the last decade of Beethoven's life, there is a statement that says: If you talk about the child so much, people would know that it’s yours. And unfortunately there is no gender⁹ of the child mentioned. But there is something about this that suggests that Beethoven thought that he had a child at some point. So there is a mystery here sort of waiting to be uncovered.

1 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

2 immortal   

adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的

参考例句：

• The wild cocoa tree is effectively immortal.野生可可树实际上是不会死的。
• The heroes of the people are immortal!人民英雄永垂不朽！

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

5 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

6 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

7 seizures   

n.起获( seizure的名词复数 )；没收；充公；起获的赃物

参考例句：

• Seizures of illicit drugs have increased by 30% this year. 今年违禁药品的扣押增长了30%。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Other causes of unconsciousness predisposing to aspiration lung abscess are convulsive seizures. 造成吸入性肺脓肿昏迷的其他原因，有惊厥发作。 来自辞典例句

8 exquisitely   

adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地

参考例句：

• He found her exquisitely beautiful. 他觉得她异常美丽。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He wore an exquisitely tailored gray silk and accessories to match. 他穿的是做工非常考究的灰色绸缎衣服，还有各种配得很协调的装饰。 来自教父部分

9 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。