英伦广角 Issue 100 播音员的笑场之灾

Descending¹ into a fit of the giggles² whilst trying to deliver serious news is a newsreader's nightmare, but that's what happened to BBC radio's Charlotte Green today. She fell victim to that performers' enemy "corpsing". The term was first used by theatre folk, but today touched that bastion of middle-class values Radio 4. Here is our arts reporter Stephanie West.

In the world of comedy, corpsing has always been an acceptable hazard, for Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, who practically lived to reduce each other to a hip³, it was a moment the audience's waited for. But today, unplanned giggles did for the composure of Radio 4. The sedate⁴ voice of Charlotte Green, voted the most attractive on the air waves by Radio Times' listeners, was reduced to a strangulated whimper, after she heard the earliest recording⁵ of a human voice played in her news bulletin.

"The Award winning screen writer Abby Mann has died at the age of 80,he won an Academy Award in 1961 for "Judgment⁶ at Nuremberg", Abby, excuse me,sorry....Abby Mann also....." The fight the final news item was about the death of an award-winning screen writer, only added to the horror, but she struggled on for more than 30 seconds more. "....for a film which featured....." Judging by an audible man snort and news, one of the anchors had his head in his hands, we understand Jim Knocktie and Edward Sterton were rendered unable to help. It's ten minutes past eight.

Corpsing is Thespian⁷ slang for murdering a scene with uncontrollable laughter, but there was sympathy at THE KING`S HEAD Theater in Islington today, where the artistic⁸ director described corpsing as contagious⁹ as yawning, with a remedy that would surely only have exacerbated¹⁰ Charlotte's woes¹¹. One of the techniques to stop yourself from corpsing, if you feel a corpse¹² is coming, obviously you look down, you do anything you can not to corpse and not to pass the contagion¹³ on, and one thing you can do is swallow really hard or you can pinch yourself, or you can you know pull your finger, anything to distract your mind from the laughter that's about to erupt from you.

And while surrendering to uncontrollable mirth might look like fun as illustrated¹⁴ in Rikky's guy to corpsing here, many performers say, they regard it as a weakness. And it's not till you are there and the camera is switched on ,and something is said and it set you off and you can't stop. "Give my pen." "Yes,take it.

1 descending   

n. 下行 adj. 下降的

参考例句：

• The results are expressed in descending numerical order . 结果按数字降序列出。
• The climbers stopped to orient themselves before descending the mountain. 登山者先停下来确定所在的位置，然后再下山。

2 giggles   

n.咯咯的笑( giggle的名词复数 )；傻笑；玩笑；the giggles 止不住的格格笑v.咯咯地笑( giggle的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Her nervous giggles annoyed me. 她神经质的傻笑把我惹火了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I had to rush to the loo to avoid an attack of hysterical giggles. 我不得不冲向卫生间，以免遭到别人的疯狂嘲笑。 来自辞典例句

3 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

4 sedate   

adj.沉着的，镇静的，安静的

参考例句：

• After the accident,the doctor gave her some pills to sedate her.事故发生后，医生让她服了些药片使她镇静下来。
• We spent a sedate evening at home.我们在家里过了一个恬静的夜晚。

5 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

6 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

7 thespian   

adj.戏曲的；n.演员；悲剧演员

参考例句：

• If you enjoy acting in plays,join your school's thespian club.如果你喜欢戏剧表演，就加入你学校的戏剧社团。
• The actress demonstrated thespian talents at her first audition.这位女演员第一次试镜就展现出戏剧天分。

8 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

9 contagious   

adj.传染性的，有感染力的

参考例句：

• It's a highly contagious infection.这种病极易传染。
• He's got a contagious laugh.他的笑富有感染力。

10 exacerbated   

v.使恶化，使加重( exacerbate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The symptoms may be exacerbated by certain drugs. 这些症状可能会因为某些药物而加重。
• The drugs they gave her only exacerbated the pain. 他们给她吃的药只是加重了她的痛楚。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 woes   

困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉

参考例句：

• Thanks for listening to my woes. 谢谢您听我诉说不幸的遭遇。
• She has cried the blues about its financial woes. 对于经济的困难她叫苦不迭。

12 corpse   

n.尸体，死尸

参考例句：

• What she saw was just an unfeeling corpse.她见到的只是一具全无感觉的尸体。
• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming.尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。

13 contagion   

n.(通过接触的疾病)传染；蔓延

参考例句：

• A contagion of fear swept through the crowd.一种恐惧感在人群中迅速蔓延开。
• The product contagion effect has numerous implications for marketing managers and retailers.产品传染效应对市场营销管理者和零售商都有很多的启示。

14 illustrated   

adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• His lecture was illustrated with slides taken during the expedition. 他在讲演中使用了探险时拍摄到的幻灯片。
• The manufacturing Methods: Will be illustrated in the next chapter. 制作方法将在下一章说明。