2017考研英語時(shí)文精選：倫敦街頭的涂鴉文化

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今天我們來分享一篇《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》中的《涂鴉墻上文化》，希望大家能夠希望的涂鴉文化有所了解。下面請(qǐng)看具體文章和詞匯解析。

Graffiti,The Writing's on the Wall

涂鴉墻上文化

Having turned respectable, graffiti culture is dying .

LONDON'S fastest-changing art gallery is hidden in a sunken ball court on a housing estate in Stockwell, south London. On a sunny Sunday afternoon six or seven men, mostly in their 30s, are busy painting the walls with new designs. They have put up cartoons, names written in elaborate, multi-coloured lettering and clever perspective tricks. Tins of spray paint and beer stand on the ground; ladders lean against the paintings.The atmosphere is not unlike that of a golf course: a mix of concentration and blokey relaxation.

Graffiti painting is traditionally a daredevil pursuit. Teenagers dodge security guards to put their names on trains and buses. But over the past decade that has all but disappeared from Britain's cities. Between 2007 and 2012 the number of incidents of graffiti recorded by the British Transport Police fell by 63%.A survey by the environment ministry shows that fewer places are blighted by tags than ever. Graffiti are increasingly confined to sanctioned walls, such as the Stockwell ball courts. In time the practice may die out entirely.

The most obvious reason for the decline in tagging and train-painting is better policing, says Keegan Webb, who runs TheLondon Vandal, a graffiti blog. Numerous CCTV cameras mean it is harder to get away with painting illegally. And punishments are more severe.Once-prolific taggers such as Daniel Halpin, who painted his pseudonym “Tox” all over London,have been given long prison sentences. British graffiti artists who want to paint trains usually go abroad to do it these days, says Mr Webb.

A generational shift is apparent, too.Fewer teenagers are getting into painting walls. They prefer to play with iPads and video games, reckons Boyd Hill, an artist known as Solo One, who in effect runsthe Stockwell ball courts. Those who do get involved tend to prefer street art to graffitiproper (which purists define as letters and names, however elaborately drawn).Some have gone to art school and want to make money from their paintings. The internet means that painters can win far more attention by posting pictures online than they can by breaking into a railway yard.

Taggers and graffiti artists mostly grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. Those men—and almost all are men—are now older and less willing to take risks. “We can't runaway from the police any more,” says Ben Eine, who turned from tagging to street art. The hip-hop culture that inspired graffiti in the first place has faded. Video games and comic books provide more inspiration than music.

Graffiti may eventually disappear. But for now the hobby is almost respectable. Mr Eine says he has lots of friends who used to paint trains. Now with wives and children, they paint abandoned warehouses at the weekend. It has become something to do on a Sunday afternoon—a slightly healthier alternative to sitting watching the football.

涂鴉文化變得讓人尊敬，卻正在面臨著滅絕。

倫敦瞬息萬變的藝術(shù)展在倫敦南部的斯托克維爾的一個(gè)住宅區(qū)的地下球場(chǎng)舉行。在一個(gè)陽光燦爛的周日下午，六七個(gè)30多歲的男人這在墻壁上設(shè)計(jì)他們的新畫。他們?cè)趬Ρ谏袭嬃丝ㄍó嫛⒕�美的名字、多姿多彩字母和精妙的視覺圖。許多瓶噴漆和啤酒在地上擺放著，扶梯靠墻著墻立著。這氛圍就像是高爾夫球場(chǎng)一樣：是融合了集中性和娛樂休閑性的環(huán)境。

從傳統(tǒng)上來說，涂鴉作畫是一種不計(jì)后果的追求。年輕人們會(huì)躲避安保人員，然后把它們的名字畫在火車和公交車上。但是，在過去的十年中，這種現(xiàn)象已經(jīng)在英國的城市里消失了。在2007到2012年，違反英國交通法規(guī)的涂鴉事件的數(shù)量下降了63%。根據(jù)環(huán)境部的調(diào)查，相比以前來說，越來越少的地方受到涂鴉畫的破壞。目前，涂鴉畫逐漸被限制在那些允許被涂畫的墻上，比如說，斯托克維爾的球場(chǎng)。隨著時(shí)間的推進(jìn)，這種行為很有可能會(huì)全部消失。

繪名和火車涂鴉盛行的下降最主要是因?yàn)檎�策的不斷完備，這是Keegan Webb的觀點(diǎn)，他是一個(gè)叫做“倫敦文化藝術(shù)破壞者”的涂鴉博客的博主。中央電視臺(tái)的攝像頭不斷關(guān)注在墻上非法地涂鴉。相應(yīng)地，懲罰也更加嚴(yán)重了。曾經(jīng)多產(chǎn)的涂鴉人，比如Daniel Halpin，他把他的別名“Tox”涂遍了整個(gè)倫敦，其結(jié)果是被判了長期監(jiān)禁。Mr Webb認(rèn)為，近來想去涂鴉火車的英國的涂鴉藝人，通常都會(huì)出國。

一代人的轉(zhuǎn)化也是很顯然易見的。越來越少的年輕人參與到墻上涂鴉中來了，他們更喜歡IPad和電腦游戲。這是Boyd Hill(被稱為藝術(shù)家獨(dú)一人)的觀點(diǎn)，他經(jīng)營著斯托克維爾球場(chǎng)。就算年輕人對(duì)這方面感興趣，他們也比較喜歡街頭藝術(shù)，而非真正的涂鴉(盡管畫的很好，但是純粹主義者們都認(rèn)為他們是字母和名字)。他們中有一些年輕人已經(jīng)上了藝術(shù)學(xué)校，并想從他們的繪畫中賺錢。網(wǎng)絡(luò)的發(fā)展意味著，相比較于把畫畫在鐵路調(diào)車場(chǎng)來說，繪畫人可以把自己的繪圖在線上傳，這樣更能提高他們的知名度。

繪名和涂鴉藝人大都成長在20世紀(jì)80或90年代。這個(gè)群體—大多是男人—現(xiàn)在都比較年長了，他們不甚愿意去冒險(xiǎn)。Ben Eine---從繪名轉(zhuǎn)到了街頭藝術(shù)，他認(rèn)為， “我們不能像從前那樣從警察眼皮子下溜走了。”剛開始引起涂鴉文化的嘻哈文化現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)漸漸消失了。相比較而言，電子游戲和漫畫書比音樂提供了更多的靈感。

最終，涂鴉可能會(huì)消失。但是直到現(xiàn)在，這種愛好幾乎是受到人們的尊敬的。Ben Eine說，他有很多朋友，他們?cè)��?jīng)都在火車上畫畫。現(xiàn)在，他們有了妻子和孩子們，因此他們只有周末才會(huì)去廢棄的倉庫墻上畫畫。這對(duì)于比坐在電視機(jī)前看足球來說，這是一個(gè)更加健康的休閑方式。

重點(diǎn)詞匯：

1.respectable  adj. 值得尊敬的；人格高尚的；相當(dāng)數(shù)量的 n. 可敬的人

2.fastest-changing  adj.發(fā)展最迅速的

3.Traditionally  adv. 傳統(tǒng)上；習(xí)慣上；傳說上

4.over the past decade  在過去的十年里

5.Increasingly  adv. 越來越多地；漸增地

6.die out 滅絕；消失

7.Illegally  adv. 非法地

8.be getting into  正在進(jìn)入

9.get involved  加入、介入

10.take risks  冒險(xiǎn)

11.inspiration n. 靈感；鼓舞；吸氣；妙計(jì)

12.eventually adv. 最后，終于