Narrator: Listen to part of the lecture in a children's literature class.

旁白：请听一段儿童文学的讲座。

Professor: Today we'll start looking at the most important children's book authors of the twentieth century.

教授：今天我们将看一个20世纪最重要的儿童文学作家。

And I'd like to start with an author illustrator whom some of you probably grew up reading: Dr. Seuss.

你们可能在成长过程中读过他的文学作品，他叫Dr.Seuss。

His actual name was Theodor Seuss Geisel.

他的真名是Theodor Seuss Geisul。

Geisel's work was hugely popular among beginning readers and their parents, but it wasn't always considered literature or subjected to serious academic inquiry until relatively recently.

他的作品在孩子和父母中是非常受欢迎的，但是，他的作品并没有被当成是文学或者受学术研究的关注。直到最近才有所改变。

In fact, not only weren't his books considered literature, but they weren't always considered good school books.

事实上，他的作品不仅没有当成文学，更没有作为学校教科书。

In the late 1950s and even through the 60s, US teachers resisted Seuss's books because they perceived them as having a comic book style... fun, maybe, but not... not appropriate for the classroom.

在上世纪50年代末，甚至整个60年代，美国教师抵制Dr.Seuss 的书，因为他们认为这些书风格是幽默漫画， 有趣但不太适合在教室阅读

None of Geisel's books individually won him a Pulitzer Prize.

Geisel没有一本书获得过普利策奖。

And he didn't receive any top children's literary awards either.

他也没有得到过任何顶级的儿童文学奖项。

Although the Pulitzer Prize committee did give him a citation in 1984 for his... uh..."special contribution over nearly half a century to the education and enjoyment of America's children and their parents".

尽管普利策奖委员会确实授予他奖项，名号是“近半个世纪以来对儿童及其父母的教育和娱乐的特殊贡献”。

But again, that wasn't until 1984.

但直到1984年，他才获奖。

Perhaps one reason his books weren't taken seriously is that even though they often use rhyme, you wouldn't call him a great poet.

也许他的书没有被认真对待的一个原因是，尽管他的作品有韵律的，但是你不会称他为一个伟大的诗人。

Geisel's rhyme schemes are very simple.

他的韵律组合是非常简单的。

And often, to make things rhyme, he used silly names for his imaginary creatures, like the Grinch and Sneetches.

而且为了使内容有韵律，他经常给他虚构的人物叫一些比较傻的名字，比如，Grinch和Sneetches。

In fact, one book features 34 pairs of rhymed words, but only eight of those pairs consist entirely of real words.

事实上，一本书可能有34组押韵的词，但是其中只有8组全部是真实词汇。

The rest are made-up words.

剩下的都是自创的单词。

Geisel also illustrated his own books and created a lot of highly memorable characters from a visual standpoint.

Geisel也给自己的书做过插图，创作出很多令人视觉上印象深刻的角色。

Yet as far as his artistic talent, no one's ever called him a great artist or a great illustrator.

但是，就艺术才华来说，没有人认为他是个很好的艺术家或者一个插图画家。

For his human characters, he pretty much drew the same face over and over.

从他的人物角色来看，他画的人物都是一样的。

Except for minor accessories, all the people in his books look the same.

除了配角，他书里的所有人看上去都长一个样

Not exactly something you'd be encouraged to do in art school.

这确实不是那些在艺术学校被鼓励做的事。

And the way he drew even nonhuman characters was dismissed by many critics as being overly simplistic.

他刻画的那些非人物的角色被评论家认为过于简单。

His landscapes, on the other hand, they are simple but they are also extremely clever.

另一方面，他作品中的风景很简单也很巧妙的。

He had this uncanny knack for creating the illusion of great distance with some very simple shapes and lines.

他用很神奇的手法来创造远距离的幻觉——利用一些简单的形状和线条。

But what about from a pedagogical standpoint?

但是，从教育的角度来看呢？

Well, let's consider Geisel's most famous book: The Cat in the Hat. Now, in a way, this book, The Cat in the Hat, captures the essence of Geisel's particular genius as a children's author.

举一个Geisel最著名的作品：The Cat in the Hat。在某种程度上，这本书体现了Geisel作为儿童文学作家的特别天赋。

Geisel actually wrote it in response to an article written in 1954 by an acclaimed novelist named John Hersey.

Geisel写这篇文章是为了回应一篇文章。这篇文章是著名的小说家John Hersy写于1954年的。

In this article, Hersey criticized the textbooks being used in elementary schools to teach children to read.

在这篇文章中，Hersey批评了小学里的阅读教科书。

He called the books “boring, contrived, and utterly humorless”.

他说这些书“无聊，做作，不幽默”。

After seeing Hersey's article, Geisel must have wondered what made the books so dull.

看到Hersy的文章后，他一定是想知道是什么让这些书很无趣。

And one thing he found was they use only words from the Dolch List.

他发现了一点，这些书只使用了Dolch List的单词。

The Dolch List contained a few hundred common sight words, words like, well, cat and hat.

Dolch List 包含几百个普通的常用词，比如，cat和hat。

At the time, the Dolch List was widely adhered to by publishers of textbooks for beginning readers.

当时，Dolch List 被初级读物的出版商广为采纳

Well, using only words from the Dolch List, Geisel tapped into his fertile imagination.

在仅使用Dolch list 中的单词的情况下，盖泽尔激发出了他丰富的想象力

And the result was an incredibly funny and engaging storyline about a talking cat that convinces a brother and sister to let him make a huge mess in their house while their mother is away.

结果有了一个十分有趣又吸引人的故事情节，讲的是一只会说话的猫说服一对兄妹，让自己趁妈妈不在家把家里弄得乱糟糟的。

Another character, a talking fish, tries to warn the children that they'll be blamed for the cat's crazy antics.

另一个角色，一条会说话的鱼警告孩子们，他们会因为猫的疯狂的动作而被批评。

You can really feel the tension building up in those kids as the cat makes the house messier and messier.

你真的可以感觉到当猫把家里弄得越来越乱的时候孩子们越来越紧张。

Ultimately the house gets straightened up in the nick of time.

最终在紧要关头，房子又重归整洁。

And the kids are left speechless when their mom shows up and casually asks if anything interesting happened in her absence.

当妈妈回来后问她不在的时候有什么有趣的事情发生的时候，孩子们说不出话。

The kids, and presumably, Geisel's readers are left thinking: should they tell the truth?

大概，孩子和读者就会思考：他们应该说出事实嘛？

And that's where the book ends.

这就是书的结局。

Brilliant! There aren't too many authors who can set up a moral dilemma like this and then get children to think about it for themselves.

非常好！没有太多的作者能够设定一个这样的道德两难情景去让孩子们自己思考。