Prince Charming Will’s World
On the occasion of his 18th birthday, the world was getting a rare look at the man who was born to be the king of England. The shattered boy who marched bravely behind his mother's coffin1 years ago has emerged as thoughtful young man--a thoroughly modern monarch2.

　　With a smile disarmingly3 like Diana's and his father's sense of duty, William has the makings of a thoroughly modern monarch. As befits4 a 21st-century prince, he's being introduced to his future subjects through the media. Although he's still very young and no one knows what challenges he'll face, imagery clearly will have to be a top priority. The birthday pictures released tells the story of a young man equally at home or on the rugby5 field or in front of a computer. He's a leader, but also one of the boys, and seems remarkably comfortable in his own skin. It's a very different image from the stiff and formal portraits of Elizabeth and Charles at the same age.

　　Because he's been sheltered from publicity, William is very much an unknown quantity to most of his future subjects. And he seems to like it that way. At almost every photo opportunity in the past few years, William has appeared at best shy and often deliberately distant. Photographers frequently complained that they would go through many rolls of film just to get a few frames in which William was actually smiling. William is said to have hated the paparazzi6 who emerged from nowhere when he was out with his mother and, as he grew older, he reportedly avoided appearing in public with her. He preferred holidays with his father at Balmoral in Scotland, where the flashbulbs7 could be kept at bay by acres of royal land.

　　William thrived on Eton's legendary playing fields, excelling at rugby, football, swimming and water polo.The birthday pictures show him participating in all these sports with some gusto8,enjoying a rough? and-tumble9 life.But he was more than just a jock. William reportedly took his studies very seriously and earned a respectable number of A's at the academically demanding school.

　　William's success at Eton is very different from his father's experiences as a teenager, and that has helped him develop leadership skills he'll need as king. Charles has said that he was miserable at Gordonstoun,his no-frills10 boarding school in Scotland,and was bullied by classmates.But if Charles was the kid everyone picked on11, William at 18 appears to be the quintessential12 cool guy whom everyone wants to befriend--regardless of his royal status. He was elected to the Eton Society.That entitled him to impose fines on younger boys who broke school rules.It also meant he got to wear a special uniform, including vests of his own design.

　　When William talked about his experiences at Eton and the ever more intense media attention he anticipates in the future, he said, “ I have particularly appreciated being left alone at Eton, which has allowed me to concentrate on my schoolwork and enjoy being with my friends without being followed by cameras. I hope I can enjoy the same freedom at university.”

That doesn't seem likely.At a university,there's a lot more potential than there was at Eton for William to be exposed in a compromising position;girlfriends, parties, even his grades could all be tabloid13 fodder14. Fear of publicity may be one reason why William's first choice for university is reported to be Edinburgh in Scotland rather than Oxford or Cambridge.

　　William refused to discuss his personal life in the birthday interview: “ I like to keep my private life private. There's been a lot of nonsense put out by PR firms,” he said. “ I don't like being exploited in this way, but as I get older, it's increasingly hard to prevent.”

　　He is beginning to understand that his best hope for keeping these intrusions15 at bay is to slowly tame16 the beast that stalks17 him? ? the media. Despite his childhood mistrust of the flashbulbs, he's beginning to find his own way in the spotlight. Nicholas Owen, a correspondent for the British television network ITN, was understandably startled18 when a royal aide approached him at Klosters, the chic19 Swiss ski resort favored by Charles and his sons. The aide wanted to know if William and Harry could watch as Owen and his editor looked over their tape of the most recent photos of the royal family. “ The two young men came over and stood alongside me standing behind the editor,” Owen says. “ They were kidding one another and nudging and joking over their skiing prowess20.” Both boys, but especially William, asked a lot of questions about the mechanics of editing. When he was finished, the editor asked the princes if there were any inaccuracies. “ No, it was great,” William replied. And then he politely thanked them for their time and took off down the slopes. On this day at least, even the cynical journalists were charmed. One new to the prince.


富有魅力的王子威爾的世界

在他18歲生日那一刻，舉世看到了這位生來(lái)注定為英王的人罕見(jiàn)的側(cè)面。幾年前那個(gè)跟在母親棺木后勇敢前行、悲痛欲絕的男孩，如今已成為一個(gè)富有思想的年輕人——一位十分現(xiàn)代的君主。

　　面帶和戴妃一樣能使人消除敵意的微笑，并具有他父親那樣的責(zé)任感，威廉絕對(duì)具備現(xiàn)代君主的品質(zhì)。為了符合一位21世紀(jì)王子的身份，他正通過(guò)媒體被介紹給他未來(lái)的臣民。雖然他現(xiàn)在還很年輕，而且無(wú)人知曉他將會(huì)遇到怎樣的挑戰(zhàn)，但其形象的塑造顯然是優(yōu)先考慮的事情。那些公開(kāi)的生日照片講述了一個(gè)年輕人的故事：無(wú)論是在橄欖球場(chǎng)，還是坐在電腦旁都一樣?jì)故熳栽凇Ｋ且晃活I(lǐng)導(dǎo)者，但也是許許多多男孩子中的一個(gè)，而且看上去完全能安然面對(duì)自己的處境。這與伊麗莎白和查爾斯18歲時(shí)的那些呆板、一本正經(jīng)的照片截然不同。

　　由于威廉一直避開(kāi)宣傳，他未來(lái)的臣民大都對(duì)他實(shí)在不甚了解。而且他似乎也喜歡這樣。在過(guò)去幾年里幾乎每張攝影作品中，威廉都顯得十分靦腆，并常常故意表現(xiàn)得很冷淡。攝影師們常抱怨說(shuō)，為了弄到幾張威廉笑的照片不得不用掉好多卷膠片。據(jù)說(shuō)威廉十分痛恨狗仔隊(duì)，當(dāng)他和母親外出時(shí)，他們會(huì)突然冒出來(lái)。等他長(zhǎng)大一些后，據(jù)說(shuō)他避免與她在公共場(chǎng)合出現(xiàn)。他寧愿同父親在蘇格蘭的巴爾莫勒爾堡一起度假，在那里閃光燈被拒于皇家領(lǐng)地之外。

　　威廉在伊頓聞名的運(yùn)動(dòng)場(chǎng)上極為引人注目，在橄欖球、足球、游泳和水球上尤其見(jiàn)長(zhǎng)。從生日照片可以看出，他參加所有這些運(yùn)動(dòng)項(xiàng)目出于一種愛(ài)好，他喜歡一種無(wú)序的生活。但他不僅僅只是個(gè)運(yùn)動(dòng)員，據(jù)說(shuō)威廉對(duì)待功課極為認(rèn)真，在這所要求嚴(yán)格的學(xué)校里，相當(dāng)多的課程都得了A。

　　威廉在伊頓的成功非常不同于他父親少年時(shí)的經(jīng)歷，這有助于他鍛煉為將來(lái)當(dāng)國(guó)王所需的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)技能。查爾斯曾說(shuō)他在蘇格蘭那所普通的寄宿學(xué)校戈登斯東的日子過(guò)得很不好，常遭到同學(xué)的欺負(fù)。但如果說(shuō)查爾斯是處處受人指責(zé)的孩子，那么18歲的威廉則是人人都想與之結(jié)交的又酷又帥的小伙子——而不是考慮到他的皇族身份。他被選入伊頓公學(xué)社團(tuán)。這使他有資格對(duì)那些違反校規(guī)的低年級(jí)學(xué)生處以罰金。而且他還能穿著特殊制服，其中包括他自己設(shè)計(jì)的背心。

　　當(dāng)威廉談?wù)撍谝令D公學(xué)的經(jīng)歷及他今后將面對(duì)更多的媒體關(guān)注時(shí)，他說(shuō)道，“我特別欣賞在伊頓公學(xué)時(shí)能不受外界打擾，這樣我可以更專注于我的功課，盡情享受與朋友在一起的快樂(lè)，不被攝影鏡頭追蹤。我希望在大學(xué)也能享有同樣的自由。”

但那看來(lái)不可能。對(duì)于威廉來(lái)說(shuō)，在大學(xué)，他會(huì)有比在伊頓時(shí)更多的事情被公之于眾：女朋友、晚會(huì)，甚至他的分?jǐn)?shù)都會(huì)成為小報(bào)的素材。據(jù)說(shuō)，威廉的首選學(xué)校是蘇格蘭的愛(ài)丁堡大學(xué)而不是牛津或劍橋，原因之一或許就是擔(dān)心惹人注目。

　　威廉在生日會(huì)見(jiàn)中拒絕討論他的個(gè)人生活。“我不想將自己的私人生活公開(kāi)。公共關(guān)系部門制造出許多謠言，”他說(shuō)。“我不喜歡這樣被利用，但隨著年齡的增長(zhǎng)，這一切越來(lái)越難以避免。”

　　他開(kāi)始懂得要想抵擋住這些侵?jǐn)_，最好的辦法是慢慢馴服媒體這頭緊逼不放的野獸。盡管他童年時(shí)代對(duì)聚光燈表現(xiàn)出極大的不信任，但他現(xiàn)在開(kāi)始在其中找到對(duì)付的辦法。尼古拉斯?歐文，這位英國(guó)ITN電視網(wǎng)的記者著實(shí)受到過(guò)震撼。當(dāng)時(shí)在瑞士美麗的滑雪勝地克洛斯特斯(這里深受查爾斯和他兩個(gè)兒子的喜愛(ài))，一位皇家助理和這位記者進(jìn)行了接觸。這位助理想知道，在歐文和他的編輯檢查最近拍攝的有關(guān)皇室的帶子時(shí)，兩位王子能否觀看。“這兩位年輕人走過(guò)來(lái)站在我旁邊，就在編輯的身后，”歐文說(shuō)道。“他們彼此打趣推搡著，拿對(duì)方的滑雪技藝尋開(kāi)心。”兩個(gè)人，尤其是威廉，問(wèn)了很多有關(guān)編輯技巧的問(wèn)題。完了之后，編輯問(wèn)王子們是否有什么不準(zhǔn)確之處，威廉回答說(shuō)，“沒(méi)有了，很棒。”然后他禮貌地向他們致謝，接著朝坡下滑去。至少這一天，即使最苛刻的記者也會(huì)被感動(dòng)。王子又贏得了一分。



1.coffin [5kCfin]n.棺材，靈柩

2.monarch [5mCnEk] n.君主，國(guó)王，最高統(tǒng)治者

3.disarmingly [dis5B:miNli]adv.消除敵意地

4.befit [bi5fit] vt.對(duì)…適當(dāng)，適合于

5.rugby [5rQ^bi] n.英式橄欖球(運(yùn)動(dòng))



6.paparazzo [7pB:p:5rB:ttsR:](復(fù)zi)n.(意)專門追逐名人偷拍照片的攝影者(或記者)

7.flashbulb[5fl(((((]n.(攝)閃光泡

8.gusto [???????] n.興致勃勃，愛(ài)好，熱情

9.rough-and-tumble[(((((?(?(???]adj.混亂激烈的

10.no- frill(s)[n[u5fril(z)]adj.樸實(shí)無(wú)華的

11.pick on 對(duì)…嘮叨指責(zé)

12.quintessential[7kwint[5senF[l]adj.完美的，典型的

13.tabloid[5tAblCid]adj.通俗小報(bào)的

14.fodder[5fCdE]n.(創(chuàng)作的)素材

15.intrusion[in5tru:VEn]n.打擾

16.tame[teim]vt.馴服，駕馭

17.stalk[5stB:tl]vt.悄悄地追蹤

18.startle[5stB:tl]vi.吃驚，驚嚇

19.chic[Fi(:)k]adj.時(shí)髦的，漂亮的

20.prowess[prau]n.杰出的技藝

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