乐高的10个冷知识：英语精读讲义

In 1916,

1916年，

Ole Kirk Christiansen purchased a woodworking shop in Denmark that constructed houses and furniture.

奥勒·柯克·克里斯蒂安森在丹麦买下了一家建造房屋和家具的木工作坊。

After a few years in business,

经营几年后，

the workshop was struggling.

作坊陷入了困境。

Ole had to think of something else if he wanted to remain in business. 語法

如果奥勒想继续做生意，他就必须想点别的出路。

After experimenting with a few other projects, 語法

在尝试了几个其他项目后，

the workshop began producing wooden toys,

作坊开始生产木制玩具，

piggy banks,

存钱罐，

yoyos,

溜溜球，

pool toys,

水上玩具，

cars,

汽车，

trucks,

卡车，

and miniature houses.

还有微型房屋。

Following World War II,

二战后，

Ole's son Godtfred began working for the company which now officially went by the name of LEGO. 短語動詞

奥勒的儿子戈特弗雷德开始在公司工作，该公司现在正式命名为LEGO（乐高）。

In 1947,

1947年，

Ole and Godtfred obtained samples of interlocking plastic bricks produced by the British company "Kiddicraft".

奥勒和戈特弗雷德获得了由英国公司“Kiddicraft”生产的互锁塑料积木样品。

Kiddicraft called them "Self-Locking Building Bricks".

Kiddicraft称它们为“自锁拼装积木”。

Inspired by this, 表達脈絡

受此启发，

the LEGO Group began producing its own bricks,

乐高集团开始生产自己的积木，

which they instead called "Automatic Binding Bricks".

不过他们将其称为“自动结合积木”。

In the coming years,

在接下来的几年里，

the company grew exponentially under the leadership of Ole's son Godtfred, 短語搭配

公司在奥勒的儿子戈特弗雷德的领导下呈指数级增长，

since Ole had passed away. 短語動詞

因为此时奥勒已经去世。

The production of wooden toys was abandoned completely as the company now solely focused on working with plastics. 短語搭配

木制玩具的生产被完全放弃，公司现在完全专注于塑料制品的生产。

The Legoland park was opened in Denmark and as the bricks grew in popularity,

乐高乐园在丹麦开业，随着乐高积木越来越受欢迎，

LEGO quickly became a household name all over the world. 習語

乐高迅速成为享誉全球的家喻户晓的品牌。

The name LEGO is an abbreviation of the two Danish words "leg godt", 文化背景

乐高（LEGO）这个名字是两个丹麦语单词“leg godt”的缩写，

meaning "play well".

意思是“玩得好”。

And while not intentional from the beginning, 表達脈絡

虽然一开始并非有意为之，

it was later discovered that in Latin,

但后来人们发现，在拉丁语中，

the word LEGO can loosely be interpreted as "I put together" or "I assemble". 短語搭配

LEGO这个词可以大致解释为“我拼凑”或“我组装”。

They also considered the name "Legio" with the implication of "a legion of toys".

他们也曾考虑过“Legio”这个名字，寓意“玩具军团”。

Another important part of LEGO are the minifigures. 語法

乐高的另一个重要部分是迷你人仔。

But the minifigs weren't invented until 30 years after the LEGO brick. 語法

但直到乐高积木问世30年后，迷你人仔才被发明出来。

Its inception came in 1978 in the form of a policeman with black clothes and a white hat. 短語搭配

它最初诞生于1978年，是一个穿着黑衣服、戴着白帽子的警察形象。

And to be honest, 語氣意圖

老实说，

the design has stayed more or less the same ever since. 講解

从那以后，它的设计几乎没有发生什么改变。

The figs became more and more diversified as more variations were released. 語法

随着更多变体版本的发布，人仔变得越来越多样化。

But for the next 11 years,

但在接下来的11年里，

they would all have the same face.

它们全都拥有同一张脸。

Every single one of them.

每一个都是。

It wasn't until 1989 that someone realized how creepy this becomes after a while and thus some other facial expressions were introduced. 語法

直到1989年，有人意识到时间久了这会变得多么惊悚，于是引入了一些其他的面部表情。

So far, 語法

到目前为止，

over 4 billion minifigs have been produced.

已经生产了超过40亿个迷你人仔。

After the company's decline in the late 1990s and hitting its lowest peak in 2004 when they almost had to file for bankruptcy, 短語搭配

在经历了20世纪90年代末的公司衰退，并在2004年跌入谷底，几乎不得不申请破产之后，

the LEGO Group has done quite well for themselves. 短語搭配

乐高集团后来的发展相当不错。

In fact,

事实上，

since the release of The LEGO Movie,

自从《乐高大电影》上映以来，

LEGO is now the largest toy manufacturer in the world.

乐高现在已经是世界上最大的玩具制造商。

And since 1958,

自1958年以来，

the company has produced over 560 billion bricks,

该公司已经生产了超过5600亿块积木，

which means that as of this moment, 短語搭配

这意味着直到这一刻，

if divided equally, 語法

如果平分的话，

everyone on Earth would have 78 LEGO bricks.

地球上的每个人都能分到78块乐高积木。

If you tried connecting a LEGO brick from 1958 with a brick from today, 語法

如果你尝试把1958年的乐高积木和今天的积木拼在一起，

they would still interlock.

它们依然可以完美咬合。

This is because LEGO uses a universal system that means that despite variation in design, 語法

这是因为乐高使用了一种通用的系统，这意味着尽管在设计、

size,

尺寸、

and purpose,

和用途上有所不同，

they all remain compatible.

它们仍然保持兼容。

Even LEGO Duplo bricks,

甚至是乐高得宝（Duplo）积木，

which are several times larger than the ordinary bricks, 語法

它比普通积木大好几倍，

still connect,

也能拼在一起，

which is quite impressive given that only six pieces of 2x4 bricks would produce a staggering 950,103,765 possible combinations. 表達脈絡

这非常令人印象深刻，因为仅仅6块2x4的积木就能产生惊人的950,103,765种可能的组合。

Some quite amazing things have been constructed using LEGO bricks.

人们用乐高积木建造了一些非常令人惊叹的东西。

For example,

例如，

the world's tallest LEGO structure at 34.76 m,

世界上最高的乐高建筑，高达34.76米，

Top Gear presenter James May built a real house made out of LEGO using 3.3 million bricks. 短語動詞

《Top Gear》主持人詹姆斯·梅用330万块乐高积木建造了一栋真正的房子。

The absolute largest model ever built with only LEGO bricks is this full-scale model of an X-Wing fighter from Star Wars. 用詞

有史以来完全用乐高积木搭建的绝对最大的模型，是这架来自《星球大战》的一比一比例的X翼星际战机。

It required 5.3 million bricks and 4 months to build.

它需要530万块积木和4个月的时间来建造。

According to the company, 表達脈絡

根据公司的说法，

the only proper way of describing the bricks is by using the word LEGO as an adjective, 用詞

描述这些积木唯一正确的方式是把“LEGO”当作一个形容词来用，

not as a noun.

而不是名词。

So saying "LEGOS" is actually wrong and you should instead be saying "LEGO bricks".

所以说“LEGOS”实际上是错误的，你应该说“LEGO积木”。

Since 2007,

自2007年以来，

on the beaches all over the world,

在世界各地的海滩上，

people have found this giant minifigurine.

人们发现了这个巨大的迷你人仔。

Okay,

好吧，

that sounded extremely paradoxical.

听起来非常自相矛盾。

A giant LEGO man has washed ashore on beaches across the globe with the message "No more real than you are". 講解

一个巨大的乐高人被冲刷到了全球各地的海滩上，上面写着“没比你真实多少”。

Obviously,

显然，

the message is that you can't trust Google Translate.

这条信息的意思是你不能相信谷歌翻译。

It's believed that these things were created by a Dutch artist that goes by the name of Ego Leonard, 語法

人们认为这些东西是由一位名叫Ego Leonard的荷兰艺术家创作的，

which is almost certainly fake as the first four letters spell out LEGO when inverted. 講解

这几乎可以肯定是假的，因为前四个字母倒过来拼正好是LEGO。

No one's entirely sure why he or she is doing it, 語法

没有人完全确定他或她为什么要这样做，

but the LEGO Group has at least on several occasions denied any involvement. 短語搭配

但乐高集团至少在几个场合否认与此有任何牵连。

If you take a look at the head of a minifig, 短語搭配

如果你看看迷你人仔的头部，

you'll find that it has a hole at the top.

你会发现它的顶部有一个孔。

The reason for this is that in case a child should accidentally swallow the head, 語法

这样做的原因是，万一有孩子不小心吞下了这个头部，

they would still be able to breathe even if it got stuck in their throat. 語法

即使它卡在喉咙里，他们也依然能够呼吸。

While The LEGO Movie might look like it was created using stop motion, 講解

虽然《乐高大电影》看起来像是一部定格动画，

the entire movie is actually CGI.

但整部电影实际上是电脑特效（CGI）。

The entire production process was specifically designed to make it look like stop motion. 語法

整个制作过程都是专门为了让它看起来像定格动画而设计的。

Tiny dents,

微小的凹痕，

specks of dust, 短語搭配

灰尘的斑点，

and even smudges of fingerprints on the models,

甚至模型上指纹的污迹，

the lighting,

灯光，

and of course the iconic choppy movement stop motion is so well known for. 語法

当然，还有定格动画众所周知的标志性卡顿动作。

Of course,

当然，

the only exception would be the live-action segments. 用詞

唯一的例外是真人表演片段。

But a really cool thing is that they made sure that every brick and piece seen in the movie also exists in real life so that if you paused any scene, 講解

但有一件很酷的事情是，他们确保了你在电影中看到的每一块积木和零件在现实生活中也都存在，因此如果你在任何一个场景按下暂停，

you could actually build it for yourself.

你实际上可以自己动手把它拼出来。

Even in a scene like this,

即使是在这样的场景中，

all the buildings and the ground and everything you see were made using individual digital bricks and pieces.

你看到的所有建筑、地面和一切都是使用独立的数字积木和零件制作的。

You want to know why they did that? 表達脈絡

你想知道他们为什么要这么做吗？

Because everything is awesome.

因为一切都太棒了。

Bobblehead,

摇头娃娃，

everything is awesome.

一切都太棒了。

Now available in fucking Swedish. 用詞

现在他妈的有瑞典语版了。

Allting är häftigt.

一切都太棒了。

Allting blir fräckt när man är del av ett arbetslag.

当你加入团队，一切都会变得很酷。

Allting är häftigt för vi lever inuti våra drömmar.

一切都太棒了，因为我们活在梦中。