054讲: 剧透

JESSICA在北京学汉语，她的中国朋友要是遇到了不知道用美语怎么说的词，就会来请教她。今天是吴琼要问的：剧透。

JESSICA: 吴琼, I sent you a movie review article yesterday. Have you read it?

WQ: 你是说那篇电影的影评，我可不能看!

JESSICA: Why not? !

WQ: 因为电影我还没看啊！影评上来就警告读者说：本文有剧透！也就是说，看了文章就知道电影结局了！JESSICA, 这令人扫兴的“剧透”用美语怎么说呢？

JESSICA: It's called a spoiler. Spoiler is spelled s-p-o-i-l-e-r. A spoiler will reveal the ending of the movie to you when you'd rather find it out by yourself. 

WQ: I see！Spoilers can really ruin the fun of watching a movie!

JESSICA: True. That's why people write a warning at the beginning of a review, which says "the following review contains spoilers."

WQ: 对！影评应该先警告大家有剧透内容，省得扫观众的兴！ 不过话说回来，有些片子编得很滥，只要看了开头，不用剧透，傻瓜都能猜出结局！

JESSICA: I agree. Those movies are no fun to begin with. You only need to avoid spoilers when there are plot twists.

WQ: Plot twist? P-l-o-t, plot是故事情节， t-w-i-s-t, twist，是扭曲，所以plot twist 我猜就是出乎意料的情节，电影里的形势大逆转，对不对？

JESSICA: Yes! Plot twists are the development that viewers don't expect to happen. Good writers use plot twists to keep viewers interested. 

WQ: 我就特别喜欢结局出人意料的片子，特别是电视剧，一集结尾留下个悬念，吊胃口！

JESSICA: In English, we call that a cliffhanger. It's usually a dilemma or a dangerous situation. So you want to watch the next episode to see how the characters deal with it. 

WQ: 哦！原来，在结尾时留下的悬念就是cliffhanger! C-l-i-f-f-h-a-n-g-e-r, cliffhanger. 诶呀，我要走了，My favorite show is about to start, and last episode ended on a cliffhanger!

JESSICA: Okay, but before you go, tell me what you've learned today!

WQ: 第一，剧透是a spoiler; 出乎意料的故事情节是 a plot twist；电影或电视结尾时的悬念是 a cliffhanger.