We are even farther removed from the unfocused newspaper reviews published in England between the turn of the 20th century and the eve of World War II, at a time when newsprint was dirt-cheap and stylish arts criticism was considered an ornament to the publications in which it appeared.

　　【长难句分析图解】

　　篇章超精读

　　①We are even farther removed from the unfocused newspaper reviews published in England between the turn of the 20th century and the eve of World War II, at a time when newsprint was dirt-cheap and stylish arts criticism was considered an ornament to the publications in which it appeared.

　　②In those far-off days, it was taken for granted that the critics of major papers would write in detail and at length about the events they covered.

　　③Theirs was a serious business, and even those reviewers who wore their learning lightly, like George Bernard Shaw and Ernest Newman, could be trusted to know what they were about.

　　④These men believed in journalism as a calling, and were proud to be published in the daily press.

　　⑤“So few authors have brains enough or literary gift enough to keep their own end up in journalism,” Newman wrote, “that I am tempted to define ‘journalism’ as ‘a term of contempt applied by writers who are not read to writers who are.’”

　　参考译文

　　①我们离 20 世纪初期和二战前夕期间在英国发表的东拉西扯的报纸评论甚至更远，当时，新闻用纸非常便宜，而且时髦的文艺评论被认为是一种对刊登这种内容的出版物的装饰。

　　②在那些遥远的年代，主流报纸的评论家们会把报道的事件详细充分地记录下来，这被视为理所当然。

　　③这些评论家们所从事的是严肃的事业。甚至是那些喜欢卖弄学问的评论家们(像萧伯纳和欧内斯特·纽曼)也知道自己在做什么，这一点足以让人信任。

　　④这些男人把新闻业认为是一个职业，并且对于他们的文章能够在报纸上刊登出来感到很自豪。

　　⑤“能拥有足够的思想或足够的文学天赋可以使他们在新闻业上成就自己的事业的作者是如此之少”，纽曼写道，“以致于我禁不住把‘新闻业’定义成被某些作家所使用的一个耻辱的术语。对真正的作家而言，他们根本就没有学问”。