High 2 · Reading series
Lesson 24 · The Moon in a Phone Picture
Audio track 24
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The moon looked enormous above the school roof, so I raised my phone and took a picture. On the screen it appeared tiny. I felt cheated, as if the sky had changed between looking and pressing the button.
Our photography club tried several ways to capture the scene. A wider view showed the roof and clouds but made the moon small. A longer lens made it larger in the frame, yet that changed the relationship between the moon and nearby objects. We compared the images without calling one “the true view.”
I finally chose a photograph that showed the small bright moon over a wide evening sky. Under it I wrote, “This is what the camera kept, not everything I felt.” The caption mattered as much as the image.
Photographs are records made through choices of lens, angle, and frame. They can preserve a moment beautifully, but they also leave something outside. Recognizing that limit made me enjoy both the picture and the memory.
Check your understanding
After reading, state the main idea in one sentence and find a line that supports it.
Chinese translation
月亮在校舍屋顶上方看起来巨大，我举起手机拍了一张。屏幕上，它却小得很。我有种受骗的感觉，仿佛从抬头到按下快门，天空变了样。
摄影社试了几种拍法。广角画面拍到了屋顶与云，月亮却很小；较长的镜头让月亮在画面中变大，同时也改变了月亮与周围物体的视觉关系。我们比较照片，没有把某一张称为‘唯一真实的样子’。
最后，我选了一张宽阔暮色天空里有一轮明亮小月亮的照片，并写下说明：‘这是相机留下的，不是我当时感受的全部。’文字说明与照片同样重要。
照片是通过镜头、角度和取景选择留下的记录。它能美丽地保存一瞬，也会把某些东西留在画面外。看清这一局限，让我既喜欢照片，也珍惜记忆。
Key words and expressions
Key terms have Chinese explanations. Hover over dotted words in the English passage for word help and pronunciation when available.
- enormous
- 巨大的；肉眼所见月亮很大。
- appeared
- 显得；屏幕上却很小。
- capture
- 捕捉；摄影社尝试拍下场景。
- frame
- 画面；长镜头改变其中的比例。
- relationship
- 关系；月亮与附近物体的视觉比例。
- caption
- 说明文字；补充照片未表达的感受。
- angle
- 角度；拍摄选择的一部分。
- preserve
- 保存；照片留住一个瞬间。
- recognizing
- 认识到；承认影像局限。
- memory
- 记忆；与照片一同保留经历。
Background notes (Chinese)
相机镜头和取景范围会改变月亮在照片中的相对大小。多种拍法都记录了现场的一面，不能把画面等同于完整的视觉与感受。