听力来源：NPR，仅用于个人英语学习。
小建议：请到NPR官网-本音频页面聆听或下载本音频。先花10分钟听两遍音频，再看文本，效果更佳。
内容简介：人气美剧《生活大爆炸》已是完结季。12季，12年的时光，剧中几位高智商、极客、宅男给许多人带去了欢乐。我也曾追了前几季。Sheldon既绝顶聪明、又不谙人情世故的呆萌感觉常常让人捧腹，同时又喜欢他的简单。
好了，来看看主创人员怎么说的？
After 12 Seasons, 'Big Bang' Writers Bid Farewell To Their 'Surrogate Family'
May 15, 2019
The Big Bang Theory-图片来自：Monty Brinton/CBS ©2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc.
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:One of the biggest hits in TV history signs off tomorrow after a 12-season run.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE HISTORY OF EVERYTHING")
BARENAKED LADIES: (Singing) Our whole universe was in a hot, dense state. Then nearly 14 billion years ago, expansion started. Wait. The Earth began to cool. The autotrophs began to drool.
CORNISH: "The Big Bang Theory" on CBS wraps up its story about a group of Caltech scientists and their friends. NPR's Mandalit del Barco visited the show's creative team as it prepared to disband.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: TV writers rooms are normally pretty private so that jokes and ideas can fly freely.
UNIDENTIFIED WRITER: Let the record show that Mr. Molaro rolled his eyes(LAUGHTER)
DEL BARCO: They're finished with their scripts, but for 12 years, the writers pitched storylines and traded jabs from their creative space at Warner Bros. Studios.(LAUGHTER)
DEL BARCO: Their long conference table is topped by "Star Wars" toys, email about the structure of DNA, the collected work of physicist Richard Feynman and on the TV monitors a "Star Trek" screen saver. Yes, it's a show for and about geeks and nerds, and that's why it's worked, says executive producer Chuck Lorre.
CHUCK LORRE: I always thought it was because the characters were outliers and felt somewhat disenfranchised from the world and clung to each other. They created a surrogate family, and people generally feel that way. Maybe the prom king doesn't, but screw him, right? I mean, this is for the rest of us who weren't the king and queen of the prom.
DEL BARCO: Lorre co-created the show with Bill Prady, who long ago wrote computer software.
BILL PRADY: And it was sold in your neighborhood RadioShack store.
LORRE: The idea started, really, when he was discussing the brilliance of the computer programmers that you worked with and their stark inability to deal with people, women in particular.
PRADY: I mean, I remember the story that I told you, Chuck, about the guy who could do amazing calculations in his head but couldn't figure a tip in a restaurant. I told you that story, and you said, hang on; I've never seen that guy on television.
DEL BARCO: Their protagonists are physicists Leonard and Sheldon, played by Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons, and their Caltech scientist friends Raj and Howard and Penny, played by Kaley Cuoco. She started out as their neighbor. The writers say one of their favorite moments was the episode where Penny gave Sheldon a treasure in the form of an autographed napkin.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE BIG BANG THEORY")
JIM PARSONS: (As Sheldon Cooper) To Sheldon, live long and prosper, Leonard Nimoy(LAUGHTER)
DEL BARCO: Writer Steve Molaro says this scene was key to the evolution of the show.
STEVE MOLARO: That was the first truly electric moment where you could just feel what we were doing vibrating. And I think it really resonated.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE BIG BANG THEORY")
KALEY CUOCO: (As Penny) He came into the restaurant. Sorry the napkin's dirty. He wiped his mouth with it.(LAUGHTER)
PARSONS: (As Sheldon Cooper) I possess the DNA of Leonard Nimoy.(LAUGHTER)
DEL BARCO: Steve Holland says he loved writing the show's quieter scenes.
STEVE HOLLAND: There was a wonderful moment. It was Sheldon's birthday, and they had thrown him a big party. And he gets overwhelmed and is in the bathroom. And Penny goes to the bathroom with him.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE BIG BANG THEORY")
CUOCO: (As Penny) If what you need is to spend your birthday in a bathroom, I'm happy to do it with you.
PARSONS: (As Sheldon Cooper) Well, everyone will think I'm weird.(LAUGHTER)
CUOCO: (As Penny) Sweetie, you are weird (LAUGHTER)
DEL BARCO: For the scripts to be scientifically plausible, Chuck Lorre and Steve Holland say they took their cues from the latest scientific breakthroughs. And they regularly consulted with UCLA physicist David Saltzberg.
LORRE: Sometimes you just send him the script with big blank sections to be filled in with appropriate science so that we're not ridiculed.
HOLLAND: Sometimes we say things to him like, Sheldon and Amy need to have a discovery that could be worthy of a Nobel Prize but can't be something anyone else has already thought of, so go. Go.
LORRE: Come up with a Nobel Prize award-winning idea that we could put in a sitcom.
HOLLAND: Yeah. Super asymmetry was the result of that conversation, where he invented super asymmetry for us.
DEL BARCO: That's fiction. But Bill Prady says scientists did end up winning the 2010 Nobel Prize for graphene, something similar to what Professor Saltzberg suggested for the show.
PRADY: And they cited the episode in their Nobel lecture.
DEL BARCO: Writer David Goetsch says he'll miss being able to use what he learns about science.
DAVID GOETSCH: I have this Google alert for physics, and so I get one every day. And, like, I don't want to turn it off.
DEL BARCO: Like the show's characters, most of the writers in this room have been together for 12 years. Most of them are now executive producers, among them Eric Kaplan and Maria Ferrari, who says she'll miss the team.
MARIA FERRARI: Most jobs you go off and you write your script, and you come back and you punch it up together. Here, we write it all together. That's the only thing I know how to do is write in this room for this show. It is so hard to leave it behind.
ERIC KAPLAN: It's not the only thing you know how to do. Don't you know aikido?
FERRARI: I also know aikido. I know two things.(LAUGHTER)
DEL BARCO: Then the laughs pause, and Bill Prady chokes up telling us how he connects with the show's fans.
PRADY: All of the people who have said that they see themselves in the show because they were outsiders and people who didn't fit in - that was me.
DEL BARCO: No spoilers for the show's emotional final episode. But unraveling the mystery, it all started, and it will end, with a big bang.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE HISTORY OF EVERYTHING")
BARENAKED LADIES: (Singing) Big bang - bang.
DEL BARCO: Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.(SOUNDBITE OF AK'S "COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS")
知识点笔记：
1.文章中与电视剧有关的表达：
script：（电影、戏剧）剧本、广播稿
打开链接的NPR音频页面，会发现有一项是transcript，意为（录音的、笔记的）文字整理稿，就是采访录音的文字稿，也是我们每天学习的文章。
sitcom：情景喜剧
文中这一句很有喜感。'Come up with a Nobel Prize award-winning idea that we could put in a sitcom.' 试想一下，一部情景喜剧，要求科学知识的顾问提供诺奖级别的科研点子？！再联系前面的对话中"Go,go（快去想、快去啊！）"，哈哈哈！
season：一季
episode：一集
protagonist：主角
storyline：故事情节
spoiler：剧透。国外的书评和影评网站常会有一个提示，Spoiler Alert这就是我们在豆瓣上看到的“本评论含有关键情节透露”。
Leonard Nimoy played as Mr. Spock in "Star Trek". Leonard Nimoy最知名的角色是在《星际旅行》中扮演半瓦肯人、半人类的斯波克. 因此，Sheldon的反应就是一位粉丝的激动，哈哈。
前面提到主创办公室桌上有on the TV monitors a "Star Trek" screen saver（屏保）.
2.告别、结束的表达：
- bid farewell to：告别，道别
e.g.1.And thousands lined up to bid farewell Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
2.Moments ago, secretary of states Hillary Cliton was met with cheers of surpport as she prepared to bid farewell to stuff of the state department. - signs off: (informal) to end a radio or television programme by saying goodbye结束
e.g. He would sign off each week with the catch-phrase, 'I'll see thee!' - wrap up: (informal) to finish a job, meeting etc.结束
e.g.1.We're hoping to wrap up the negotiations this week.
2.NATO defense ministers wrap up their meeting in Brussels today... - disband：词根dis分裂+band组合=解散
e.g. 1.All the armed groups will be disbanded...
2.South Korea's giant disbands its controversial strategy unit.
3.surrogate：代理的；替代的
surrogate mother代孕母亲
4.hit: something such as a film, play, song etc that is very popular and successful风靡一时的电影、戏剧、歌曲
e.g 1.the Beatles' greatest hits
2.Which band had a hit with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’?
5.fly freely: 我觉得这里fly这个词用得很活，用来形容jokes and ideas，那种天马行空得感觉一下子就出来了。
- outlier：局外人；异类；特例
e.g.1.Britain is still an outlier in terms of its budget deficit, which was a touch below 10% of GDP in the financial year ending in April. - outsider也有相似的意思。文中这句话"All of the people who have said that they see themselves in the show because they were outsiders and people who didn't fit in - that was me."读完心里酸酸的。难怪Bill Prady chokes up telling us how he connects with the show's fans. choke up哽咽
- 与之相反的就是万人迷了—prom king：舞会之王
7.stark:鲜明的，明显的
e.g.1. stark contrast;
2.stark poverty
8.hang on:等等，既可以用于日常对话，如接电话、开门应答；也可以像本文一样，用于指出对方话语中感兴趣的部分。
e.g. 1.Hang on! I’ll be back in a minute.
2.Hang on. You mean to tell me...
9.electric:making people feel very excited紧张刺激的
e.g. The atmosphere in the courtroom was electric.
10.vibrating：振动；颤动 resonate: 共鸣。这里用的都是比喻义
e.g.Her heart vibrates with excitement.
an idea that resonates with many voters...
11.throw a party：举办聚会，请注意throw，这是个固定搭配
12.scientifically plausible：科学合理的
latest scientific breakthroughs：最新发现；最新突破
13.take cue from:参照；模仿
e.g. 1.With interest rates, the smaller banks will take their cue from the Federal Bank
2.Taking his cue from his companion, he apologized for his earlier display of temper.
14.end up winning the 2010 Nobel Prize...
回忆复习:end up doing sth.（ 结果有点出乎意外）最终...
昨天文章中：People on the unprocessed diet - they ended up losing an average of 2 pounds over the same period.
15.unravel:
- if you unravel threads, string etc, or if they unravel, they stop being twisted together解开缠绕在一起的东西，比如线团
e.g.He was good with his hands and could unravel a knot or untangle yarn that others wouldn't even attempt. - to understand or explain something that is mysterious or complicated.引申义：解（谜），揭示
e.g.Detectives are still trying to unravel the mystery surrounding his death.
网友评论