这篇雅思阅读材料讲的是在现代的社会，电影记录了几乎整个人类科技的发展，并且为人类创造了非常多的第一手的影像资料，保存了非常多的精神食粮，可以说电影是人类永远的财富。

　　When the historians of tomorrow delve into the archive for the crown jewels of 20th Century cinema, they will encounter Darth Vader announcing that he&aposs Luke Skywalker&aposs father, John Travolta throwing shapes in a white suit and a deadpan Leslie Nielsen answering the question: "Surely you can&apost be serious?" with the words: "I am serious... and don&apost call me Shirley."

　　The Empire Strikes Back, Saturday Night Fever and Airplane! are among 25 new additions to America&aposs National Film Registry which were announced yesterday by the Library of Congress in Washington.

　　Original copies of each will now be kept safe for viewing by future generations in an archive of titles deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

　　As ever, the annual list of inductees includes an eclectic mixture of movies from different genres and eras of Hollywood. The oldest title, dating back to 1891, is Newark Athlete, a silent clip of a teenager swinging Indian clubs, a contemporary exercise aid. The most recent is 1996&aposs Study of a River, an artistic portrayal of the Hudson River by experimental film-maker Peter Hutton.

　　Horror films are represented by The Exorcist, comedy by The Pink Panther and historical dramas by Spike Lee&aposs biopic Malcolm X and Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman&aposs Oscar-winning take on Watergate, All the President&aposs Men.

　　In its annual announcement of new additions, the Library of Congress is anxious to stress that inclusion in the National Film Registry does not necessarily mean a work is being heralded as one of the best movies ever made. Instead, the archive is intended to preserve films which are deemed to have "artistic, historical, or cultural significance". A committee which includes director Martin Scorsese, film critic Leonard Maltin and actress Alfre Woodard, along with a selection of leading film industry figures and the Librarian of Congress James Billington, met in November to select 25 titles from more than 2,100 movies nominated by members of the public.

　　To merit consideration, a film must have been made more than a decade ago and given a theatrical release.

　　Aside from that, anything goes. "Somebody has to be the institutional memory of the country," Mr Billington said yesterday. "And that&aposs pretty much what Congress has empowered its library to do and to be."

　　The Film Registry was established in 1989 and now contains 550 titles. A portion of each year&aposs new crop of inductees inevitably tends to rlect news developments during the previous 12 months. For example, Leslie Neilsen, the star of Airplane! and Blake Edwards, the writer and director of The Pink Panther, are fresh in the public&aposs memory after having both died recently.

　　Fans of The Empire Strikes Back are meanwhile loudly celebrating the film&aposs 30th birthday and have long lobbied for the film to join Star Wars in the archive. The Exorcist, perhaps more vulgarly, benited from a major PR push earlier this year when an extended version was released on Blu Ray.

　　But it is the forgotten gems which perhaps give the registry its real merit. John Huston&aposs documentary Let There Be Light, filmed in 1946, finally gets the prominence it deserves, after initially being banned by the Pentagon for 35 years because of its unswerving depiction of traumatised war veterans. A Trip Down Market Street contains rare footage of San Francisco just bore the 1906 earthquake which virtually destroyed the city.

　　"It&aposs the ones that I didn&apost know about that thrill me the most," added Mr Billington. "That&aposs where I really have a feeling of satisfaction that, by golly, this really is a creative country.

　　"Everybody with something to say can do it through moving pictures."

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