2. 外语
  3. (1)"All right, boys and girls, who’d like to see some magic?" Twice a day the ferry Arahura—and it is greeted with cries of "Me!

(1)"All right, boys and girls, who’d like to see some magic?" Twice a day the ferry Arahura—and it is greeted with cries of "Me!

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问题     (1)"All right, boys and girls, who’d like to see some magic?" Twice a day the ferry Arahura—and it is greeted with cries of "Me!" from children, and with sighs of relief from parents, glad to find something to occupy their kids for at least half an hour of the three-hour trip.
    (2)The parental savior in question is Nigel Kennedy, a professional magician who has been working in the ferry for the past seven years. The facilities aren t great—there is no designated performance space, and he has to conjure more or less in a corridor—but there is room enough to wave a wand and wow an audience more captive than most.
    (3)Kennedy, 33, thrives on the work, which guarantees him a level of exposure he would not readily find elsewhere. The Arahura carries thousands of people each day in the holiday season. "Every time I travel," says Jonathan Morgan, manager of passenger services for the ferry line, "he is ringed with kids, like the Pied Piper."
    (4)The key to what Morgan refers to as Kennedy’s stunning success is audience participation: every show, he ropes in four kids to help, although they usually wind up being the butt of his tricks. Wands are apt to wobble, droop, squeak or vanish; lossies and hankies turn up in unexpected places. Kennedy is a dab hand with balloons, too, twisting them at top speed into crowns, swords, worms, ducks and donkeys.
    (5)The children’s work, he says, is his bread and butter, although it is not without its hazards. "Adults are very predictable to perform for as an audience. They will always clap in the same place, always laugh in the same place. But kids, you can’t predict what they’re going to say or do. Sometimes you’re going to have a little five-year-old who’s going to sit there with his arms folded and say this trick’s absolutely pathetic—some word he’s learnt from his parents."
    (6)Kennedy was drawn to magic in the classic manner. "I got given a magic book when I was eight years old and that started me on it. From then on, I was putting on shows in Mum and Dad’s garage and plastering up flyers on lampposts and letterboxes around the streets, probably to their embarrassment. And it just developed from there."
    (7)"I remember vividly a magician in a touring show. I remember sitting watching him in this little seat on my own. I don’t know how old I would have been, but I was just rapt. He threw this big hula hoop at me and I had to examine it. I thought, wow, I feel so special."
    (8)Since turning professional in 1989, Kennedy has made what he calls a good living from magic. But the business is not what it was. He can remember doing cabaret every Friday and Saturday night, plus a round of conferences, dine-and-dances and garden parties. He still does conferences, but these days, "rather than having a set stage show with illusions, they’re more inclined to hire me for an hour or two, having me walk around the tables, do a little trick in somebody’s hand, which is what they call close-up magic."
    (9)He augments his income by running an air order business for aspiring magicians, but admits that the average age of his clients is climbing: fewer and fewer children are taking up the craft. "It’s the competition. Nowadays they can push a computer screen and a magic effect happens: why learn a magic trick? People come along to a magic club and, if they can’t see a person in half on the first evening, they lose interest."
    (10)Kennedy’s skill is acknowledged by fellow magicians who have recently voted him best children’s entertainer. But—you have to ask—do people confuse him with the other Nigel Kennedy, the internationally famous violinist?
    (11)Well, yes, and Kennedy shamelessly plays up to it: "Whenever Nigel is touring in this area, I make the most of it. I come on stage with a violin case while Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons plays in the background. Then I pull out a magic wand from the violin case and everyone laughs."
    (12)There are no plans for a name change, and in any case the confusion is worth it to overhear, as Kennedy once did, someone say: "This must be what that violinist does in the off-season."
Why would fewer children like to learn the magic trick?
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答案Because pushing a computer screen can create a magic effect．
解析 根据题目中的fewer children定位到第9段，该段指出，越来越少的小孩愿学魔术，如今他们可以通过电脑屏幕创造魔术效果，接着用why learn a magic trick指出用不着学魔术，限于字数要求，答案可改写为Because pushing a computer screen can create a magic effect。
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