英语六级阅读练习：成名之后
Not even a decade ago she was unknown and poor, a single mom on welfare who sometimes pretended to browse in maternity stores so she could cadge a free diaper in the changing room . Now, after four Harry Potter books, two movies and an armada of related merchandise , J. K. Rowling has a fortune estimated at 450 million, according to the London Sunday Times rich list, making her 50 million wealthier than the Queen of England. Her personal life has picked up too . She has bought multimillion-dollar houses in London, Edinburgh and the Scottish hills near Perth. And at the end of 2001 , Rowling, 37 , married Neil Murray, a steady, brainy anesthetist and in March 2003 they had a son David. Rowling has admitted that — no surprise — Harry is her favorite boy’s name, but she wisely avoided saddling her son with that lifelong invitation to teasing.
In fact, Rowling has tried to throw a cloak of invisibility around her family so they can live almost normal lives. But simple pleasures like strolling to the supermarket in Edinburgh or attending her -year-old daughter Jessica’s Christmas pageant10 require constant vigilanceagainst an army of tabloid reporters.
The intrusions are only part of the reason Rowling is uneasy with fame.“ I never set out to make a mark, ”she tells TIME.“ I set out to do the thing I love best in the world and find out whether I was any good at it. ”She’s so good at it that her lawyers are constantly swatting down copycats trying to cash in on Pottermania . .. . Rowling was badly shaken when an American writer named Nancy Stouffer claimed she had stolen the word muggle and otherwise plagiarized Stouffer’s work. A New York City federal judge found that Stouffer had“ perpetrated a fraud”. It felt, Rowling says,“as if some strange woman had come out of nowhere saying she was my children’s mother . . . It was like a punch in the stomach . People think that if you have been successful, you are insulated from15 normal feelings of hurt, but you aren’t. ”
Rowling appreciates that she can use her name and money to support charities, including those for one-parent families and victims of multiple sclerosis. .. .“One of the few upsides of being famous is being able to do something meaningful, ”she tells TIME. After publication of Order of the Phoenix, Rowling will retreat from the spotlight to write book No. 6 and care for her family. She hopes to be remembered as“ someone who did the best she could with the talent she was given”and she“wouldn’t mind being remembered as a good parent”
阅读自测
Ⅰ. Fill the blanks with the words or phrases in the passage :
1. After four Harry Potter books, two movies and related merchandise, J. K. Rowling has a fortune estimated at 450 million.
2. Rowling has admitted that Harry is her favorite boy’s name , but she wisely avoided her son that lifelong invitation to teasing.
3. Her lawyers are constantly copycats trying to cash in on Pottermania.
4.“I never set out to , ”she tells TIME.
Ⅱ. Question :
Does J. K. Rowling cherish her work? How do you know?
参考答案
Ⅰ. 1. an armada of 2 . saddling . .. with 3 . swatting down 4. make a mark
Ⅱ. Yes. When she was wrongly accused of plagiarism, she felt“ as if some strange woman had come out of nowhere saying she was my children’s mother .. . It was like a punch in the stomach. ”
参考译文
成名之后
差 不多就在10 年前, 她还只是个无人知晓、靠救济金过活的穷困潦倒的单身妈妈, 时常 装作逛婴儿用品商店的样子, 在那儿的更衣室里获得免费赠送的尿布。如今, 据伦敦《星 期日泰晤士报》的财富排行榜, J. K. 罗琳在出版了四部《哈利· 波特》( 其中两部已拍成电 影并开发了一大批相关产品) 之后, 其资产预计已达4. 5 亿美元, 比英国女王还要富5 千 万。她个人生活也随之好转, 罗琳在伦敦、爱丁堡及佩思附近的苏格兰山上都购买了价值 数百万美元的豪宅。2001 年底, 37 岁的罗琳和稳重博学而又机敏能干的麻醉师尼尔· 默 里结婚; 2003 年3 月, 他们的儿子戴维出生了。罗琳承认——— 毫不奇怪, 哈利是她最喜欢 的男孩名, 但是她非常明智地避开那个名字, 从而使儿子免遭纠缠。
事实上, 罗琳已经试着使自己的家庭处于隐身斗篷的保护下, 这样他们差不多就能过 平常人的生活。但是在享受一些简单的生活乐趣, 诸如在爱丁堡散步去超市或参加她11 岁女儿杰西卡的圣诞庆典时, 他们都需要时刻警惕大批庸俗小报记者的跟踪。
这种对私人生活的侵犯只是罗琳对出名十分担忧的部分原因。“ 我从没打算要做出影 响深远的事儿, ”她告诉《时代》周刊杂志,“ 我只是决定做我最喜爱的事情, 看看自己是否 擅长于此。”她确实做得很好, 她的律师不断地挫败试图从波特迷中捞好处的效仿者。⋯ ⋯ 但是, 当一位名叫南茜· 斯多弗的美国作家声称罗琳偷用muggle 一词, 并且剽窃她的作品 时, 罗琳感到异常震惊。纽约一位联邦法官认定斯多弗“ 犯诈骗罪”。罗琳说, 那感觉“ 就 像突然间不知从哪里冒出个女人来, 非说她是你孩子的母亲⋯ ⋯ 这不啻是当头一棒。人们 认为如果你非常成功, 你就会免受常情伤害, 然而事实并非如此。”
罗琳很高兴她能用自己的名声和金钱来支持慈善事业, 包括帮助那些单亲家庭和多种 硬化症的受害者。⋯ ⋯“ 出名的好处之一就是你有能力做一些有意义的事情, ”她对《时 代》周刊杂志说。“ 哈利5 ”《凤凰社》出版后, 罗琳打算不再抛头露面, 开始潜心写作“ 哈利 6”并照顾家庭。她希望自己能给人留下这样的印象———“ 就其天赋而言, 她已尽其所能”, 她也“ 不介意给人留下好母亲的印象”。