讀點好英文:J.K.RowIing, Author of Harry Potter　哈利·波特的締造者——J.K.羅琳

J.K.RowIing, Author of Harry Potter　哈利·波特的締造者——J.K.羅琳

·Steven·

Like that of her own character, Harry Potter, J. K.Rowling's life has the Iuster of a fairy tale.Divorced, living on public assistance in a tiny Edinburgh flat with her infant daughter, Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at a table in a cafe during her daughter's naps-and it was Harry Potter that rescued her.

Joanne Kathleen Rowling entered the world in Chipping Sodbury General Hospital in Bristol, England, a fitting beginning for someone who would later enjoy making up strange names for people, places and games played on flying broomsticks. Her younger sister Di was born just under two years later.

Rowling remembers that she always wanted to write and that the first story she actually wrote down, when she was five or six, was a story about a rabbit called Rabbit. Many of her favorite memories center around reading-hearing The Wind in the Willows read aloud by her father when she had the measles, enjoying the fantastic adventure stories of E.Nesbit, reveling in the magical world of C.S.Lewis's Narnia, and her favorite story of all, The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.

At Exeter University Rowling took her degree in French and spent one year studying in Paris. After college she moved to London to work for Amnesty International as a researcher and bilingual secretary.The best thing about working in an office, she has said, was typing up stories on the computer when no one was watching.During this time, on a particularly long train ride from Manchester to London in the summer of 1990，the idea came to her of a boy who is a wizard and doesn't know it.He attends a school for wizardry-she could see him very pIainIy in her mind.By the time the train pulled into King's Cross Station four hours later, many of the characters and the early stages of the plot were fully formed in her head.The story took further shape as she continued working on it in pubs and cafes over her lunch hours.

In 1992 Rowling left off working in offices and moved to Portugal to teach English as a Second Language. In spite of her students making jokes about her name（this time they called her“Rolling Stone”），she enjoyed teaching.She worked afternoons and evenings, leaving mornings free for writing.After her marriage to a Portuguese TV journalist ended in divorce, Rowling returned to Britain with her infant daughter and a suitcase full of Harry Potter notes and chapters.She settled in Edinburgh to be near her sister and set out to finish the book before looking for a teaching job.Wheeling her daughter's carriage around the city to escape their tiny, cold apartment, she would duck into coffee shops to write when the baby fell asleep.In this way she finished the book and started sending it to publishers.It was rejected several times before she found London agent, chosen because she liked his name-Christopher Little, who sold the manuscript to Bloomsbury Children's Books.

Rowling was working as a French teacher when she heard that her book about the boy wizard had been accepted for publication. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in June 1997 and achieved almost instant success.With the publication of the American edition, retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, in 1998，Rowling's books continued to make publishing history.Harry Potter climbed to the top of all the bestseller lists for children's and adult books.Indeed, the story of the boy wizard, his Cinderlad childhood, and his adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry caught the imagination of readers of all ages.In Britain a separate edition of the first book appeared with a more“adult”dust jacket so that grown-ups reading it on trains and subways would not have to hide their copy behind a newspaper.

J. K.Rowling lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with her daughter Jessica and continues to work on writing the seven-book saga of Harry Potter.

史蒂文

J.K.羅琳的生活展現(xiàn)出童話般的光芒，如同她所創(chuàng)造的魔法小巫師——哈利·波特。經(jīng)歷了一次失敗的婚姻后，這個靠救濟金過日子，獨自撫養(yǎng)女兒的單身媽媽和出生不久的女兒搬到了愛丁堡的一個狹小的公寓里。她常待在家附近的咖啡館里，待女兒熟睡后開始寫作。女兒睡多久，她就寫多久。就在這個小咖啡館里，她寫出了《哈利·波特與魔法石》，塑造了那個將她帶離窘境的小巫師。

J.K.羅琳出生在英格蘭的一家綜合醫(yī)院里，這對一個喜歡給別人起奇怪的名字，喜歡坐著掃帚滿場飛奔的小姑娘來說，是個合適的開始。她的妹妹娣，比她小兩歲。

羅琳從小就喜歡寫作，五六歲時就寫了一篇跟兔子有關(guān)的故事。小時候美好的記憶似乎總是圍繞著閱讀——得麻疹時聽爸爸大聲講《柳林風聲》，讀E.尼斯比特所描繪的奇異的冒險故事，沉浸在C.S.劉易斯所展示的奇妙的《納尼亞傳奇》的故事世界里。不過，她最喜歡的還是伊麗莎白·古吉的《古堡里的月亮公主》。

在?？巳卮髮W里，羅琳主修法語并在巴黎留學一年。畢業(yè)后，她搬去倫敦擔任國際特赦組織的調(diào)查員和雙語秘書。羅琳回憶說，那段時間最有趣的事情就是趁沒人的時候在電腦上寫小說。1990年的夏天，當羅琳坐在由曼徹斯特出發(fā)前往倫敦的火車上時，哈利·波特闖入了她的世界。她可以在腦海里清晰地勾畫他的模樣，看到他進入魔法學校。四小時后，當火車駛?cè)雵跏周囌緯r，大部分人物和故事的前期框架已經(jīng)在她的腦海里形成了。當她用午餐時間坐在咖啡館里繼續(xù)構(gòu)思時，故事的結(jié)構(gòu)變得更加清晰了。

1992年，羅琳結(jié)束了白領(lǐng)生涯，前往葡萄牙做英語教師。盡管學生們常拿她的名字開玩笑，叫她“滾石”（英語中Rowling與Rolling同音），她仍然非常喜歡教書。她在下午和晚上去學校工作，上午用來寫作。不久后，她與一名葡萄牙的電視臺記者結(jié)婚，但這段婚姻最終以離婚告終。離婚后，羅琳帶著女兒和滿滿一箱子哈利·波特的筆記與手稿回到了英國。為了能離妹妹近一些，羅琳在愛丁堡定居下來，準備在找新工作前完成這部小說。她常常推著女兒的手推車四處閑逛，只是為了逃離那又小又冷的公寓。她會躲到咖啡館里，趁女兒睡著時寫作。就這樣，羅琳完成了哈利·波特的創(chuàng)作并開始尋找出版商。但她的稿件多次被退了回來，直到她找到了一個倫敦的經(jīng)紀人。羅琳之所以會找到他，僅僅是因為喜歡他可愛的名字——克里斯多弗·里特，他將原稿賣給了布盧姆斯伯里出版社（Bloomsbury Children’s Book）。

當羅琳得知這本關(guān)于小巫師的小說被出版商接受時，她正在一所學校教法語?！豆げㄌ睾臀讕煹氖^》在1997年6月剛一出版，就大獲成功。隨著更名為《哈利·波特與魔法石》，1998年在美國出版，羅琳的書繼續(xù)創(chuàng)造著出版界的歷史?！豆げㄌ亍返巧狭藘和c成人書籍的最佳銷售榜的首位。確實，這個小巫師的故事，他灰姑娘一樣的童年，和他在霍格沃茲魔法學校的歷險引發(fā)了各個年齡段讀者的豐富想象力。在英國，出版商出版了一種更成人化封面的版本，使得大人們能在火車或者地鐵里閱讀而不用把書藏在報紙后面。

現(xiàn)在，J.K.羅琳和她的女兒杰西卡住在蘇格蘭的愛丁堡，已完成了七本《哈利·波特》的冒險故事。

核心單詞

Iuster['l?st?]n.光澤；光輝；光彩

rescue['reskju：]v.援救；營救；挽救

fantastic[f?n't?stik]adj.想象中的，奇異的；古怪的

wizard['wiz?d]n.男巫；術(shù)士

pIainIy['pleinli]adv.清楚地，明顯地；明確地

reject[ri'd?ekt]v.拒絕，抵制

adventure[?d'vent??]n.冒險，冒險精神

jacket['d??kit]n.夾克，上衣

實用句型

In spite of her students making jokes about her name（this time they caIIed her“RoIIing Stone”），she enjoyed teaching.

盡管學生們常拿她的名字開玩笑，叫她“滾石”（英語中Rowling與Rolling同音），她仍然非常喜歡教書。

①in spite of在這里引導讓步狀語從句。

②making jokes about her name以她的名字為笑柄，類似的表達還有make a joke 開玩笑；be but a joke只是笑話；no joke不是鬧著玩兒的等固定搭配。

翻譯練習

1.請盡快戒掉你的壞習慣。（leave off）

2.那項計劃以失敗告終。（end in）

3.我還沒有適應(yīng)我的新工作。（settle in）