A famous writer

原文 上课材料

In her speech to Harvard students in 2008,J.K.Rowling said,“…seven years after my graduation day,I had failed on an epic scale.”She went on to say that“by every usual standard,I was the biggest failure I knew.”

It might surprise some readers to know which period of her life J.K.Rowling was talking about here.She is talking about her life when she was writing the first novel of the Harry Potter books.The idea came to her during a train ride in 1990.In December that year,her mother died.The next few years were difficult for her.In 1993,her first but short marriage ended.She had no job and had to raise her daughter alone.She didn’t have much money and life was not easy.As she said in that same speech,“That period of my life was a dark one and I had no idea that there was going to be…a kind of fairytale resolution.”

As we all know now,the Harry Potter books went on to become extremely successful and also made J.K.Rowling very rich.So where does she think this success came from?She thinks it is a direct result of her early failure.As she went on to say,“Failure meant I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that really mattered to me…I was set free.”

Her Harry Potter series was completed with its final book in 2007.The books have become a very successful film series and three years after the final book was published,a Harry Potter theme park opened in the United States.She has written other books related to the Harry Potter series and her first book for adults was published in 2012.She has also remarried and now has three children.(321 words)

New words in the passage:

A famous writer

                             辅助材料

J.K.Rowling made a speech to Harvard students in 2008.She said,“…seven years after I left school,I failed so much.”She went on to say“I was the biggest failure (失败)I thought”

It might surprise some people to know which part of her life she was talking about.She is talking about her life when she was writing the first Harry Potter book.The idea came to her when she was on a train in 1990.In December that year,her mother died.In 1993,her marriage(婚姻)ended.She had no job and had to look after her daughter alone.She didn’t have much money and life was not easy.As she said in that speech,“That time of my life was a dark one and I didn’t know there was going to be…”She decided to write her fairytale(童话故事)book.

As we all know now,Harry Potter books became very successful and also made J.K.Rowling very rich.So where does this success come from?She thinks it is a result of her early failure(早期失败).She went on to say,“Failure meant I stopped to be others.I began to be myself and I put all myself into finishing the work that’s really important to me.I found myself.”

Her Harry Potter books was finished in 2007.The books became successful films.Three years later,a Harry Potter theme park opened in the US.She also wrote other books about Harry Potter.And her first book for adults was finished in 2012.She also married again and now has three children.(266 words)