Miguel de Cervantes 米格爾·德·塞萬提斯

Before he wrote Don Quixote， Miguel de Cervantes lived an interesting life marked by 1）brushes with death， ongoing 2）financial troubles and ended up 3）behind bars more than once. He suffered several gunshot wounds and lost the use of his left hand while serving in the Spanish 4）military， and later 5）endured five years as a prisoner and slave after being kidnapped by pirates.

在寫《堂吉訶德》之前，米格爾·德·塞萬提斯的人生可謂相當(dāng)“精彩”——幾次和死神擦肩而過，經(jīng)常陷入財政困境，而且還不止一次入獄。他在西班牙軍隊服役時受過幾次槍傷，左手被“廢”了;他后來更被海盜綁架，過了五年囚犯和奴隸的生活。

Unable to support himself as a writer， Cervantes spent his 30s and 40s working as a 6）purchasing agent for the 7）Navy and as a tax collector. He was in his late-50s when he finally published Don Quixote in 1605， but its release marked the beginning of the most creative period of his life. The elderly Cervantes went on to publish several more poems and novels， including the second part of Don Quixote， which came out just months before his death at age 68.

塞萬提斯無法靠寫作維持生計，所以他三四十歲的時候一直為海軍當(dāng)采購員和收稅員。1605年，他終于在接近六十歲的時候發(fā)表了《堂吉訶德》，而他一生中最富創(chuàng)造力的時期才正式開始。人過中年的塞萬提斯陸續(xù)發(fā)表了數(shù)首詩歌和數(shù)部小說，其中包括《堂吉訶德》的第二部。該作品面世后沒過幾個月塞萬提斯就去世了，享年68歲。

Paul Cezanne 保羅·塞尚

Painter Paul Cezanne is now considered one of the fathers of modern art， but he spent most of his life dealing with his 8）craft and enduring 9）rejection.

Born into a wealthy family， Cezanne traveled to Paris as a young man to 10）pursue a career in the arts. His early efforts often left him cold， however， and he destroyed many paintings and even briefly 11）abandoned art for a while.

Cezanne kept trying throughout the 1870s， but he sold very few paintings and often saw his work 12）criticized by art experts. He didnt get his first one-man exhibition until 1894， when he was 56， and received no public attention until the early 1900s. By then， Cezanne had finally found a style all his own. He went on to produce such masterpieces as Pyramid of Skulls and The Bathers before his death in 1906 at the age of 67.

畫家保羅·塞尚如今被譽為現(xiàn)代藝術(shù)之父，但其實他把一生中大部分時間都花在了繪畫技巧上，還經(jīng)常被拒絕。

塞尚出生在一個富有的家庭，年輕時他去到巴黎，希望以藝術(shù)為職業(yè)。然而早期的努力卻經(jīng)常令他心灰意冷，他還毀掉了很多畫作，甚至一度放棄了藝術(shù)。

在19世紀(jì)70年代這十年里，盡管塞尚不停地嘗試，能賣掉的畫作少之又少，而且作品還經(jīng)常被專家批評。直到1894年，56歲的他才終于有機會開個人畫展，到了20世紀(jì)初才得到公眾關(guān)注。到了那時，塞尚終于找到了完全屬于自己的風(fēng)格，并畫出了《頭骨的金字塔》和《浴女》等杰作。塞尚在1906年與世長辭，享年67歲。

Julia Child 朱莉婭·查爾德

Americas famous chef Julia Child had been a television star for most of the 1960s， 70s and 80s， yet her 13）love affair with food started pretty late in life. Long before she ever made her first 14）soufflé， Child pursued a career in writing and advertising and worked for the Office of 15）Strategic Services during World War II. It wasnt until she moved to Paris with her husband Paul in 1948 that she finally had her first taste of French food. “I was 16）hooked，” she later remembered， “and for life， as it turned out.”

Child 17）eventually went to a Parisian cooking school and 18）collaborated on the classic book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Following a popular appearance on a Boston public television program in 1963， the 50-year-old began hosting The French Chef， the first of several cooking shows that helped introduce Americans to 19）fine dining.

美國著名廚師朱莉婭·查爾德是20世紀(jì)60至80年代的電視明星，然而她對美食的強烈興趣是很遲才產(chǎn)生的。在她做出第一個蛋奶酥以前，查爾德一直從事寫作和廣告的工作，并在二戰(zhàn)期間為（美國）戰(zhàn)略情報局工作。一直到1948年她和丈夫保羅搬到巴黎后，她才第一次嘗到了法國美食。“我被迷住了，”她后來回憶道，“而且還是一輩子（都被迷住了）。”

查爾德后來到了巴黎一家烹飪學(xué)校學(xué)習(xí)，還跟人合作出版了經(jīng)典之作——《掌握烹飪法國菜的藝術(shù)》。1963年，她在波士頓一檔公共電視臺節(jié)目中露面，大受歡迎。隨后，這位50歲的女士開始主持《法蘭西廚師》——最早讓美國人接觸精致餐飲的烹飪類節(jié)目之一。

Ray Kroc 雷·克洛克

After volunteering as an ambulance driver during World War I， Ray Kroc spent most of his career as a paper cup and milkshake machine salesman. During a 1954 trip to visit 20）clients in San Bernardino， California， he was impressed by the production methods of a local burger restaurant owned by the brothers Maurice and Richard McDonald. Convinced their operation could be a huge success， the 53-year-old Kroc joined forces with the McDonalds and later bought out their entire business in 1961.

Over the next two decades， he 21）transformed McDonalds into the United States most successful fast food restaurant. By the time of his death in 1984， the business Kroc had purchased for only $2.7 million was worth $8 billion. “I was an overnight success，” Kroc once joked， “but 30 years is a long， long night.”

一戰(zhàn)期間，雷·克洛克自愿去當(dāng)一名救護車司機。而戰(zhàn)后的大部分時間，他主要從事紙杯和奶昔機的銷售工作。1954年，在到（美國）加利福尼亞州的圣博娜迪諾市拜訪客戶期間，他看到莫里斯和理查德·麥當(dāng)勞兄弟的漢堡店所采用的先進生產(chǎn)方式，從此留下了深刻的印象。克洛克深信他們的操作模式將會大獲成功，53歲的他加入了麥當(dāng)勞兄弟的隊伍，后來更在1961年買斷了整個生意。

隨后的二十年里，他把麥當(dāng)勞變成了美國最成功的快餐店。直到克洛克1984年去世時，當(dāng)年他僅以270萬美元買下的生意已經(jīng)價值80億美元?！拔乙灰钩擅?，”克洛克曾開玩笑說，“但30年是非常漫長的一夜?！?/p>

J.K. Rowling J. K. 羅琳

Long before she had written a story so magical that it gathered millions of children under its spell， things werent looking too good for J.K. Rowling.

She worked as an English teacher in Porto before moving in with her sister in Edinburgh， when she found herself jobless and separated from her husband. Rowling was in a bad situation. But actually， that was probably a good thing.

“Had I really succeeded at anything else， I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one area where I truly belonged. I was set free， because my greatest fear had been realized， and I was still alive， and I still had a daughter whom I 22）adored， and I had an old typewriter， and a big idea. And so 23）rock bottom became the 24）solid 25）foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” She said.

That big idea was the Harry Potter series. And now， Rowling has won several awards， and Harry Potter has become the best-selling book series in history.

在J. K. 羅琳寫出那個充滿魔力并讓數(shù)百萬孩子為之著迷的故事之前，她的情況看起來不太好。

她曾在（葡萄牙）波爾圖當(dāng)過英語教師，隨后和妹妹搬到了愛丁堡——這時她發(fā)現(xiàn)自己沒有工作，還和丈夫分居。她的狀況很差，但事實上，那也許是件好事。

“如果我以前在其他地方成功了，那么我也許永遠(yuǎn)不會有決心投身到這個真正屬于我的領(lǐng)域。我自由了，因為我最大的恐懼已經(jīng)成為現(xiàn)實，而我依然活著，依然有深愛著的女兒，我還有一臺舊打字機和一個大大的夢想。我生命中的最低點成為了我重建生活的堅實基礎(chǔ)?！彼f道。

那個大大的夢想就是《哈利·波特》系列?，F(xiàn)在，羅琳獲得了數(shù)個獎項，《哈利·波特》也成為了史上最暢銷的系列圖書。

1） brush with death 與死神擦肩而過

2） financial a. 財政的

3） behind bars 關(guān)在監(jiān)牢里

4） military n.（集合名詞）軍隊

5） endure v. 忍耐，忍受

6） purchase v. 購買

7） navy n. 海軍

8） craft n. 工藝，手藝

9） rejection n. 拒絕

10） pursue v. 追求;從事

11） abandon v. 放棄

12） criticize v. 批評，挑剔

13） love affair 強烈愛好;風(fēng)流韻事

14） soufflé n.（法）舒芙蕾，蛋奶酥

15） strategic a. 戰(zhàn)略的

16） hook v. 沉迷，上癮

17） eventually ad. 最后

18） collaborate v. 合作;合著

19） fine a. 精美的，精細(xì)的

20） client n. 客戶

21） transform v. 轉(zhuǎn)換，改變

22） adore v. 非常喜歡

23） rock bottom 最低點

24） solid a. 堅固的

25） foundation n. 基礎(chǔ)