Fanny Kemble (1809-93) was the niece of two Shakespearean tragedians, Sarah Siddons and Siddons's brother, John Philip Kemble. Her father and her French mother were also actors. In fact her whole extended family constituted the foremost theatrical dynasty of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Handsome and gifted, they crop up in letters and diaries throughout the period, and were generally regarded as a kind of royalty: a race apart.
   
   The real competition for any biographer of Kemble is Kemble herself. As her friend Henry James noted: “in two hemispheres, she had seen everyone, had known everyone”. What's more, she recorded it all in many volumes of vividly written memoirs, all swarming with people, criticism, social commentary, anecdote, scenery, political opinion and superb set-pieces: the digging of Brunel's Thames tunnel, for instance.

   Kemble's memoirs, especially her “Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation”, are as important historically as they are engrossing. But what fascinates us now is the way that Fanny, clever and reckless as she was, broke the rules—or the way she appropriated and revised the role prescribed to her by gender politics. She never cared about such prescriptions. She spoke her mind and thought nothing of walking into a stream fully clothed if it was hot. It wasn't until her marriage that her gender collided with the realities of power and money. Though she was never intended for the stage, the looming bankruptcy of her father obliged her to try her chances. Overnight, she became the toast of London. Money flowed, and yet more on a tour of America, where she met a seductive young man, Pierce Butler, heir to huge rice and cotton slave-plantations in Georgia. Hoping to escape the shallow emotionalism of the theatre, assuming a companionship of equals and somehow managing to forget the slaves, she married him.

   At a stroke she lost everything. Butler, deeply illiberal, exerted his rights. He appropriated her earnings, censored her writing and when she woke to the horrors of slavery, forbade her public opposition to it. She wept, she ran away, she returned. The birth of children, in whom she had no legal rights, further enchained her.

   The rest of Kemble's life was sheer indomitability. The Butlers did divorce. She did lose the children. But on their majority, she recovered them. She made her own money again. Criss-crossing the Atlantic, she gave Shakespeare readings to packed audiences. Every summer, she climbed the Alps, startling the guides by singing loudly as she went. She met James in 1872 and he fell under her spell, fascinated by her proud idealism, her eccentric honesty and above all by her talk of “old London”. “She reanimated the old drawing rooms,” he wrote, “relighted the old lamps, retuned the old pianos.” When at last she died, he felt it, he said, “l(fā)ike the end of some reign or the fall of some empire”.

   注（1）：本文選自Economist, 06/21/2007

   注（2）：本文習(xí)題命題模仿對象為2003年真題Text 4。

   1． What is implied in the first paragraph?

    [A] The Kemble family keep a lot of diaries and letters.

    [B] Fanny Kemble was an actress of Shakespearean plays.

    [C] This passage talks about Fanny Kemble.

    [D] The Kemble family was once a royal family.

   2． The author uses Fanny’s memoirs to show that _______.

    [A] Fanny was a good biographer of herself.

    [B] Fanny wrote biographers for others.

    [C] Fanny competed with other biographers.

    [D] Fanny knew everyone.

   3． The author’s attitude towards Fanny Kemble is probably one of_______.

    [A] strong hatred

    [B] enthusiastic support

    [C] mild satire

    [D] objective

   4． Fanny decided to marry Pierce Butler for the following reasons EXCEPT _______.

    [A] She did not want to be an actress anymore.

    [B] She wanted to have a life company.

    [C] She was attracted by the handsome Pierce Butler.

    [D] She supported the slave system.

   5． The text intends to express the idea that _______.

    [A] Fanny Kemble had a life of bad luck.

    [B] Fanny Kemble didn’t enjoy much during her life.

    [C] Fanny Kemble had an optimistic attitude towards life.

    [D] Fanny Kemble

   篇章剖析

    本文通過主人公自己的傳記介紹了女演員范妮·肯布爾的一生。第一段介紹了范妮的家庭背景；第二段簡介范妮為自己出版了內(nèi)容豐富的傳記，暗示本文基于范妮的傳記對其進行介紹和回顧；第三段先對范妮的一生進行了總體評價，然后描述了她的早期生活、成名過程直至其結(jié)婚；第四段描述了范妮失敗的第一次婚姻和她經(jīng)歷的痛苦；第五段描述了范妮樂觀地度過了自己的下半生。

   詞匯注釋

   hemisphere [`hemisfiE] n.半球               collide [kE`laid] vi. 碰撞, 抵觸

   memoir [`memwB:] n. 回憶錄                loom [lu:m] v. 隱現(xiàn), 迫近

   swarm [swC:m] v. 涌往, 擠滿, 密集          stroke [strEuk] n. 一次努力, 打擊

   anecdote [`AnikdEut] n.軼事, 奇聞            illiberal [i`libErEl] adj. 狹礙的, 偏執(zhí)的

   engross [in`grEus] vt. 吸引, 使全神貫注       indomitability [7indCmitE`biliti] n. 不屈不撓

   fascinate [`fAsineit] vt. 使著迷, 使神魂顛倒    startle [`stB:tl] v. 震驚

   appropriate [E`prEupriit] adj. 適當?shù)?b>          eccentric [ik`sentrik] adj. 古怪的

   prescribe [pris`kraib] v. 指示, 規(guī)定

   難句突破

   Hoping to escape the shallow emotionalism of the theatre, assuming a companionship of equals and somehow managing to forget the slaves, she married him.

   主體句式  She married him.

   結(jié)構(gòu)分析  這個長句把句子的主干放到了最后，前面的兩個分詞短語在一般情況下都放在主干句的后面，這里放在前面不是“頭重腳輕”的問題，而是強調(diào)“她嫁給他”的前提。

   句子譯文  肯布爾想逃離膚淺的戲劇情感主義，想有個平等的知心人陪伴自已，于是她在一定程度上忘記了奴隸制，嫁給了他。

   題目分析

   1．C. 推理題。文章第一段開門見山地介紹范妮·肯布爾的身份及其家族，可以推出這篇文章將主要介紹范妮·肯布爾。

   2．A. 推理題。根據(jù)文章第二段，范妮·肯布爾自己就是自己的傳記作家，她出版了好幾卷關(guān)于自己經(jīng)歷的各種材料。

   3．B. 態(tài)度題。文章第三段第二句稱范妮“clever and reckless”，之后又說她用于沖破世俗制度和性別政治，可見作者是在盛贊范妮。

4．D. 細節(jié)題。文章第三段最后一句話說明了范妮出嫁的原因，第四段提到了范妮對于奴隸制度感到震驚，可見她并不支持奴隸制。

   5．C. 推理題。文章最后一段提到了范妮的后半生中她一直不屈不撓地生活，她積極地參加各類活動，到處旅游，而且最終得到了愛情，可見她對于生活的態(tài)度還是非常樂觀的。

   參考譯文

   范妮·肯布爾是（1809-93）兩位莎士比亞悲劇演員莎拉·席登斯和她哥哥約翰·菲利浦·肯布爾的侄女。她的父親和法國籍母親也是演員。事實上，龐大的肯布爾家族是18世紀末19世紀初戲劇時代的重要組成部分。那時，他們英俊的外表和表演天賦吸引來了成堆的信和日記。他們被視為皇親貴胄——高高在上的一族。

   對于肯布爾的傳記作者們來說，真正的競爭來自肯布爾本人。就像她的朋友亨利·詹姆斯說的那樣：“在兩個半球，她見過所有人，知道所有人�！辈粌H如此，她還把這些生動的經(jīng)歷寫進了自己的回憶錄里，足足有好幾卷�；貞涗浀膬�(nèi)容包括人物、評論、社論、軼事、風(fēng)景、政見和戲劇布景等：比如布魯內(nèi)爾的泰晤士隧道挖掘場景。

   肯布爾的回憶錄，尤其是“佐治亞莊園的生活日記”一章，不僅引人入勝，而且具有重要歷史意義。但是，現(xiàn)在吸引我們的是聰明且勇往直前的肯布爾沖破世俗的方式，或者說她如何改變和推翻性別政治強加給她的角色�？喜紶枏膩矶疾辉诤踹@些所謂的規(guī)定。她怎么想就怎么說，如果天氣太熱的話，穿著衣服走到小溪里去也無所謂。直到結(jié)婚以后，她的性別主義才與權(quán)力和金錢這些現(xiàn)實發(fā)生抵觸。盡管她從沒想過登上舞臺，但是父親的破產(chǎn)迫使她不得不去試試運氣。一夜之間，她成為了倫敦的街頭巷尾談的話題。金錢滾滾而來，而美國之行讓她得到了更多。在美國，她邂逅了風(fēng)度翩翩的皮爾斯·巴特勒——佐治亞盛產(chǎn)大米和棉花的大型奴隸莊園的繼承人。肯布爾想逃離膚淺的戲劇情感主義，想有個平等的知心人陪伴自已，于是她在一定程度上忘記了奴隸制，嫁給了他。

   一時的沖動讓她失去了所有。巴特勒有著根深蒂固的傳統(tǒng)觀念，并濫用自己作為丈夫的權(quán)力。他拿走肯布爾的錢，審查她的作品，在得知她對奴隸制感到震驚時，禁止她公開表示反對。她哭了，離開了這個家，可又回來了。孩子的出生進一步束縛了她，但她卻不能合法權(quán)力擁有孩子。

      肯布爾徹底不屈不撓地度過了后半生。她最終與巴特勒離婚，也失去了孩子們，但陪審團還給了她撫養(yǎng)權(quán)。她又開始賺錢了：她不停往返于大西洋兩邊，給人山人海的觀眾們分發(fā)各種莎士比亞讀物。每年夏天，她都要去爬阿爾卑斯山，走到哪都大聲唱歌，甚至還嚇到了導(dǎo)游。在1872年，她遇到了詹姆斯。他為她的魅力所折服，為她的高傲的理想主義、前所未見的誠實感到著迷，但最重要的還是她對“舊倫敦”的描述�！八�修復(fù)了舊畫室”，他寫到：“重新點燃了古老的燈，讓沙啞的舊鋼琴重新響了起來�！碑斔�去世時，他說自己覺得“像是某種統(tǒng)治結(jié)束了，一個帝國覆滅了�！�