Take Away English-Autobiographies 自传

An autobiography1: the story of someone's life

If you take a look at the best-selling books in the UK these days, it is almost certain that there will be a handful of autobiographies² in that list. Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, actor Michael J Fox and rapper 50 Cent have all written them.

An autobiography is the story of a person’s life, written by that person. It is usually a very famous person who might tell us all about their childhood, how they became famous and any other interesting things that have happened in their lives.

Traditionally, someone would write an autobiography when they were older because they had had a long, successful life. However, these days there are many celebrity³ magazines with stories and photos of the stars which sell very well. Reality TV shows are extremely popular and lots of people become famous very easily just from being on the TV rather than having a particular talent like singing or acting⁴. As a result, people become famous very quickly and as soon as they are famous, a lot of money can be made from writing an autobiography, even if they are very young.

So now you can find an autobiography from almost everyone who is in the public eye. Even though we can follow the lives of the stars very closely on TV or in magazines nowadays, we maybe don’t know how they live their lives from day to day. Autobiographies often reveal the information we never knew about the stars. The British public are very curious to find out more so they are very keen to read autobiographies.

Not every star wants to write though. Sometimes celebrities⁵ employ writers to write their life stories for them. The writer will interview the star, listen to everything they want to say, record interviews and then write the book based on their words. David Beckham did this with his book ‘My Side’.

Not everyone likes to read fiction regularly but they might like to read about the lives of stars. Autobiographies are helping⁶ to get more British people reading books. About 100 million autobiographies are sold in Britain every year. More stars depend on them for extra income and as more of these books appear in the shops, more people are sure to keep buying them.

GLOSSARY 词汇表
best-selling 畅销 autobiographies 自传 traditionally 传统上 reality TV shows 真人秀 in the public eye 受公众瞩目的 from day to day 每天(的), 天天(的) the British public 英国公众 employ 雇佣 based on 以…为基础, 根据 depend on 依靠, 依赖	a handful 一把 childhood 童年 celebrity 明星, 名人 as a result 结果, 导致 nowadays 现在, 当今 reveal 揭示, 暴露 keen 渴望的, 热切的 life stories 生活经历 fiction 虚构小说 extra income 额外收入

 

1 autobiography   

n.自传

参考例句：

• He published his autobiography last autumn.他去年秋天出版了自己的自传。
• His life story is recounted in two fascinating volumes of autobiography.这两卷引人入胜的自传小说详述了他的生平。

2 autobiographies   

n.自传( autobiography的名词复数 )；自传文学

参考例句：

• The series was based on the autobiographies of the author. 这部连续剧是根据那位作家的自传拍摄的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are some songs and, recently, a few autobiographies about peasant experience. 有些歌曲描述了农民的经验，最近还出了几本自传。 来自互联网

3 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

4 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

5 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。