Why-Harrys-Hot英汉双语[完美版].docVIP

Unit3 Leisure without literature is death and burial alive. ——Seneca, Roman philosopher Why Harry’s Hot? J. K. Rowling swears she never saw it coming. In her wildest dreams, she didnt think her Harry Potter books would appeal to more than a handful of readers. I never expected a lot of people to like them, she insisted in a recent interview. Well, it turned out I was very wrong, obviously. It strikes a chord with an enormous number of people. Thats putting it mildly. With 35 million copies in print, in 35 languages, the first three Harry Potter books have earned a conservatively estimated $480 million in three years. And that was just the warm-up. With a first printing of 5.3 million copies and advance orders topping 1.8 million, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth installment of the series, promises to break every bookselling record. Jack Morrissey, 12, plainly speaks for a generation of readers when he says, The Harry Potter books are like life, but better. Amazingly, Rowling keeps her several plotlines clear of each other until the end, when he deftly brings everything together in a cataclysmic conclusion. For pure narrative power, this is the best Potter book yet. When the book finally went on sale at 12:01 am. Saturday, thousands of children in Britain and North America rushed to claim their copies. Bookstores hosted pajama parties, hired magicians and served cookies and punch, but nobody needed to lift the spirits of these crowds. In one case, customers made such a big, happy noise that neighbors called the cops. At a Borders in Charlotte, N.C., Erin Rankin, 12, quickly thumbed to the back as soon as she got her copy. “I heard that a_ major character dies, and I really want to find out who, she said. But minutes later she gave up. “I just cant do it. I cant read the end first. The only sour note in all the songs of joy over this phenomenon has come from some parents and conservative religious leaders who say Rowling advocates witchcraft. reading of