英语听力精选进阶版 14304

Canadian wins Nobel Prize for Literature

Summary

11 October 2013

This year's Nobel Prize for Literature has gone to the Canadian writer Alice Munro. She is highly praised for her short stories which focus on life in the part of Canada where she has spent most of her time.

Reporter:

Vincent Dowd

Report

Aged¹ 82, Alice Munro has for several years been mentioned as a potential Nobel laureate. The Swedish Academy, which makes the award, spoke² of her "finely-tuned storytelling, characterised by clarity and psychological realism." 

Alice Munro has published many books of stories since the late 1960s. And she has often been compared to Anton Chekhov: for many, the greatest of all short-story writers. 

She writes almost entirely³ about society and families and the passing of time in the part of Ottawa which she has known all her life. She is the first Canadian to take the prize: Saul Bellow⁴, who won in 1976, was Canadian-born but became an American citizen. 

Alice Munro gave her reaction soon after hearing news of the award, at home.

Alice Munro:

"It is so surprising and so wonderful, and I don't think I knew that I was even on the list or anything until maybe yesterday. My daughter woke me up, she said: 'Mum, you won!' I kind of was dazed about what had I won, but I came to my senses."

Alice Munro will get prize money of 8 million Swedish kroner, that's around 1.2 million US dollars. She is only the 13th woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature since it began in 1901.

1 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

4 bellow   

v.吼叫，怒吼；大声发出，大声喝道

参考例句：

• The music is so loud that we have to bellow at each other to be heard.音乐的声音实在太大，我们只有彼此大声喊叫才能把话听清。
• After a while,the bull began to bellow in pain.过了一会儿公牛开始痛苦地吼叫。