听说，圣诞节快到了。
算了，啥也不说了，直接看图吧。
「今天我才知道系列」
1956年，哈珀·李(Harper Lee)的朋友送了她一年的薪水作为圣诞节的礼物，让她一年都不用工作、专心写作。
于是，哈珀·李(Harper Lee)用这一年的时间写下了《杀死一只知更鸟(To Kill a Mockingbird)》这一文学巨著，目前该书已经售出三千多万册了。
How a thoughtful Christmas present helped Harper Lee write 'To Kill a Mockingbird'
It has just been announced that Harper Lee — the famously private author who wrote the classic "To Kill A Mockingbird" — is coming out with her second book.
本文选自「Business Insider」2015年2月份发表的一篇文章，提到了哈珀·李(Harper Lee)当年圣诞节礼物的故事。那时，哈珀·李(Harper Lee)刚宣布即将出版自己的第二本小说《设立守望者(Go Set a Watchman)》。
Titled "Go Set a Watchman," the novel is a sequel to her Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, though it was actually written before "To Kill a Mockingbird." Lee has not published any new works for more than half a century, so naturally, book lovers and fans are thrilled.
To Kill A Mockingbird
首先，mockingbird是什么？
A mockingbird is a grey bird with a long tail that is found in North America. Mockingbirds are able to copy the songs of other birds. 嘲鸫; 反舌鸟（一种产于美国的鸟，能模仿其他鸟的叫声）
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on Lee's observations of her family, her neighbors and an event that occurred near her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, in 1936, when she was 10 years old. The story is told by the six-year-old Jean Louise Finch. (Wikipedia)
《杀死一只知更鸟》，台译“梅冈城故事”，是美国作家哈珀·李(Harper Lee)于1960年发行的小说，荣获当年年度普利策奖（the Pulitzer Prize）。此书刚出版便获得极大成功，取材自作者对其家人与邻居的观察以及发生在作者10岁时故乡附近的一起事件。(维基百科)
顺便提一句，2016年11月CATTI考试三级笔译实务英译汉部分，文章内容就是对Harper Lee和她的小说To Kill a Mockingbird的介绍。
表示“(书或电影的)续篇；续集”，英文解释为“A book or movie which is a sequel to an earlier one continues the story of the earlier one.”
据介绍，《设立守望者》中的故事发生在《杀死一只知更鸟》后20年，可以看成是《杀死一只知更鸟》的续集，但实际上《设立守望者》是先写完成的。
而自《杀死一只知更鸟》1960年出版并获得了当年普利策奖后，哈珀·李(Harper Lee)便过上了隐居生活，再也没出版过小说。
2016年2月19日，家哈珀·李(Harper Lee)逝世，享年89岁。
所以，这里就不得不提一下，当年哈珀·李(Harper Lee)收到的那份珍贵的圣诞礼物，没有那份“礼物”的话，可能就不会有经典著作《杀死一只知更鸟》的出现。
But as we look forward to her new book, it's worth noting that if it hadn't been for a 1950s Christmas gift, Lee might never have written "To Kill A Mockingbird" in the first place.
Back in 1956, Lee was a ticket agent for British Overseas Airways Corporation. Like most struggling writers, she was having trouble balancing her job and finding time to write. She told this to her New York City friends, Michael and Joy Brown (who were also friends of Truman Capote — quite the literary circle).
相关背景
当时，哈珀·李(Harper Lee)在英国海外航空公司当一名售票员，怀揣写作的梦想的她，在生计和写作兴趣之间苦苦挣扎，难以平衡。
这里，cue一下昨天考四六级的同学，2018年12月六级考试作文题目：
how to balance job responsibilities and personal interests
how to balance academic study and extracurriculum activities
how to balance work and leisure.
Michael was a successful "industrial musical writer" whom American corporations hired to create performances to inspire their workers. His clients ranged from DuPont to JC Penney, and he was raking in the money for songs like "The Wonderful World of Chemistry," according to his New York Times obituary last year.
rake in
表示“轻易地大捞（钱财），轻易赚得（许多钱）”，英文解释为“If you say that someone is raking in money, you mean that they are making a lot of money very easily, more easily than you think they should.”，举个：
The privatization allowed companies to rake in huge profits.
私有化使各公司轻易地捞到了巨额利润。
相关背景
哈珀·李(Harper Lee)的这位朋友叫迈克尔·布朗(Michael Brown)，他是位工业音乐作曲家(industrial musical writer)，美国的许多著名公司都雇他创作类似《化学奇妙世界(The Wonderful World of Chemistry)》等歌曲，来激励公司的员工。
· 杜邦公司（DuPont，全称E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company）是世界排名第二大的美国化工公司。
· 杰西潘尼（J. C. Penney，JCPenney或jcp）是美国最大的连锁百货商店之一。
2014年，迈克尔·布朗(Michael Brown)去世，享年93岁。
纽约时报(New York Times)讣闻：
So in 1956, the Browns' gave Lee the best Christmas present of all: An entire year's salary so she could take time to write whatever she wanted.
"There was an envelope on the tree, addressed to me. I opened it and read: 'You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas,'" she wrote in McCall's magazine in 1961. "They assured me that it was not some sort of joke. They'd had a good year, they said. They'd saved some money and thought it was high time they did something about me."
Lee took that time to write "To Kill A Mockingbird," which has sold over 30 million copies worldwide and is still read in classrooms around the country.
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