Not even a decade ago she was unknown and poor, a single mom on welfare who sometimes pretended to browse in maternity stores so she could cadge a free diaper in the changing room . Now, after four Harry Potter books, two movies and an armada of related merchandise , J. K. Rowling has a fortune estimated at 450 million, according to the London Sunday Times rich list, making her 50 million wealthier than the Queen of England. Her personal life has picked up too . She has bought multimillion-dollar houses in London, Edinburgh and the Scottish hills near Perth. And at the end of 2001 , Rowling, 37 , married Neil Murray, a steady, brainy anesthetist and in March 2003 they had a son David. Rowling has admitted that — no surprise — Harry is her favorite boy’s name, but she wisely avoided saddling her son with that lifelong invitation to teasing.

　　In fact, Rowling has tried to throw a cloak of invisibility around her family so they can live almost normal lives. But simple pleasures like strolling to the supermarket in Edinburgh or attending her -year-old daughter Jessica’s Christmas pageant10 require constant vigilanceagainst an army of tabloid reporters.

　　The intrusions are only part of the reason Rowling is uneasy with fame.“ I never set out to make a mark, ”she tells TIME.“ I set out to do the thing I love best in the world and find out whether I was any good at it. ”She’s so good at it that her lawyers are constantly swatting down copycats trying to cash in on Pottermania . .. . Rowling was badly shaken when an American writer named Nancy Stouffer claimed she had stolen the word muggle and otherwise plagiarized Stouffer’s work. A New York City federal judge found that Stouffer had“ perpetrated a fraud”. It felt, Rowling says,“as if some strange woman had come out of nowhere saying she was my children’s mother . . . It was like a punch in the stomach . People think that if you have been successful, you are insulated from15 normal feelings of hurt, but you aren’t. ”

　　Rowling appreciates that she can use her name and money to support charities, including those for one-parent families and victims of multiple sclerosis. .. .“One of the few upsides of being famous is being able to do something meaningful, ”she tells TIME. After publication of Order of the Phoenix, Rowling will retreat from the spotlight to write book No. 6 and care for her family. She hopes to be remembered as“ someone who did the best she could with the talent she was given”and she“wouldn’t mind being remembered as a good parent”

　　閱讀自測

　　Ⅰ. Fill the blanks with the words or phrases in the passage :

　　1. After four Harry Potter books, two movies and related merchandise, J. K. Rowling has a fortune estimated at 450 million.

　　2. Rowling has admitted that Harry is her favorite boy’s name , but she wisely avoided her son that lifelong invitation to teasing.

　　3. Her lawyers are constantly copycats trying to cash in on Pottermania.

　　4.“I never set out to , ”she tells TIME.

　　Ⅱ. Question :

　　Does J. K. Rowling cherish her work? How do you know?

　　參考答案

　　Ⅰ. 1. an armada of 2 . saddling . .. with 3 . swatting down 4. make a mark

　　Ⅱ. Yes. When she was wrongly accused of plagiarism, she felt“ as if some strange woman had come out of nowhere saying she was my children’s mother .. . It was like a punch in the stomach. ”

　　參考譯文

　　成名之后

　　差 不多就在10 年前, 她還只是個無人知曉、靠救濟金過活的窮困潦倒的單身媽媽, 時常 裝作逛嬰兒用品商店的樣子, 在那兒的更衣室里獲得免費贈送的尿布。如今, 據倫敦《星 期日泰晤士報》的財富排行榜, J. K. 羅琳在出版了四部《哈利· 波特》( 其中兩部已拍成電 影并開發了一大批相關產品) 之后, 其資產預計已達4. 5 億美元, 比英國女王還要富5 千 萬。她個人生活也隨之好轉, 羅琳在倫敦、愛丁堡及佩思附近的蘇格蘭山上都購買了價值 數百萬美元的豪宅。2001 年底, 37 歲的羅琳和穩重博學而又機敏能干的麻醉師尼爾· 默 里結婚; 2003 年3 月, 他們的兒子戴維出生了。羅琳承認——— 毫不奇怪, 哈利是她最喜歡 的男孩名, 但是她非常明智地避開那個名字, 從而使兒子免遭糾纏。

　　事實上, 羅琳已經試著使自己的家庭處于隱身斗篷的保護下, 這樣他們差不多就能過 平常人的生活。但是在享受一些簡單的生活樂趣, 諸如在愛丁堡散步去超市或參加她11 歲女兒杰西卡的圣誕慶典時, 他們都需要時刻警惕大批庸俗小報記者的跟蹤。

　　這種對私人生活的侵犯只是羅琳對出名十分擔憂的部分原因。“ 我從沒打算要做出影 響深遠的事兒, ”她告訴《時代》周刊雜志,“ 我只是決定做我最喜愛的事情, 看看自己是否 擅長于此。”她確實做得很好, 她的律師不斷地挫敗試圖從波特迷中撈好處的效仿者。⋯ ⋯ 但是, 當一位名叫南茜· 斯多弗的美國作家聲稱羅琳偷用muggle 一詞, 并且剽竊她的作品 時, 羅琳感到異常震驚。紐約一位聯邦法官認定斯多弗“ 犯詐騙罪”。羅琳說, 那感覺“ 就 像突然間不知從哪里冒出個女人來, 非說她是你孩子的母親⋯ ⋯ 這不啻是當頭一棒。人們 認為如果你非常成功, 你就會免受常情傷害, 然而事實并非如此。”

　　羅琳很高興她能用自己的名聲和金錢來支持慈善事業, 包括幫助那些單親家庭和多種 硬化癥的受害者。⋯ ⋯“ 出名的好處之一就是你有能力做一些有意義的事情, ”她對《時 代》周刊雜志說。“ 哈利5 ”《鳳凰社》出版后, 羅琳打算不再拋頭露面, 開始潛心寫作“ 哈利 6”并照顧家庭。她希望自己能給人留下這樣的印象———“ 就其天賦而言, 她已盡其所能”, 她也“ 不介意給人留下好母親的印象”。