Unit3 Grad Reading 1辽宁大学研究生英语教材.docVIP

Reference Notes Unit 3 Leisure Activities Reading Focus Why Harry’s Hot Information Notes 1. This passage is taken from Newsweek exploring the underlying reasons why the Harry Potter series books make huge success. The passage is largely argumentative, involving the authors personal ideas about the Harry Potter books. It is a model essay in itself. Students are able to learn how to write an argumentative essay on the grounds of a particular phenome- non. The passge has a typically three-part anatomy that is easily recognized in an argumentative essay. It starts with the indisputable fact that the Harry Potter books capture the atten- tion of an amazingly large audience, although they are confronted with challenges by some parents and conservative religious leaders. They disapprove of the Harry Potter books because they think that these books advocate witchcraft. Then the author makes his own comments on the Harry Potter books, including their merits and demerits. Finally, the author arrives at a conclusion that there is every reason to say that Harry Potter possesses all the earmarks of a classic. 2. Joanne Jo Murray, OBE (1965?), who writes under the pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author best known as the creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series, the idea for which was conceived while on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990. The Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, and sold more than 400 million copies., Aside from writing the Potter novels, Rowling is perhaps equally famous for her rags to riches life story, in which she progressed from living on welfare to multi-millionaire status within five years. The 2008 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowlings fortune at ￡560 million ($798 million), ranking her as the 12th richest woman in Britain. Forbes ranked Rowling as the 48th most powerful celebrity of 2007, and Time magazine named her as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral, and p