大学英语二级期末考试阅读理解命题范围.docVIP

.. .. Passage 1 Charlie Chaplin has broken all records in making people laugh. No one has so set a whole world laughing as the little man with the walking stick and the oversized shoes. Much has been written about Chaplins art and his career, and opinions have ranged widely. But perhaps those who called him the truest human being of our time came closest to the truth. Those who have called him a genius stress the timeless and common qualities in his work. It is an art filled with sad elements and deep human feeling, with which an audience cannot help but become involved. It is for these reasons, I believe, that the figure of Charlie has attracted generation after generation. All the writers who give accounts of Chaplins life agree that Charlies unhappy early years in the area in London where houses were dirty and worn had a great influence on his development and on the type of films he made. Chaplin himself emphasizes it in his memoirs (回忆录). The more one reads about his earliest period, the more one tends to agree. Indeed, his suffering youth had a lasting influence on him. Chaplin was never afraid to deal with subjects causing much disagreement in his films. He gave a humorous performance on war only a few weeks before the American soldiers came home from World War I in 1918. This was regarded as madness, but the performance was well received. So perfectly did it hit the nail on the head that even the returning soldiers found it impossible to hate it and deeply appreciated this short and humorous performance on what for them had been an unpleasant reality. Chaplin gave numerous performances attacking capital governments, satirizing (讽刺) the cruelty of the machine age, and even making fun of Hitler. Years after his death, the funny films of motion picture actor and director Charlie Chaplin continue to be well loved. He is particularly well known for his success as a creator of humorous presentations that make fun of people, the e