2017届高考英语二轮复习阅读理解素材：17

　　关于莎士比亚鲜为人知的7件事

　　April 23 is the 450th anniversary of the birth of Britain's most famous playwright and poet. The relatively few facts we know about William Shakespeare have made him an enigmatic figure. Here are a few things that you may not know about him:

　　4月23日是英国最伟大的剧作家和诗人威廉·莎士比亚诞辰450周年的日子。由于我们对莎翁知之甚少，他的身上总是笼罩着神秘的色彩。以下是一些关于莎翁的鲜为人知的事情：

　　1. Shakespeare was a "fat cat"

　　From his career in the theatre, which included acting, playwriting, and being a "sharer" in the profits of his company, Shakespeare amassed a comfortable fortune. By the age of 33 he was able to buy New Place, the 2nd largest house in Stratfordupon-Avon. He later bought property in London as well as Stratford.

　　2. Shakespeare was a co-writer

　　It was common for playwrights of Shakespeare's time to collaborate. There are many passages in Shakespeare's plays that were written by someone else. He worked with Thomas Middleton on "Timon of Athens", and with John Fletcher on "Henry VIII".

　　As for some of the most famous parts of "Macbeth" - the witchy bits - it's likely they were Middleton's work too, bolted on to the play at a later date.

　　3. You speak Shakespeare

　　In spite of his flowery language, Shakespeare created many of the words or expressions we use in English today. We owe him: eyeball, bloodstained, radiance（辐射，光辉）, assassination and lackluster（无光泽的）, to name but a few.

　　4. Shakespeare's daughter was illiterate

　　In that period, literacy was a skill, useful in certain trades and professions, mainly male. Shakespeare was a man of his time, and his time did not value literacy in women.

　　5. Shakespeare did not care about posterity

　　It seems that Shakespeare did not care whether his plays survived or not. This may partly reflect the low esteem in which plays - a form of literature - were held at the time.

　　6. Shakespeare has no descendants

　　His only son, Hamnet, died at the age of 11. His daughter Susanna had no children and all his daughter Judith's children died young. None of his 3 brothers married. The Shakespeare line effectively ran out within 25 years of the poet's death.

　　7. Shakespeare has had some heavyweight haters

　　Not everyone has concurred in Shakespeare's greatness as a writer. Voltaire thought "Hamlet" the work of a "drunken savage"; George III said: "Was there ever such stuff as great part of Shakespeare? Only one must not say so!" And George Bernard Shaw got quite carried away in his detestation of the poet: "It would positively be a relief to me to dig him up and throw stones at him." That was in a newspaper. Imagine if Shakespeare had been on Twitter.