Some of the greatest success stories of history have followed a word of encouragement or an act of confidence by a loved one or a trusting friend. Had it not been for a confident wife, Sophia, we might not have listed among the great names of literature the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne. When Nathaniel, a heartbroken man, went home to tell his wife that he was a failure and had been fired from his job in a customhouse, she surprised him with an exclamation of joy.

"Now," she said triumphantly, "you can write your book!"

"Yes," replied the man, with sagging confidence, "and what shall we live on while I am writing it?"

To his amazement, she opened a drawer and pulled out a substantial amount of money.

"Where on earth did you get that?" he exclaimed.

"I have always know you were a man of genius," she told him. "I knew that someday you would write a masterpiece. So every week, out of the money you gave me for housekeeping, I saved a little bit. So here is enough to last us for one whole year."

From her trust and confidence came one of the greatest novels of American literature, The Scarlet Letter.

--Nido QubeinKey Points Learning:

1.What's the meaning of "to his amazement"?

2.Please translate the sentence " Had it not been for a confident wife, Sophia, we might not have listed among the great names of literature the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne. "

Noteheartbroken：悲傷的customhouse：海關(guān)，custom也可指海關(guān)exclamation：驚呼

triumphantly：成功地，炫耀地masterpiece：名著，杰作

Background of Nathaniel Hawthorne:

納撒尼爾?霍桑(1804―1864)是美國19世紀(jì)影響最大的浪漫主義小說家和心理小說家。長篇小說《紅字》是他的代表作。霍桑1804年生于新英格蘭的一個(gè)破落貴族家庭。全家篤信基督教清教。 父親去世后，他隨母親遷至薩萊姆外公家，薩萊姆濃厚的宗教氣氛和激烈的宗教派別斗爭以及霍桑一家的宗教傳統(tǒng)都對霍桑的思想和后來的創(chuàng)作產(chǎn)生了極大的影響。他從小愛好文藝，大學(xué)畢業(yè)后曾在海關(guān)任職，后受法國空想社會(huì)主義影響辭職，在布魯克農(nóng)場制訂實(shí)施空想社會(huì)主義計(jì)劃。霍桑對當(dāng)時(shí)美國社會(huì)道德論喪和資產(chǎn)階級的偽善不滿，但是他又不想從根本上改變不合理的社會(huì)制度，只謀求社會(huì)道德的改進(jìn)，宣揚(yáng)上帝，主張道德的自我完善。

1850年《紅字》發(fā)表后，霍桑在美國文學(xué)史上的地位從此確定。 1851、1852年又分別出版了“兩部羅曼史”，即《帶有七個(gè)尖角閣的房子》和《福谷傳奇》，前者以宗教迫害案為起點(diǎn)，描寫了一個(gè)關(guān)于美國資產(chǎn)階級家庭的故事，表現(xiàn)了罪惡代代相襲的悲觀主義的思想;后者描寫了一群內(nèi)心苦悶的上層知識分子，離開城市到農(nóng)村去組織村社，終因一事無成，失望離去的故事。同時(shí)還出版了幾部兒童文學(xué)作品，1860年又寫了一部以意大利為背景的《玉石雕像》，1864年霍桑去世。