Mark Twain 馬克吐溫
Mark Twain was an American humorist, journalist and writer. His real name was Samuel Langhorne
Clemens and he was born on November 30, 1835. He was the sixth child of John and Jane Clemens. He
was born in a small village in Missouri, but when he was four years old, the family moved to Hannibal, a
nearby town of 1,000 people.
Twain’s father was a serious man. According to one legend, young Sam Clemens never saw his father
laugh. His mother, by contrast, loved fun and spent a lot of time telling stories. In 1847, Twain’s father
suddenly died.
Mark Twain lived in Hannibal from age four to age seventeen. The town is situated on the Mississippi River
and it inspired several towns in Mark Twain’s books. When he was twelve, he started working as a printer
for the Hannibal Courier. Later, he worked as a printer for the Hannibal Western Union, a newspaper
owned by his brother Orion.
In 1857, Twain began learning the art of piloting a steamboat on the Mississippi. He was twenty-one years
old. He loved his career because it was exciting and well-paid. When the Civil War started, Twain joined
the Confederate Army, but served for only a few weeks.
After the Civil War, Twain headed for Nevada and California. There he became one of the best-known
storytellers in the West, but later he moved back to the East. He married Olivia Langdon, a daughter of a
rich New York businessman. They moved to Buffalo and later had four children. Mark Twain continued
writing. He published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876, Life on the Mississippi in 1883, and
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1884.
Ernest Hemingway once wrote: “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain
called Huckleberry Finn.” The book tells the story of a young boy called Huckleberry Finn who runs away
from his bad father and travels down the Mississippi river with a runaway slave called Jim.
In June 1904, Mark Twain’s wife died after a long illness. Twain himself died on April 21, 1910, at the age
of seventy-four, at his country home in Redding, Connecticut.
馬克吐溫是美國幽默家、記者和作家。他的真名是塞繆爾·朗霍恩·克萊門斯(Samuel Langhorne Clemens)，
出生於1835 年11 月30 日。 (Jane Clemens) 的第六個孩子。他出生在密蘇裡州的一個小村莊，但當他四歲
時，全家搬到了附近有 1000 人的小鎮漢尼拔。
吐溫的父親是個嚴肅的人。根據傳說，年輕的山姆·克萊門斯從未見過父親笑。相比之下，他的母親喜歡玩
樂，花很多時間講故事。 1847年，吐溫的父親突然過世。
馬克吐溫從四歲到十七歲都生活在漢尼拔。該鎮位於密西西比河沿岸，馬克吐溫書中的幾個城鎮都受到了
它的啟發。十二歲時，他開始為《漢尼拔信差》擔任印刷工。後來，他在他兄弟擁有的一份報紙《漢尼拔西
聯報》(Hannibal Western Union) 擔任印刷工。
1857 年，吐溫開始在密西西比河上學習駕駛汽船的藝術。他二十一歲了。他熱愛自己的職業，因為它令人
興奮且報酬豐厚。內戰開始後，吐溫加入了南部邦聯軍隊，但只服役了幾週。
內戰結束後，吐溫前往內華達州和加州。在那裡，他成為西方最著名的故事講述者之一，但後來他回到了
東方。他與紐約富商的女兒奧利維亞·蘭登結婚。他們搬到布法羅，後來生了四個孩子。馬克吐溫繼續寫作。
他於 1876 年出版了《湯姆·索亞歷險記》，並於 1883 年出版了《密西西比河上的生活》，並於 1884 年出
版了《哈克貝利·費恩歷險記》。
歐內斯特·海明威曾寫道：“所有現代美國文學都來自馬克·吐溫的一本名為《哈克貝利·費恩歷險記》的
書。”這本書講述了一個名叫哈克貝利·費恩的小男孩逃離壞父親並與一個名叫吉姆的逃亡奴隸沿著密西西比
河順流而下的故事。
1904 年 6 月，馬克吐溫的妻子因長期患病去世。吐溫本人於 1910 年 4 月 21 日在康乃狄克州雷丁的鄉間
別墅去世，享年 74 歲。
K1 Read the text and answer the following questions.
1 What was Mark Twain’s real name? Samuel Langhorne Clemens
2 What happened to Mark Twain in 1847? his father died
3 Who owned the Hannibal Western Union? Mark Twain’s brother Orion
4 Why did Mark Twain like being a pilot on the Mississippi River? it was exciting and well-paid
5 How many children did Mark Twain have? 4
6 When did Mark Twain publish The Adventures of Tom Sawyer? in 1876
7 How old was Mark Twain when he died? 74
2 Are these sentences true (T) or false (F)?
1 Mark Twain was born in Hannibal, Missouri. F (he was born in a small village in Missouri and later moved to
Hannibal)
2 Twain’s father loved fun and telling stories. F (his mother loved fun and telling stories, his father was
serious)
3 When he was a child, Mark Twain worked as a printer. T (he started working as a printer when he was 12)
4 Twain’s wife’s father had a lot of money. T
5 Ernest Hemingway thought that Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was an important book. T (he said that all
modern American literature comes from this book)
6 Huck Finn travels down the Mississippi River alone. F (he travels with a runaway slave called Jim)
7 Mark Twain’s wife died in a car accident. F (she died after a long illness)