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公共英语等级考试三级(PETS3)学习笔记（三）
Unit 6 Eating and Drinking
Dialogues /monologues:
1、 I’m in a hurry.
我得赶紧。 “in a hurry”指匆忙，有时用作口语也表示轻易地做好某件事情。
2、 These days the most sought-after tables are hidden away, several floors above ground, in the city’s high-rise apartments, which are run by chefs out of their own homes or from rented spaces..
这句话的意思我翻译为：目前，很多广受欢迎的餐馆总是藏匿在公寓大厦地面上方的楼层，就在厨
师们自家门口或是租的空地外面营业。
3、 Merely requesting a reservation can be as difficult as getting one.
哪怕是仅仅要求预定(房间)都有可能象真要得到它一样那么难。
4、 Exclusively is the main attraction for customers in a city that is still obsessed with status.
独有性(专用权)是吸引城市消费者的主要因素，因为人们还是会被身份地位(带来的虚荣感)所迷惑的。
5、 I can’t make up my mind about what to have for dessert.
make up one’s mind：下决心、作决定。
本句的意思是：餐后吃什么甜点，我还没能做出决定。
Passage:
The ladies were puzzled. Cheryl Spangler, Valeria Borunda Jameson and Susan Puckett, three university-admissions workers on a training visit to Florence, Kentucky, had walked into a local barbecue joint called Chung Kiwha. But instead of sauce-covered mutton served up from the kitchen, they saw a buffet of uncooked meats and vegetables. Instead of knives and forks, they were given large scissors, chopsticks and metal tongs. No candle flickered at their table, but a bucket of fiery wood charcoal hissed in the tabletop grill pit. Chung Kiwha served barbecue, all right—cook-it-your-self Korean barbecue. “I didn’t realize there were restaurants like this,” marveled Spangler to her friends, who hail from Knoxville, Tennessee, and I worked in restaurants for 20 years.
The secret is out, thanks to the growing popularity of restaurants where the customer is the chef. Long a staple of immigrant communities in big cities, restaurants where diners chop, grill, boil, or dip their dip their food are hot in the American heartland. St.Paul, Minnesota, has Thai hot-pot cooking. Indianapolis, Indiana, has Japanese shabu-shabu (another type of hot pot). A pizzeria in Las Vegas lets customers roll the dough.
Why would people bother going out to cook their own meal? “Americans want control,” says Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research for the National Restaurant Association. “The cook-it-your-self experience embodies the American values of freedom of choice and independence.” With families spending 46% of their food budget on meals outside the home, they miss the cooking experience—sort of. “Psychologically, people want to be a little involved,” says Pamela Parseghian, executive food editor at Nation’s Restaurant News.
Not every diner, however, embraces the experience. Dragged in by enthusiastic wives, “men often sit with their arms crossed…that is, until we fill them up with good wine,” says Will Layfield, owner of the Melting Pot in Westwood, New Jersey. At the Vinoklet, diner Grey Schafer says, “I don’t cook at home, and if I’m going to pay good money, I want someone to do the cooking for me.” What’s more, do-it-your-self dining isn’t cheap. At the Minturn Country Club in Minturn, Colorado, Kobe beef costs $49.95—uncooked. Still, restaurant-owners insist that the customer knows best. “Who knows what to them is rare?” says Mikulic, owner of Vinoklet. “This way, if they screw it up, I get no complaints.” Back at Chung Kiwha in Florence, diner Puckett sees it this way: “We don’t have to clean up, do we?.”
参考译文:
这些女士有些迷惑不解。谢丽尔.斯潘格勒，维丽瑞尔.波兰达.达姆森，和苏珊.帕克特是大学招生工作人员。在肯塔基州的弗罗伦斯培训时，她们走进了当地一家叫做强.吉瓦的烧烤酒吧去吃饭。然而，他们看到的并不是从厨房端出来抹好了酱的羊肉，而是生肉和蔬菜。服务员给她们端上来的餐具也不是刀和叉，而是剪子、筷子和钳子。餐桌上没有闪烁的烛光，有的只是一桶在烧烤架上嘶嘶作响的燃烧着的木炭。强.吉瓦经营的是烤肉——韩式自助烤肉。“我在餐馆里工作了20年，从来不知道还有这样的餐馆。”，来自田纳西州洛克思尔的斯潘格勒好奇地对她的朋友说道。
由于就餐的客人就是厨师的餐馆数量在不断增加，秘密也就随之而被公开了。在美国中部大城市的主要移民聚集区，一些由顾客自己切、烤、煮、泡食物的餐厅非常火。明尼苏达州的圣.保罗有泰式火锅，印第安纳的印第安纳波利斯有日式涮锅(另外一种火锅)。拉斯维加斯的一家比萨店让顾客自己动手和面团。
为什么人们不怕麻烦在饭店里自己动手做饭呢?国家酒店协会一个研究项目部的副主任哈德逊.瑞艾尔说，“美国人有很强的控制欲，这种自己动手做饭的体验表现了美国自主选择和独立的价值观。”对于那些把46%的饮食开销都用于在外面吃饭的家庭来说，他们有点怀念自己动手做饭的体验。“从心理学角度来说，人们想要参与进来。”帕米拉.帕斯伊恩这样说，他是《国家酒店新闻报》食品专栏的主编。
然而，并不是每个去饭店吃饭的人都渴望有这种体验。男人们被充满热情的妻子拉进饭店。“他们常常是双臂交叉地坐在那儿…也就是说，直到我们用好酒填满他们的肚子。”新泽西州威斯伍德一家叫做坩埚店的餐馆老板威尔.雷菲尔德说到。在维诺克利特餐厅，一名叫格瑞德.斯凯夫的就餐者说，“我在家从不做饭。如果在外面吃饭要花好多钱的话，我就希望别人来为我做。”此外，在自助餐厅吃饭并不便宜。在科罗拉多州明特恩乡村俱乐部，一份生的神户牛排要49.95美元。餐馆的老板仍然坚持说顾客清楚自己想要什么。“谁知道对他们来说，什么样才是适合他们的?”维诺克利特的老析米库利科说道，“这样，如果他们兴致很高，我也不落抱怨。”我们再回头说说弗罗伦斯的强.吉瓦吧，在那儿就餐的帕克特这样看问题：“最起码我们不需要收拾碗筷，不是吗?”
Unit 7 Food culture
Dialogues /monologues:
1、 Cooking at table side has always been part of traditional haute cuisine, or art of cooking.
art of cooking:烹饪术，例：art of defense: 武术。
2、 I’m a very cook.
这里应该翻译为：我是一个绝对的厨师。
3、 Stir the mixture until it leaves sides of the bowl.
直译：与碗边脱离，即不沾碗边。引申义：就是要求充分搅匀.
4、 Roll the crust mixture into a round shape.
roll into: 卷成, 使合为一体。
将外面的蛋糕皮混合物卷成一团。
5、 Yes, the apple pie is ready to serve.
be ready to: 预备, 即将
是的，苹果派可以预备供应/享用了。
Passage:
What should be more French than an outdoor market on a sunny Sunday morning? The air is filled with vital fragrances from the fruits and vegetables piled high in the greengrocers’ creative layouts. A trace of the Atlantic blows off the shellfish on the fishmonger’s bed of ice.
This, you think, is the very essence of France, until read those little signs that tell you the tomatoes (which are really pretty tasteless) come from Moroccan hothouses, the grapes from South Africa, and the kiwis from Chile.
For generations, the French have prided themselves on their distinctiveness. Nothing has stood for France’s sense of exceptionali *** more famously than its cooking. Gallic talent, taste and techniques have been exported all over the world. And therein lies part of the problem. From the Thames to Tokyo, non-French cooks have cracked the codes of the best French cuisine. Meanwhile, what was mediocre elsewhere has been imported. (Believe it or not, one restaurant associate with a famous Paris chef serves steak with a sauce that’s indistinguishable from the stuff on a Big Mac.) The result: many tourists—as well as the French themselves—no longer see what’s so special about French cooking.
The decline goes well beyond recent surveys that show growing complaints about mediocre quality and high prices. More and more restaurants-owners say that government tax and economic policies are limiting their profits, and thereby hurting their capacity to invest and hire more staff. They have got stuck in the red tape for which France is infamous—not to mention regulations from Brussels that affect everything from sales taxes to the bacteria in the Brie cheese. Many warn that expanding the European Union to the east will hurt *** all French farmers, who remain the backbone of traditional cuisine—and, hence French identity: Unfortunately for the French, there are few reassuring answers to these questions.
France’s problem isn’t the lack of creativity, but rather an unfavorable political environment for creativity. If you’re choked by bureaucracy and taxes, as so much of France is, “there is not much you can do,” says Raymond Blanc, born in the Jura region of France and chef of the two-star hotel-restaurant Manoir aux Quat’saisons. “I can open a business in England in five days. In France it would take three months.” The manoir aux Quat’saisons, by the way, is in Oxford, Britain, France’s ancient rival. And, when it comes to cooking, a future one as well.
参考译文:
还有什么比晴朗的周日上午的露天市场更具法国风情呢?空气中满是水果和蔬菜的香味，这些水果和蔬菜被商贩们摆放得极具创意。鱼贩子们冰床上的新产品还带着大西洋的痕迹。
你可能会认为这就是法国的精髓所在，直到你看到那些小标签上标明西红柿(真的很难吃)是摩洛哥的温室里培养出来的，葡萄是从南非出产的，而猕猴桃的产地则是智利。
对于几代法国人来说，他们都为自己的独特而感到骄傲。没有什么比烹饪更能代表法国的优越性。法国人的烹饪天赋、品味以及技术已经遍及世界各地，但是却存在着问题。从泰晤士到东京，非法国本土厨师已经绿色出了最高水平法式烹饪的秘诀。与此同时，其他地方平庸的烹饪技艺被引入法国。(信不信由你，一家号称有巴黎名厨的餐馆做牛排用的酱料与做巨无霸所用的酱料别无两样。)其结果是：许多游客——连同法国人自己——根本就看不出法国烹饪到底有什么特别。
这种衰落与最近一项调查吻合。这项调查显示人们对法式烹饪的平庸及高价的抱怨在不断增加。越来越多的餐馆老板声称 *** 的税收和经济政策使他们的利润减少，因而削弱了他们进一步投资或者雇用更多员工的能力。他们陷入繁文缛节使得法国声名狼籍——更不用提布鲁塞尔的那些条条框框，从销售税到布里干酪里的细菌含量，这些条条框框的影响远处不在。许多人警告说，欧盟东扩会损害法国小农场主的利益，而这些人是法国传统烹饪的支柱——因此出现了法国的身份问题。让法国人感到不幸的是，对于这些问题，至今没有找到让人放心的解决办法。
法国的问题并不在于缺少创造性，而是政治环境不利于创造性的发展。如果官僚作风和税收压得你透不过气来，就像法国一样，“你根本就没办法有所作为。”瑞蒙德.布朗说道，他出生在法国的钕拉地区，现在是一家叫做四季庄园的二星级宾馆的主厨。“在英国，我能在五天之内开店，而在法国则要花上三个月时间。”顺便说一句，四季庄园开在英国的牛津，法国的老对手那里。在烹饪方面，英国在未来仍将是法国的竞争对手。
Unit 8 At Home
Dialogues /monologues:
1、 Karen has just had her house redecorated.
凯瑞刚让人把房子重新装修。
注意这里的用法，had sth done — 强调的是让别人做了什么
例：I had my clothes washed.(我让人把衣服洗了)
2、 The architect and Tom put there heads together to discuss what we wanted and what was possible.
put heads together：共同商量、集思广益。
建筑师和提姆共同商讨以可行的方式来满足我们的需求。
3、 After a few meetings, they came up with some super idea that everybody agreed with.
come up with：提出、拿出。
经过一会儿的交谈，他们拿出了一些大家都同意的好点子。
4、 But the rest of it was surprisingly expensive.
the rest：其余者。It：代指装修所用的材料。
但是其余的材料简直便宜得让人吃惊。
5、 We were able to make do with the materials we already have.
make do with：设法应付。
我们设法将我们已经拥有的材料都用上了。
6、 I made up some of the curtains and pillows on the couch form mere sheets.
make up ：在这里指做缝制.编织.
我缝制了一些窗帘和睡椅靠垫，仅仅是用一些床单做的.
7、 It’s funny how people can find solution after they kick something around for a while.
kick something around：直译——将什么东西踢来踢去。引申意——讨论。
人们怎样通过暂时的讨论之后，就能找到解决方法是件有趣的事情。
8、 You’re on your own.
on ones own：独立地、独自地。
本句的意思为：你自己玩吧!
9、 I’d like to concentrate on getting the best score ever on this game.
concentrate on：精中(精力)、全神贯注于
我将集中精力在这个游戏上取得最好的分数。
注意even在这里的用法——
10、No matter how busy you are, always take time out to check that your child hasnt gotten hold of
something that could hurt him.
take time out to：暂停下来。Get hold of：抓住、得到。
11、But quit my job and took up housekeeping the year after my marriage. Daily household chores keep
me on my toes; I’m delighted all day long.
take up：开始从事。 on one’s toe ：准备行动。 all day long：一整天。
keep me on my toes：让我保持活力的状态，结合句意就：一刻也闲不着，乐此不疲。
我的翻译是：但是自从我结婚以后，便放弃了工作，开始打理家务。每天的家务琐事让
我乐此不疲。我一整天都眉天眼笑的。
12、“in a moment”与 “or so”
一个表示“立刻”，一个表示“大约”。都是形容时间的。
13、Thats the “tremendous business” for me out of the three meals a day, for, except for the weekends,
we have only this meal together. Besides, he always has his lunch in a neglected way at his workplace.
这句话我的翻译是：那对于我来说，是除了三顿饭以外，最为重大的事情。因为，除了周末，我们只能在一起吃一顿正餐。此外，他总是在他的工作场所，很轻率的打发他的午餐。
Passage:
Mrs. Chambers sits comfortably in her armchair, enjoying a cup of coffee. She has the right to relax. She has had a long and very busy life.
Mrs. Chambers has retired now to a *** all house in Bangor, a popular seaside town not far from Belfast. But for most of her life she lived in the country. Her hu *** and’s farm was on an island in the middle of StrangfordLake. There, Mrs. Chambers baked bread twice a week, made jam every summer, and put her hu *** and’s dinner on the table at twelve 0’clock exactly every day. The island farm had been owned by the Chambers family for may years, passing on from father to son. It was a quiet and beautiful place to live. They grew potatoes and vegetables, and kept hens and cows. When Mr. Chambers died, his son took on the farm, Mrs. Chambers moved away.
She takes another sip of coffee, and *** iles as she remembers people from the past. “The old lady down the road thought she had a ghost in the house,” she says, “but it was only old Tom MaAleer, frightening her for fun.” The memories come fast. “Twenty men, they had, only tem years ago, to bring in the potato crop. Young Hugh has a machine now. He only needs five.”
It’s time for the news on TV. Mrs. Chambers wants to see the racing results. She won quite a lot of money last week. Next month she’s going down to Tipperary in the Republic of Ireland. The horse-racing there is wonderful. She finds it hard to stay away. But before the racing results there’s another item of news. A bomb has exploded in Belfast. Several people have been killed. Mrs. Chambers shakes her head. “They’re all crazy,” she says. “It’s just a few who make all the trouble. The rest of us want to live in peace. We’ve all got life long friends from both sides. And most of the time we never talk about the trouble.”
The racing results come on. She leans forward to watch. For her, ordinary everyday life is the most important thing.
参考译文:
乔柏斯太太舒服地坐在扶手椅里，享受着一杯咖啡。她有权利放松，她已经过了很长时间的忙碌生活了。
现在乔柏斯太太已经退休了，住在班戈区的一所小房子里。班戈区是贝尔法斯特附近一个广受喜爱的海边小城。但是在生命中的大部分时间里，她都住在农村。她丈夫在斯福德湖中间的一座岛上有一个农场。乔柏斯太太每周都烤两次面包，每个夏天都要做果酱，每天12点准时把丈夫的午饭摆在桌上。岛上的那个农场属于乔柏斯家族已经很多年了，是从父辈传下来的。那是个安静美丽的地方。他们自己种土豆和蔬菜，还养母鸡和奶牛。乔柏斯先生去世后，他的儿子接管了农场，乔柏斯太太搬离了那里。
她喝了口咖啡。想起以前那些人的时候，她笑了。“住在路尽头的那个老太太以为自己房子里有鬼，”她说，“其实那只是老汤姆.麦艾里尔唬她逗她玩的。”记忆被快速的唤醒。“仅仅在十年前，他们请了二十个人来挖土豆。年轻的休现在有了自己的机器，他只需要五个人。”
现在到电视新闻时间了。乔柏斯太太想看看 *** 比赛的结果。她上个礼拜赢了一大笔钱。她下个月要去爱尔兰的蒂帕雷里，那里的 *** 比赛很精彩，她发现自己很难不参与进去。但是在比赛结果公布之前还有另外一则新闻：贝尔法斯特发生了一起爆炸，几个人被炸死了。乔柏斯太太摇了摇头。“他们疯了”她说，“制造麻烦的只是少数人，我们其余的人都想过平静的生活。我们都有来自双方的终身朋友(双方指天主教徒和新教徒)，多数时候我们从不谈论烦心事。”
比赛结果出来了。她倾着身子去看。对她来说，普通平凡的日常生活才是最重要的。
Unit 9 At Work
Dialogues /monologues:
1、 TUC：(Trades Union Congress)——英国劳工联合会。
2、 This should remind Britain’s employers just how much they depend on the good-will and voluntary extra work of their staff, the TUC says.
just ：起强调语气的作用--(是否)可以翻译成”正是”，
全句是：这会提醒英国的雇主们自己是怎样依赖于怀着善意且自愿加班工作的员工。英国劳工联合会说到。
3、 And if it makes people and employers think a bit harder about organizing a better work-life balance, so much the better.
organizing：在这里我将它翻译成营造。
全句是：如果它能够让职员与雇主充分考虑一下营造一个更好的工作、生活平衡点，那是最好不过了。
4、 It is often said that more business is done during social events than at the office.
is done 这里是被动语态。 生意当然是被做的咯。
全句是：经常有人说在社交场合做成的生意比在办公室里做成的多。
5、 One person out of eight in labor force is said to be employed by a government unit on the state or local level. is that the case?
全句是：据说，八分之一的劳动力被 *** 部们或地方国有企业录用。 是那么回事吗?
Passage:
The Unite States supplies a larger share of the international trade than any other nation in the world. The transactions of trade between countries are often kept in American dollars, and payments are frequently made in American currency as well. Many American banks have established branches in important commercial centers overseas to handle the business that results from world trade. Similarly, many foreign banks also have branches in the United States.
The United States has many trading partners; one that has become increasingly important in recent years is China. The city of Shanghai in eastern China is one of the world’s great seaports and has also become active in both manufacturing and finance in the world. Many American banks have set up offices there. John William is the manager of one of these branch banks in Shanghai.
John majored in accounting and business administration in Harvard. After graduation he got a job with a large New York bank. After two years in accounting, he was transferred to the loan involved international transactions. Some of them were so complicated that John felt he didn’t have a broad enough background to understand them. To get more experience, he asked for a transfer to the bank’s international department. He became so expert in international finance that he made it his career.
When the bank decided to open a branch in Shanghai, John was selected to set it up and run it for the first few years. He has been in Shanghai for more than three years now. He has a comfortable apartment in a high-rise building in the business center of the city. The bank provides him with a car and driver as well as the apartment.
Mandarin is the most common language of Shanghai, but John has learned only a few courtesy expressions. He has little need to speak Chinese, however, because all of the employees of the bank are fluent in English. His chief assistant, Miss Wang, went to graduate school in the States, so her English is excellent.
John has enjoyed being in Shanghai, but he may not be there much longer. Now that the bank is operating efficiently, he might be transferred back to New York in a few months. But he hopes to be back to china soon after for he loves it living there.
参考译文:
在国际贸易中，美国比世界上任何国家占有更大的份额。各国之间贸易成交后也往往以美元计算并以其为支付手段。为了处理世界贸易带来的商业往来，美国银行在海外的重要商业中心开设了许多分行。同样地，许多外国银行也在美国开设分支机构。
美国有很多商业合作伙伴，近几年来日益重要的一个合作伙伴便是中国。位于中国东部的上海是世界上重要的港口城市之一，在世界制造业和金融业领域都非常活跃。许多美国银行都在那里设立了办事处。约翰.威廉就是其设在上海的一个分行经理。
约翰在哈佛上学时学的是会计学和商业管理。毕业后在纽约一家大银行工作。干了两个的会计工作后他被调到信贷部。他所经手的许多货款都涉及到国际贸易。其中一些贸易操作起来非常复杂，约翰觉得自己没有足够的背景知识不能胜任这份工作。为了获得更多的经验，他要求调到银行的国际贸易部。现在他已经成为国际金融银行方面的行家，并且以此作为自己的事业。
当银行决定在上海开分行时，约翰被选派到上海开展筹建工作并负责头几年的经营。到现在为止他已经在上海呆了三年多时间了。他在市商业中心一幢高层建筑里有一套舒适的公寓。银行不仅给他提供了住所，而且还给他配备了汽车和司机。
普通话是上海最常用的语言，但是约翰只学会几句礼貌用语。然而，他几乎用不着说汉语，因为银行的所有员工都说一口流利的英语。他的高级助理王小姐是在美国读的硕士，所以她的英语非常地出色。
约翰非常喜欢待在上海，但是他可能不久就要离开了。这是因为既然银行已经步入正轨，几个月后他有可能被调回纽约总部。但是他希望很快就能回到中国，因为他喜欢那里的生活。
Unit 10 Hobbies and Interests
Dialogues /monologues:
1、The remarkable Chicago bull presented a striking contrast to its opponent, and the crowd just went wild!
presented a striking contrast to：和……成显著的对比。
本句的意思：那只非凡的西班牙公牛与它的对手形成鲜明的对比，人群已开始疯狂起来。
2、I can book a court for this Tuesday.
Book：预订
我能在这个星期二安排好一个场子。
3、 Sports can really get me away from a stressful day and exercise my brain.
get away from：从……中逃离，把……送走。
Passage:
I love reading novels, especially those classics. My favorite writer is Jane Austen, the one who wrote pride and prejudice. When BBC screened its latest adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel pride and prejudice, it was watched by a record 18 million British viewers. The series was then sold to 18 countries round the world, from America to Australia, from Iceland to Israel, there are Jane Austen fans in all corners of the globe, and even special Jane Austen discussion groups on the internet.
Jane Austen never once traveled aboard in her life time and she hardly ever left the south of England. When she died a spinster in 1817, only four of her six novels had been published, all anonymous and she eared a grand total of 648.65 pounds from her books. Now, nearly 200 years later, sales of her novels rival modern bestsellers, reaching 35,000 a week. There have been film and television productions of not only pride and prejudice, but also Emma, Persuasion, and the Oscar-winning Sense and Sensibility. Her house in Chawton in Hampshire is visited by 200 people a day.
She wad born in 1775, the seventh of eight children. Her father was the reverend George Austen. They were not well off, and lived in a village. By the time when she was 12, Jane was writing stories about *** es imprisoned in haunted castles, being rescued by glamorous heroes. In Jane’s own life there were three romantic attachments. The first was a handsome Irish law student called Tom Lefroy, who she met in 1795, but who had to return to Ireland a year later. The second, in 1801, was a young man called Samuel Blackall who she fell in love with when on holiday in Devon, but who tragically died suddenly soon after. The third was a large young man called Harries whose proposal she briefly accepted in 1802, “but he had nothing to recommend him but his size,” so she changed her mind.
In 1801 the family moved to Bath, where she was very unhappy. To make matters worse, in 1805 her father died, leaving his widow, Jane and her only sister Cassandra, also unmarried, even poorer than before. For four years they had to move from house to house, often staying with relatives. Finally in 1809 her brother Edward allowed them to live in a house on his estate in Chawton, only a few miles from Steventon where she had grown up. Here she was much happier, despite being the poor relation, dependent on charity. She not only revised her earlier novel but was able to write new ones, using her experiences to satirize and make fun of the social inequalities she saw around her. At last in 1811, Sense and Sensibility was the first of her novels to be published.
参考译文：
我喜欢看小说，特别是那些精典名著。我特别喜爱的一个作者是简.奥斯丁。她写过一部小说叫《傲慢与偏见》。当BBC(英国广播公司)上映简.奥斯丁的《傲慢与偏见》小说的最终改写本时，当时创下了1800万英国观众的收看记录。之后，一系列的丛书出售到全世界18个国家，从美国到澳大利亚，从冰岛到以色列，全世界到处到有简.奥斯丁的狂热书迷，甚至在互联网上还有专门的简.奥斯丁的讨论组。
简.奥斯丁在她的生活中没有出过一次国，甚至从末离开过英国的南部。在1987年她过世的时候，还是个末婚女子，她的六部小说只有四部已经出版，并且全部是匿名的，她只挣到了共648.65英镑，这就是她小说的全部酬劳。如今，也就是此后将近200年后，她小说的销售商击败了当今的顶级推销员，每星期可达到35000英镑的收益。已经成为电影、电视出版物的不仅仅是《傲慢与偏见》，还有《埃玛》、《劝导》、还有奥斯卡获奖作品《理智与情感》。她在汉普郡Chawton的家，每天都不低于200人参观拜访。
简.奥斯丁出生于1775年，是家里八个孩子中的第七个。她的父亲是受人尊敬的牧师乔治. 奥斯丁。她们家不富裕，而且住在一个乡村里。直到她十二岁的那年，简.奥斯丁一直在写关于女主人公被关押在魔鬼城堡的故事，直到被魅力英雄拯救出来。在简的生命中，有三次浪漫的情感历程。第一次，是与一个英俊的爱尔兰法律系的学生，名叫Tom Lefroy，她是在1795年遇到他的，但他不得不在一年之后返回爱尔兰。第二次是在1801年，一个名叫Samuel Blackall的年青男子在德尔郡的假日里让她坠入爱河。但是那个男子没过多久，突然悲惨地死去了。第三次是与一个名叫Harries大个子年青人，在1802年他向她未婚的时候，她暂且允诺了他，“但是他除了他的架码之外，一无所长”，于是她改变了主意。
1801年，她们家搬迁到了巴思，她在那儿过得非常不幸。更为糟糕的是，她父亲在1805年撇下她们孤儿寡母撒手人鬟了，简和她同样未完婚的妹妹卡珊德娜比以前更加贫困。四年以来，他们到处搬家，经常在亲戚家逗留。终于在1809年，她的兄弟爱德华同意她们住进他在Chawton作为不动产的房子，只离她成长的Steventon这个地方几英里的距离。在这儿她生活幸福得多，尽管是由贫弱的亲戚关系和依靠他们的施舍维系。她不仅修正了她以前的小说，而且还创作出了新的作品。用她个人的经历和见闻来嘲讽社会的不平等。最终在1811年，《理智与情感》作为她的第一部小说被出版了。
