Mark Twain(馬克-吐溫), traveled quite a lot, often because circumstances, usually financial circumstances(經(jīng)濟(jì)狀況) forced him to. He was born in Floridian Missouri in 1835,and moved to Hannibal, Missouri with his family when he was about four years old. Most people think he was born in Hannibal, but that isn't true. After his father died when he was about twelve, Twain worked in Hannibal for a while and then left so he could earn more money. He worked for a while as a typesetter on various newspapers, and then got a job as a river pilot on the Mississippi.
Twain loved this job, and many of his books show it. The river job didn't last however, because of the outbreak of the civil war. Twain was in the federate army for just two weeks, and then he and his whole company(同伴) went west, to get away from the war and the army.
In Nevada in California, Twain prospected for sister and gold without much luck, but did succeed as a writer, Once that happened, Twain traveled around the country giving lectures and earning enough money to go to Europe. Twain didn't travel much the last ten years of his life, and he didn't publish much either, Somehow his travel, ever when forced, inspired his writings.
Like many other popular writers, Twain derived much of the materials for his writing from the wealth and diversity of his own experience.
記得一位英國的房地產(chǎn)商人Blair給我留下的印象比較深刻,這個(gè)人反應(yīng)極快，對(duì)中國文化極為了解。比如當(dāng)我告知他我的祖籍在湖北武漢時(shí)，他馬上就說"Is Wuhan made up of three parts?"，(熟悉湖北的人都知道這個(gè)常識(shí)：武漢是由漢口，武昌和漢陽組成)。
同樣的道理，當(dāng)你和某個(gè)老外接觸時(shí)，如果是初次交流，在必要的時(shí)候如果有機(jī)會(huì)可以向他"炫耀"一下你所了解的外國人文掌故，不一定要很多，有時(shí)候其實(shí)一句話就可以表示出你對(duì)國外很了解，比如說上一段中有關(guān)馬克.吐溫的故事，如果你覺得這一段太長了，太多句子了，怎么也記不住，沒有關(guān)系，其實(shí)只要一句就可以顯示你的水平了：
"In terms of the American writers, Twain was impressive, because he got to travel a lot of cities when he was still a young man and like many other popular writers, he got much of the materials for his writing from the wealth and diversity of his own travel experience."，
如果你不喜歡馬克，這也不要緊，你照樣可以談海明威，可以談金庸，談王朔。