Sophia Loren Mini Biography
索菲亚·罗兰小传

Born Sofia Scicolone, on Sept. 20, 1934, in Rome. An illegitimate child of Romilda Villani and Riccardo Scicolone, she grew up in dire poverty, in the slums of Pozzuoli, just outside Naples during wartime. Her mother, a frustrated actress, instilled starring aspirations in the skinny little Sofia (she was nicknamed Stechetto--the stick--at the time). Her first taste of glamour came at fourteen when she was crowned one of twelve "Princesses of the Sea" in a beauty contest ---- an honor for which she earned a railroad ticket to Rome, and 23,000 lira (about $35).

　illegitimate：有前缀illeg-，不难看出这个词有“非法的，不合法的”，比如illegitimate action 非法行为；但更常用的含意为“私生的，私生子”。Sofia是Romilda Villani和 Riccardo Scicolone的私生女，从小在贫民窟长大。
　dire：可怕的、悲惨的，常常用来指灾难、悲苦等，比如a dire calamity可怕的灾难；dire news噩耗。与它的同义词比较，terrible在程度上没有dire强烈，而dreadful和horrible更强调恐怖的、讨厌的事情。
　instill：原意是“滴注”，这里是“逐渐灌输”的意思，常与in和into连用。例如A good teacher can instill the desire to learn in young people. 好的教师能将求知欲逐渐灌输给青年人。在本文中，索菲亚的妈妈虽然生活艰辛，但当明星的渴望依然不断影响着小索菲亚。

Sofia met producer and future husband Carlo Ponti while competing in another beauty contest. Though she placed second, Ponti gave her a screen test and he advanced her career in a succession of low-budget Italian productions. Sofia Lazzaro, as she was then known, became Sophia Loren in 1952. Sophia then came to Hollywood. She signed a contract with Paramount for her first English-speaking role. Once on the set, she fell in love with her co-star Cary Grant.

　succession：“连续、连接发生”的意思，a succession of相当于a series of：“一系列的、一连串……”，比如a succession of defeats一连串的失败，a long succession of wet days 长时间连绵不断的阴雨天。
　Paramount：这个词大家一定都很熟悉，是美国最著名的电影公司之一：派拉蒙影业。但是你知不知道，paramount这个词本身有“至高无上的、卓越的”含意，比如the country's paramount leader国家最高首领。看来，“派拉蒙”真是起了个吉利的名字。而作为一名演员，如果能与派拉蒙签约也就标志着向成功的殿堂踏入了一步。

Though she had been involved romantically with Carlo Ponti (he was married with two children) from the age of eighteen, Sophia had suffered through years of frustration while he attempted to obtain an annulment from the church. Loren and Ponti, 24 years her senior, were married in 1957, following his Mexican divorce from his estranged wife. In 1961 she received an Academy Award for "La Ciociara" ("Two Women"). This beautiful lady then became one of the major sex symbol of the sixties, competing with Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot and Jane Fonda.

　frustration：名词：挫败，阻挠；挫折，失败。那么它的动词形式frustrate就是“挫败……，阻挠……”的意思，frustrate a plan“阻挠计划的实施”。而形容词frustrated更是常用，形容“挫败的、失望的”心情，如果你受到挫折而情绪沮丧，就可以说“I feel frustrated!”；与frustrated对应，frustrating则是形容使人沮丧的事情。
　annulment：是annul的名词形式，意思是“废除、取消（法律等）”，尤其指取消法院对不合法婚姻所作的不生效的宣告。因此卡洛·庞帝一直想获得这样一个annulment，这样才能合法地与Sophia结婚。

Unfortunately the Italian law did not recognize the divorce and charged them with bigamy. They were forced to have their marriage annulled in 1962, and after four more years of frustration turned in their Italian passports and became citizens of France, where they were finally legally married in 1966. Sophia gained wider respect with her later movies like "Cassandra Crossing" (1976), "Una Giornata Particolare" (1977) and "Pret a Porter" (1994). A lot of her movies were produced by her husband.

　bigamy：重婚罪。bi -这个词缀和"di-"一样，都表示"双、两个、一对"的意思，而gamy是词根"婚姻、结婚"的意思。那么"多婚制"就是polygamy，而"一夫一妻制"则应该是monogamy。在意大利，离婚是违法行为，因此卡洛·庞帝与索菲亚的婚姻在意大利被视为重婚，他们不得不与1962年离婚。
　Cassandra Crossing：《卡桑德拉大桥》，这大概是罗兰的影片中最为中国观众所熟悉的一部。片中罗兰饰演了一名勇敢漂亮的女乘客，大桥炸毁时的镜头至今令人难忘。Crossing这里指“交叉口”，比如铁路与公路交叉的道口、人行横道等，都叫crossing。