诺拉·琼斯
一个年轻的女子坐在一架钢琴前，飘逸的棕色长发衬托出一张亲切的脸庞。接着她开始唱歌，她那出人意料的成熟嗓音令在场的每一个人为之着迷。她，就是诺拉·琼斯——一位获奖歌手，同时也是一个词曲作家。
1979年3月30日，诺拉·琼斯出生在美国纽约，她是传奇人物、着名吉他手拉维·仙卡的女儿，但她本人则完全是由其母亲苏抚养长大的。那些年中，她偶尔才能看到她的父亲，直到18岁，她才见到她的妹妹。4岁时，她随母亲搬到了得克萨斯州达拉斯市的郊区。她在音乐上受到的最早影响来自于她母亲所收藏的大量唱片。诺拉·琼斯五岁开始在教堂唱诗班唱歌，两年后开始学习钢琴，初中时候一度演奏过低音萨克斯管。
从德州到纽约
高中毕业后的两年里，她就读于北得克萨斯州大学，主修爵士钢琴。上三年级之前，她决定去纽约旅行一趟。这次旅行原本只是暑期出游，但很快琼斯就意识到自己不会马上回去了。
痴迷音乐的琼斯深为当地的音乐人和词曲作家所吸引，而他们在看了她的歌唱表演后也都催她赶快开辟自己的事业天地。于是琼斯一边当女招待，一边拉起一支乐队，自己担任主唱，当然还兼钢琴演奏。2000年10月，这支乐队雄心勃勃地送了一盘录音样带给旗下拥有众多布鲁斯乐、爵士乐、民间音乐及乡村音乐乐手的EMI蓝音符唱片公司。
签约蓝音符
2001年1月，琼斯见到了蓝音符唱片公司的老板布鲁斯，她放了一盘磁带，里面有她唱的三首歌，希望借此有所突破。小姑娘的才华打动得布鲁斯当场与她签了约。只经过一年多一点的准备工作，诺拉·琼斯就推出了她的首张专辑《远走高飞》。该专辑已卖出260万张，这个数字比蓝音符历史上任何一张专辑的销售量都要高出十倍。尽管缺乏宣传，这个专辑仍在流行音乐排行榜上节节攀升，而其单曲《不知何故》也打入了“40大成人单曲排行榜”。
在2003年的格莱美颁奖典礼上，这位声音迷人的新爵士乐歌手气势夺人，一举拿下五项主要项目的大奖（年度最佳专辑奖，单曲《不知何故》获年度最佳唱片奖，最佳新人奖，单曲《不知何故》还获得最佳流行女歌手奖，最佳流行声乐专辑）。而这一切对琼斯来说显然不过只是个开始。
诺拉·琼斯前景光明。让歌迷苦等了两年之后，诺拉·琼斯又推出了她的第二张专辑《宛如回家》。看样子它和第一张专辑一样成功，但这一次，音乐界再不会有人对她等闲视之。
Madonna，s Message
Take it from Madonna， the self proclaimedproclaim vt.宣布， 声明， 显示， 显露 “Material Girl，” money can，t buy happiness.
That，s quite a lesson from the 46yearold pop diva， whose fifth children，s book in the past 18 months Lotsa de Casha， hit store shelves this week.
“Lotsa was by farby far adv.到目前为止 the richest man in the country. He had everything that money could buy，” is the opening line of her latest book. “But there was a teenyteeny adj.(口)极小的， 极微的， tiny problem. No matter how much money Lotsa de Casha made， he wasn，t happy.”
The short book concludes with the moral， “When you learn to share， you will not only find happiness. You will also find a friend.”
Renowned as much for her catchycatchy adj.易记住的， 易使人上当的， 诡诈的 dance anthems Vogue and Ray of Light as she was for cavortingcavort vi.腾跃 on stage in a partially disrobed wedding gown some 20 years ago performing Like a Virgin on MTV， Madonna Ciccone Ritchie said she，s left some of her old anticsantics n.滑稽的动作， 古怪的姿态 behind and is all grown up now.
“I，d like to think I，ve been evolving and transforming my whole career， I grew up，” she told Reuters in an interview.
“The media likes to say it，s just another one of my guises，” she said of her career as an author. “But it，s much more deep and profound than that.”
Madonna the singer is known as a chameleonchameleon n.变色龙， morphing from sexy outfits and suggestive lyrics to Eastern mysticism and Judaism. Similarly， Madonna the writer has penned a series of books which barely resemble each other.
A different illustratorillustrator n.插图画家， 图解者， 说明者 was hired for each of the five slim volumes. But they are all anchored by the same message， she insists： “Nothing is what it seems.”
Her intended audience and some critics might agree.
A book reading at a New York bookstore drew puzzled responses from the group of about 25 kids， who appeared to have difficulty grasping the book，s morals.
“I think she makes the same mistake every celebrity author makes： they think they can write children，s books，” said Ilene Cooper， children，s book editor of Booklist， the review journal of the American Library Association.
“Generally it，s just awful， beyond awful，” said Cooper of efforts by celebritiesturned authors.
麦当娜的快乐真谛
“金钱买不到快乐”。这句话不是出自他人之口，而是自我标榜为“物质女孩”的麦当娜说的。
这位46岁的流行天后在经历了人生的波澜起伏后终于明白了这样的道理。经过18个月的创作，她的第五本儿童书《快乐的真谛》本周将正式出版。
麦当娜在最新的这本儿童书的开头这样写道：“罗沙是那个国家最富有的人。他拥有金钱能买到的所有的东西。但是，他却遇到了一个小小的问题：不管赚多少钱，他都不觉得快乐。”
这本薄薄的儿童书以一个寓意结尾：“当你学会和别人分享的时候，你不仅找到了快乐，同时也拥有了朋友。”
大约20年前，麦当娜身着露背婚纱在舞台上搔首弄姿，为音乐电视《像个处女》卖力表演，之后，她又凭借动人的舞曲《时尚》及《光芒万丈》而一炮走红。如今，麦当娜却说，她已经抛弃了那些老一套的滑稽动作，因为现在她已经成熟了。
“我觉得自己在不断成长，事业也在不断变化。我已经长大了。”她接受路透社记者采访时说。
“媒体可能会认为写书不过是我又一次故作姿态而已，但事实却远比这要深刻得多、有意义得多。”谈到她的作者身份，麦当娜如是说。
歌手麦当娜被公认为百变天后，从性感的服装、挑逗性的情歌到东方神秘主义和犹太教，她都一一尝试。同样，作家麦当娜也已经创作了多部作品，而这些作品之间往往有天壤之别。
麦当娜找了不同的画家分别为这五本薄薄的儿童书绘制插图。但是，她坚持认为所有的书都传递了同一个信息，那就是：很多东西并不像表面看到的那样。
她的目标读者和一些评论家们或许会同意这个说法。
麦当娜在纽约的一家书店举行了一场朗诵会。然而，在场的大约25位小读者却显得迷惑不解，他们似乎很难理解这本书的寓意。
“我认为，麦当娜犯了一个所有名人作者都会犯的错误：他们自以为可以写儿童书。”《书单》的儿童书编辑伊琳娜·库珀说。《书单》是美国图书馆协会创办的书评刊物。
在谈到时下一些名人努力转为作家的潮流时，库珀说，“通常来讲，这是非常糟糕的事，糟糕透顶。”
Arnold Schwarzenegger，s Charm
Superman fans will know the hero spent most of his time disguiseddisguise v.假装， 伪装， 掩饰 n.伪装 as Clark Kent， mildmannered and hardworking reporter for the Daily Globe. When called upon to perform a superhuman feat， Kent would ducksintosa phone booth and in a split second whirl out of his suitsintos the blue bodystocking and red cape that were Superman，s uniform. The whirling kept bystandersbystander n.看热闹的人， 旁观者 from witnessing the transformation.
Cartoonist Tony Auth reverses Superman，s routine to make a tongueincheek comment on California，s new governor， 56yearold muscleman Arnold Schwarzenegger. On October 7，2004， Governor Gray Davis was ousted from office； the body building champion， Austrian immigrant and action film star was elected to replace him. In a flash Arnie was transformed from a film superherosintos the leader of a state bedeviled by complex financialfinancial adj.财政的， 金融的 problems， a hemorrhagehemorrhage n.出血 of jobs and political gridlock in the state legislature.
Californians elected actor Ronald Reagan to the governorship back in 1966， so what，s so strange about choosing Arnold Schwarzenegger？ For one thing， Reagan by then had long been more involved in politics than in acting， and thus was much more prepared for the job. Secondly， Reagan was hugely popular with suburban Republican conservativesconservative adj.保守的， 守旧的 n.保守派 and business leaders； in other words， he had a solid political base built up over years. Not so in Schwarzenegger，s case： he，s an example of what is sometimes described as an endangered species， the moderate Republican. Finally， the Californian economy in 1966 was doing fine， and nothing kept the legislature from raising taxes. But in 1978 Californians voted to limit property taxes and require a 65% vote by state legislatorslegislator n.立法者 to impose any new ones； later they tied lawmakers， hands in new ways. It，s a different California in 2003.