Jane Eyre: Bedside Lamp English Learning Reader I

Author: Mao Ronggui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: English celebrities and experts discuss reading. Dry English sentences are not enough; don’t always put improving English as the sole purpose of reading. Reading is primarily about absorbing knowledge, and in the process of absorbing knowledge, the language is naturally absorbed. Thinking in English is a goal many English learners aspire to, as it is the foundation for expressing thoughts fluently in English. For Chinese students living in a non-English environment, achieving partial or full thinking in English is indeed challenging, but it is not out of reach. From my own experience learning English, I’ve found that persistent extensive reading is one of the most effective ways to achieve this goal. For intermediate and advanced learners, I especially recommend English easy readers. The material should be easy to understand, with a strong narrative element, and the reading speed should be as fast as possible—read as much as you can. This is a proven and effective method for learning English.
Jane Eyre is an orphan born into a poor clergyman’s family. Her parents, who fell ill with typhoid fever, died within a month of each other. As a young child, Jane was sent to live with her aunt and uncle. After her uncle, Mr. Reed, passed away, Jane spent ten years enduring discrimination and abuse. Once, when resisting her cousin’s beating, Jane was locked in the red room. The physical pain and mental humiliation left her so ill that she fell seriously ill. Her aunt, seeing her as a thorn in her side, kept her isolated from her own children, and their conflict grew more open and fierce. Later, Jane was sent to Lowood Institution, an orphanage with strict rules and harsh living conditions. The institution’s headmaster was a cold hypocrite, and Jane continued to suffer both mentally and physically. Due to the poor living conditions, children often died of illness at the orphanage. After graduating, Jane taught at the institution for two years. During this time, her close friend Helen died of tuberculosis. Tired of life at the orphanage, Jane advertised for a position as a governess. The housekeeper at Thornfield Hall hired her. The master of the estate, Rochester, often traveled abroad, and the vast mansion was home to only one girl, Adele Varens, who was less than ten years old and under his protection—she would be Jane’s student. One evening, Jane went for a walk and met her employer, newly returned from abroad. This was their first meeting. Later, she discovered that her employer was a moody, unpredictable man whose attitude toward her fluctuated between kindness and cruelty. The entire house was gloomy and empty, and sometimes strange, eerie laughter could be heard. One night, Jane was woken by this laughter and found that Rochester’s room was on fire. She woke him up and helped put out the fire. After returning, Rochester often hosted dinner parties. At one such party, he showered attention on a beautiful young woman named Blanche. Jane was called into the drawing room but was coldly ignored by Blanche and her daughter. She endured the humiliation and left. By then, she had fallen in love with Rochester. In truth, Rochester had also fallen in love with Jane, though he merely wanted to test her feelings for him. When he proposed to Jane, she accepted. The night before the wedding, Jane had a vision in her sleep of a repulsive woman in her wedding gown before the mirror. The next day, as the wedding ceremony was quietly taking place in the church, a witness suddenly appeared, revealing that Rochester had been married fifteen years earlier. His wife was the madwoman locked in the attic. The law prevented their love, plunging both into deep sorrow. On a night of fierce wind and rain, Jane left Rochester. In her search for a new life, Jane lived in poverty, begging along the way, enduring countless hardships, until she was taken in by the Rev. St. John at a poorhouse and began teaching at a local school. Soon after, Jane learned that her uncle had died and left her an inheritance, and she also discovered that St. John was her cousin. She decided to split the inheritance with him. St. John was a fervent religious devotee who planned to go to India as a missionary. He asked Jane to marry him and join him in India, but she refused and decided to return to Rochester’s side. She returned to Thornfield Hall, only to find it in ruins—the madwoman had died after setting the house on fire and falling from a window, and Rochester had been injured and disabled. Jane found him and married him, finally achieving the happiness she had long dreamed of.