Sophia Loren Mini Biography　　索菲亚·罗兰，这个名字是激情与魅力的同义词，是光耀夺目的影坛巨星。半个世纪以来，她以动人的风采、卓越的演技给人们留下七十多部影片，被授予奥斯卡终身成就奖。从一个私生女到国际影星，索菲亚·罗兰是如此的完美，没有任何瑕疵。她是上帝的宠儿，她付出的一切都得到回报。
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　———Helen  　 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). 　
 

　 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. 　
   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. 　

 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. 　 重点词汇：  　 1.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2.Romilda Villani和 Riccardo Scicolone的私生女，从小在贫民窟长大。
3.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。joozone.com