Born in 1954, Oprah Winfrey is best known for her multi-award-winning talk show as the most influential woman in the world. It's no surprise that her recognition can bring overnight sales fortune that defeats most, if not all, marketing campaigns. The star features about 20 products each year on her "Favorite Things" show. There's even a term for it: the Oprah Effect.
Her television career began unexpectedly. When she was 16 years old, she had the idea of being a journalist to tell other people's stories in a way that made a difference in their lives and the world. She was on television by the time she was 19 years old. And in 1986 she started her own television show with a continuous determination to succeed at first.
TIME magazine wrote, "People would have doubted Oprah Winfrey's swift rise to host of the most popular talk show on TV. In a field dominated by white males, she is a black female of big size. As interviewers go, she is no match for Phil Donahue. What she lacks in journalistic toughness, she makes up for in plainspoken curiosity, rich humor and, above all understanding. Guests with sad stories to tell tend to bring out a tear in Oprah's eye. They, in turn, often find themselves exposing things they would not imagine telling anyone, much less a national TV audience."
"I was nervous about the competition and then I became my own competition raising the bar every year, pushing, pushing, pushing myself as hard as I knew. It doesn't matter how far you might rise. At some point you are likely to fall if you' re constantly doing what we do, raising the bar. If you' re constantly pushing yourself higher, higher the law of averages, you will at some point fall. And when you do, I want you to know this, remember this: there is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction" as Oprah addressed graduates at Harvard on May 30.
【小题1】What does the Oprah Effect refer to in the first paragraph?| A．the influence on talk show hosts | B．the power of Oprah's opinions. |
| C．the effect on a business. | D．the audience of Oprah's talk show. |
| A．She must have been challenged a lot | B．She gained fame as planned. |
| C．It lives up to her parents' expectation. | D．She once gave up on her choice. |
| A．Success comes after failure. | B．Pushing physical limits makes no sense |
| C．Aiming higher hurts | D．Failure is part of life. |
| A．Friendly. | B．Humorous |
| C．Determined. | D．Patient |
