哭泣的米菲兔-English Classroom

A:Hello,everyone,welcome to English Classroom.I am… B:Do you still remember a rabbit Miffy? C:Of course I do.when I was a child, I used to buy some stationery made by Chenguang(晨光）like a pencil, eraser…there was a cute rabbit on it, and I really love it. A:Yes,but the creator of the popular image Miffy, butIllustrator and children’s book author Dick Bruna, died at the age of 89 on Feb 16. C:oh no!Please rest in peace. B:Just take one day at a time.On Twitter, many people posted the weeping white bunny in memory of this beloved Dutch man.Miffy, in Dutch, was originally called Nijntje (little rabbit), which Bruna created in 1955 by shortening the Dutch word for rabbit, Konijntje.An English translator Olive Jones gave the little rabbit the name Miffy in the 1960s. A:Over six decades, Bruna wrote and illustrated more than 100 books about Miffy, which are considered globally to be suitable for kids aged between eight months and two years old. So far, the Miffy stories have been translated into more than 50 languages, with more than 85 million copies of Miffy books having been sold in 85 countries so far. B:Miffy is very popular in Japan. The Japan Times even has a section on its web page especially devoted to her. Besides this, a café in Tokyo serves food dedicated to her name. C:Bruna disliked Hello Kitty, a Japanese kitten image with two black-dot eyes and no mouth that was launched in 1974. He thought it was a copy of Miffy.In an interview with Telegraph, he said:“I don’t like that at all. Try to make something that you think of yourself. After all… there’re so many nice things.” A:In 2004, Miffy was appointed the official “family tourist ambassador to New York City”.Miffy was first introduced to China in 2002 by Children’s Fun Publishing Co., which later published the second Chinese edition of the books in 2009. More than three million copies of the second Chinese edition have been sold so far.In 2015, to celebrate Miffy’s 60th birthday, train carriages in Guangzhou were decorated with her image.Many European countries like Germany also have websites dedicated to Miffy. B:Bruna was born in August 1928 in Utrecht of the Netherlands. His father owned the country’s largest publishing company, A W Bruna and Zoon.Against his father’s will, Bruna wanted to become an artist, rather than inherit the family business.He lived in Paris for a while and studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam but unable to paint or master perspective, he became frustrated and did not finish. C:When he got married, in order to earn a steady income, he worked as a designer at his father’s publishing company, designing posters, book covers and promotional materials for detective novels.But besides work, Bruna painted side products. In 1953, he published his first book for children The Apple, which tells the story of life from an apple’s perspective.In 1955, when Bruna was spending vacation with his one-year-old son at the beach, they encountered a playful white rabbit. The rabbit inspired Bruna and every night he told his son a story about the rabbit. Later he drew the story and created the first Miffy book. A:Bruna himself was not sure whether Miffy was a boy or a girl until 1970 when he worked on the sixth book, Miffy’s Birthday. He put her in a dress because he liked to draw dresses more than trousers. B:Miffy was always a cheerful little white rabbit enjoying moments of happiness while taking small adventures: a trip with her family to the zoo, visiting a museum or playing in snow. C:Bruna’s painting style was influenced by the bold lines and two-dimensionality of Henri Matisee and Fernand Leger. He loved using primary colors and clear lines, trying to eliminate unnecessary elements in his drawing, and reduce the little rabbit to the absolute minimum.For example, in order to draw a crying Miffy, Bruna gave her three teardrops at first, but later reduced it to only one, but added another drop to express heartbreak. Bruna once said: “I spend a long time making my drawings as simple as possible, throwing lots away, before I reach that moment of recognition… I leave plenty of space for children’s imagination.”Besides books, there are many other Miffy products such as stationery and videos. A:Bruna became very rich, but he maintained a simple life until he had a stroke at 84 - worked six days a week, woke up at six every morning, then rode a bike to his studio before eight and ate lunch with his wife every day. It is said that every person in Utrecht knew him.“In the Netherlands, everyone has always liked Dick Bruna as a person as well,” Agnes Vogt, a children’s book specialist at the Dutch Foundation for Literature, told New York Times. “He was such a modest and kind man who lived a very simple life, although he was very rich.” B:Miffy was introduced to China in 2002. At that time, compared with other children's books, Miffy books looked smaller, thinner and more expensive. As a result, Miffy was not widely accepted by Chinese parents until 2009. C:Bruna said that when he was working on the books, he imagined there was a child sitting across from him."It's really not an easy job to create a text that is easy to be understood by small babies. It's even harder to imagine how Bruna can continue on for decades," he says,"I fell in love with Miffy at first sight in 2002. It's so simple but so expressive with so few lines," he says. A:May this soul rest in peace in heaven and guide you for years to come.We will always miss you Mr.Dick Bruna. B:Ok,let’s meet at next time! see you.