愛丁堡城里的名人
WHAT do literary greats Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Burns have in common？
They both lived and wrote in Edinburgh, along with many other big names in the field of literature. This fact helped UNESCO award the city the title of world's first City of Literature on October 14.
Edinburgh left a lasting impression on Arthur Conan Doyle （1859-1930）. Although he was born there he went to school in England but returned home for medical school. After graduating he moved to London and began writing his Sherlock Holmes stories. His inspiration for the character came from one of his professors at university. Holmes' methods were so clever that they actually furthered the advance of the study of criminology.
Robert Burns （1759-1796） is still regarded as Scotland's national poet, more than 200 years after his death. He is celebrated all over the world through translations of his work and the annual Burns Night supper on his birthday. One of his songs, “My Love is Like a Red Red Rose” ranks among the finest love songs ever written and “Auld Lang Syne” is sung all around the world.
As one of the first literate societies in Europe, the Scottish Parliament passed the world's first compulsory education law in 1496. By the 1790s, almost all Scots could read. Visitors to Scotland often observed that even the lowest members of society had copies of Burns' poems and other books.
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你知道文壇泰斗亞瑟？科南？道爾和羅伯特？伯恩斯有哪些共同之處嗎？
和文學(xué)界的其他一些名人一樣，他們兩人都出生在愛丁堡，筆耕于愛丁堡。在這座城市里誕生了許許多多的作家，正因為這濃郁的書香，聯(lián)合國教科文組織于10月14日把“世界首座文學(xué)之城”的榮譽授予了愛丁堡。
愛丁堡給科南？道爾（1859-1930）留下了很深的印象。他在那里出生，后去倫敦求學(xué)，后來他又重返故里讀醫(yī)學(xué)院。畢業(yè)后，他移居倫敦，開始寫作福爾摩斯故事系列，故事中的人物原型是他大學(xué)時代的一位教授。在小說中，福爾摩斯的探案方法被描繪得非常奇妙，這讓犯罪學(xué)研究也獲益匪淺，得到了進一步的發(fā)展。
另外一個詩人是羅伯特？伯恩斯。他已辭世200多年，被譽為蘇格蘭的民族詩人。他的作品被譯成多種文字，流播全球。每年，人們在他的誕辰日舉行“伯恩斯之夜”晚宴，以示紀念。他的“我的愛人就像是一朵紅紅的玫瑰”堪稱情詩中的經(jīng)典之作，到處被人傳唱，而“友誼地久天長”更是唱遍了全球。
蘇格蘭濃郁的書香氛圍有其歷史淵源。蘇格蘭議會于1496年通過了世界上第一個義務(wù)教育法案。在這項法案的推動下，到18世紀90年代的時候，幾乎所有的蘇格蘭人都能識字了。許多去蘇格蘭游覽的人發(fā)現(xiàn)，就連蘇格蘭的市井小民也在讀著伯恩斯的詩以及其它一些書。
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