Looking Back on the Life and Music of Whitney Houston
惠妮休斯頓，We Will Always Love You！
Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born in Newark in nineteen sixty-three. Her mother Cissy Houston is a gospel singer. Her father served in the military and was in the entertainment business. Cissy Houston was not the only family musician. Singers Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick were cousins of Whitney Houston. And her godmother was Aretha Franklin.
As a teenager, Whitney Houston performed as a back-up singer for Chaka Khan, Lou Rawls and other artists. But she also had a successful modeling career by the time she was twenty. Her picture appeared on the cover of Seventeen and inside magazines including Glamour and Cosmopolitan.
In nineteen eighty three, Clive Davis, the head of Arista records, heard Whitney Houston singing in New York City. He offered her a recording agreement soon after. For the next two years, Whitney Houston worked on her first record album. “Whitney Houston” was released in nineteen eighty-five.
Slowly but surely, it became a huge hit. It stayed in the number one position on Billboard magazine’s Top Two Hundred Albums chart for fourteen weeks. The first number one single from the album was “Saving All My Love for You.”
The album “Whitney Houston” had seven number one hit singles. It remains the biggest-selling first album by any artist.
The singer followed that success with another. Her album “Whitney” sold twenty million copies. It also made her the first female artist to enter the Billboard Top Two Hundred at number one. Whitney Houston was clearing a path of recognition for women artists.
However, her next professional move was her most important. She recorded the soundtrack for and starred in “The Bodyguard,” in nineteen ninety-two.
Kevin Costner played opposite White Houston in the movie. It is the story of a relationship between a pop music star and a former secret service agent who protects her. The movie was a big hit, making more than four hundred million dollars in ticket sales worldwide. But the film’s popularity did not even come close to the success of the album that went with it.
“The Bodyguard” is the fourth highest selling album of all time. Forty-four million copies have been sold. Among the singles is “I Will Always Love You,” a song written and recorded earlier by Dolly Parton. Whitney Houston’s version sold many more copies.
In nineteen ninety-two, Whitney Houston’s personal life also grew. She married singer Bobby Brown, of the band New Edition. She and Bobby Brown had a daughter, Bobbi Kristina, in nineteen ninety-three. In the late nineteen nineties, Whitney Houston’s professional behavior began to come under question. She began to cancel shows and was late for important events. Her appearance changed; she lost weight and looked unhealthy. Her voice also was suffering. She publicly admitted to drug abuse. But she entered a treatment program. In two thousand ten, she reported she was drug-free.
But, last Saturday, the singer and actress was found dead in her hotel room in Los Angeles. Officials have not yet released a cause of death. However, news reports say Whitney Houston’s family has been told the entertainer died from taking too many prescription drugs.
Her seventh and final studio album, “I Look to You,” was released in two thousand nine. Critics generally praised the effort.
I. True of False
1. Whitney Houston was born in a musical family.
A) True B) False
2. Whitney Houston was the first one to make the recording of the song “I Will Always Love You”.
A) True B) False
3. Whitney Houston’s first album was released when she was 22 years old.
A) True B) False
4. The soundtrack album of the movie “The Bodyguard” is more successful than the film itself.
A) True B) False
II. Reading Comprehension
5. Whitney Houston had worked in the following areas except _____.
A) singing B) teaching C) modeling D) acting
6. Whitney Houston made her first movie in _____.
A) 1963 B) 1985 C) 1992 D) 2010
7. Whitney Houston’s character in the movie “The Bodyguard” is a _____.
A) politician B) movie star C) singer D) single mother
8. In the late 1990s, Whitney Houston confessed to _____.
A) being heavily in debt B) gambling addiction C) abusing drugs D) All of the above
9. Whitney Houston’s final album is “_____”.
A) I Look to You B) Just Whitney C) A Song for You D) Like I Never Left
Answer key:
1. A 2. B 3. A 4. A 5. B 6. C 7. C 8. C 9. A
Source: http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/arts-entertainment/Remembering-Singing-Superstar-Whitney-Houston-139481003.html
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