唐老鴨75歲啦
He is the Most curmudgeonly character in a star-studded Disney menagerie that includes Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy and Pluto.
Donald Duck - the irascible but unflappable waterfowl - prepared to be feted in grand fashion, as he turned 75 years old Tuesday.
From the beginning, fabled cartoonist Walt Disney envisioned Donald Duck as a foil to Mickey Mouse, his good-as-gold, animated star created a half-dozen years earlier.
While goody-two-shoes Mickey was most appealing to children, Disney sought to create in Donald Duck a more piquant character with adult appeal - and succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
In his 75 years, his feathered anti-hero has tried his hand at more than 100 different professions, but failed at them all. Donald always seems to be short of cash and make a habit of lurching from one misadventure to the next.
But no matter how often thwarted and how deeply humiliated, Donald Duck forges on - which is what has made him such a big hit with his legions of fans.
Known for his barely decipherable speech and his penchant for running afoul of the other Disney characters, Donald, beneath it all, has a heart of gold, another quality that has charmed adoring fans over the decades.
The prickly but long suffering duck made his celluloid debut on June 9, 1934 in a short animated feature called Little Wise Hen, a movie fable fashioned on the Little Red Hen fairy tale about a chicken who finds that help is scarce when she tries to recruit workers to plant and harvest her corn crop.
While Mickey Mouse often enjoys top billing in the US, in much of Europe - especially among Germans - it is Donald Duck who is the undisputed star.
Meanwhile, legions of loyal fans have launched a contest for the best birthday portrait of the trouserless bird in the sailor jacket.
The winner's depiction is to be displayed later this year at the Anaheim, California Convention Centre next to Disneyland.
在衆星雲集的迪斯尼卡通大家庭中，唐老鴨是最小氣的一位，迪斯尼麾下還有米老鼠米奇和米妮，高飛和布魯托。
本週二是唐老鴨的75歲生日，這位脾氣暴躁卻鎮定自若的鴨先生將迎來盛大的生日慶典。
傳奇漫畫家沃爾特•迪斯尼最初是爲了烘托米老鼠才創作了唐老鴨這個角色，乖巧的卡通明星米老鼠比唐老鴨早六年誕生。
孩子們最喜歡“好好先生”米奇，因此迪斯尼想把唐老鴨塑造成一個成年人喜愛的更加活潑有趣的角色，而結果出人意料的成功。
在這75年裏，這位長着羽毛的平凡主角嘗試過一百多種不同的職業，但都以失敗告終。唐老鴨看起來總缺錢花，而且習慣性地麻煩不斷。
但不論受到多少次挫折，也不管遭到多大侮辱，唐老鴨都不屈服，正因爲此，它大獲成功，贏得了大批粉絲。
它講的話總是很難聽懂，形象也與迪斯尼其它卡通人物大相徑庭，但在這些外表之下，唐老鴨有一顆善良的心，這是它在近幾十年間受粉絲追捧的另一特質。
這位易動怒但多災多難的鴨先生於1934年6月9日初次登上熒屏，出演迪斯尼動畫短片《聰明的小母雞》。這部童話電影根據童話故事《小紅母雞》改編，講的是一位小雞想僱人耕種和收穫玉米，但是發現人們都不願意幫忙。
儘管米老鼠在美國、大部分歐洲國家，特別是德國最受歡迎，但唐老鴨纔是無可爭議的明星。
與此同時，唐老鴨的粉絲團舉辦了一場競賽，爲這位只穿着水手外套不穿褲子的鴨先生徵集最佳生日肖像。
最終勝出的作品將於今年下半年在阿納海姆市迪斯尼樂園附近的加州會議中心展示。
Vocabulary:
curmudgeonly：小氣的，不和悅的
menagerie：動物園，動物展覽
irascible：easily provoked to anger; very irritable（易怒的，暴躁的）
fete：款待，慶祝
fabled：made known or famous by fables; legendary（傳奇的）
good-as-gold：十分乖巧的，善良的
goody-two-shoes：表現與衆不同的，自命清高的
anti-hero：平凡的主角
decipherable：可判讀的
run afoul of：與……衝突
top billing：演員表上的頭牌地位
