Some of the greatest success stories of history have followed a word of encouragement or an act of confidence by a loved one or a trusting friend. Had it not been for a confident wife, Sophia, we might not have listed among the great names of literature the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne. When Nathaniel, a heartbroken man, went home to tell his wife that he was a failure and had been fired from his job in a customhouse, she surprised him with an exclamation of joy.

"Now," she said triumphantly, "you can write your book!"

"Yes," replied the man, with sagging confidence, "and what shall we live on while I am writing it?"

To his amazement, she opened a drawer and pulled out a substantial amount of money.

"Where on earth did you get that?" he exclaimed.

"I have always know you were a man of genius," she told him. "I knew that someday you would write a masterpiece. So every week, out of the money you gave me for housekeeping, I saved a little bit. So here is enough to last us for one whole year."

From her trust and confidence came one of the greatest novels of American literature, The Scarlet Letter.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　--Nido QubeinKey Points Learning:
1.What's the meaning of "to his amazement"?
2.Please translate the sentence " Had it not been for a confident wife, Sophia, we might not have listed among the great names of literature the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne. "
Note
heartbroken：悲傷的　　customhouse：海關(guān)，custom也可指海關(guān)　　exclamation：驚呼
triumphantly：成功地，炫耀地　　masterpiece：名著，杰作

Background of Nathaniel Hawthorne:
　　納撒尼爾·霍桑(1804—1864）是美國(guó)19世紀(jì)影響最大的浪漫主義小說(shuō)家和心理小說(shuō)家?！￠L(zhǎng)篇小說(shuō)《紅字》是他的代表作。霍桑1804年生于新英格蘭的一個(gè)破落貴族家庭。全家篤信_(tái)_清教。 父親去世后，他隨母親遷至薩萊姆外公家，薩萊姆濃厚的宗教氣氛和激烈的宗教派別斗爭(zhēng)以及霍桑一家的宗教傳統(tǒng)都對(duì)霍桑的思想和后來(lái)的創(chuàng)作產(chǎn)生了極大的影響。他從小愛(ài)好文藝，大學(xué)畢業(yè)后曾在海關(guān)任職，后受法國(guó)空想社會(huì)主義影響辭職，在布魯克農(nóng)場(chǎng)制訂實(shí)施空想社會(huì)主義計(jì)劃?；羯?duì)當(dāng)時(shí)美國(guó)社會(huì)道德論喪和資產(chǎn)階級(jí)的偽善不滿，但是他又不想從根本上改變不合理的社會(huì)制度，只謀求社會(huì)道德的改進(jìn)，宣揚(yáng)上帝，主張道德的自我完善。
　　1850年《紅字》發(fā)表后，霍桑在美國(guó)文學(xué)史上的地位從此確定。 1851、1852年又分別出版了“兩部羅曼史”，即《帶有七個(gè)尖角閣的房子》和《福谷傳奇》，前者以宗教迫害案為起點(diǎn)，描寫了一個(gè)關(guān)于美國(guó)資產(chǎn)階級(jí)家庭的故事，表現(xiàn)了罪惡代代相襲的悲觀主義的思想；后者描寫了一群內(nèi)心苦悶的上層知識(shí)分子，離開城市到農(nóng)村去組織村社，終因一事無(wú)成，失望離去的故事。同時(shí)還出版了幾部?jī)和膶W(xué)作品，　1860年又寫了一部以意大利為背景的《玉石雕像》，1864年霍桑去世。
上周答案：
1.Because she was suffering from a rare and serious disease, and need to transfer her boold.
2.The author wants to tell us love makes us brave.(You can have different opinions)