全文朗读 课文讲解 Mickey Mouse would have been a hit on the funny pages, but Disney had bigger plans for his new creation. He took advantage of the latest technology and animated the mouse. With Mickey on the screen, Disney had managed to do something no other director had: put color, sound and action together in ground-breaking motion pictures. The Mickey movies were an immediate success. But Disney realized that to keep audiences coming back, he’d need to give them more than a naughty little mouse. Thus, Disney decided to give Mickey some more human characteristics. The troublemaking mouse who used farm animals as musical instruments became the poor farmer sheltering his animals in a storm. It was also apparent to Disney that Mickey needed companions to make his adventures more interesting. Minnie, a self-important mouse who was in every way a female version of Mickey, soon appeared. Together, with Disney’s help, they set about creating Disney’s perfect world on screen.

1. manage v. to succeed in doing sth. difficult 成功办到；设法做
Even though I had no one to help me, I still managed to paint the entire house in just one day.

2. naughty adj. misbehaving or causing mischief 顽皮的
These naughty boys were caught writing their names on the bathroom wall.

3. characteristic n. a quality or feature of sth. 特征
My cat has some characteristics of a dog: He comes when he’s called, and he chases other cats!

4. shelter v. to protect 保护；庇护
During the winter, a small cave sheltered the bear.

5. version n. a form of sth. in which details are different from another form 版本；类型
The two people who saw the car accident had different versions of what had occurred.

6. set about v. phr. to begin the work of accomplishing a task 着手……；开始做……
While Justin unpacked our tent and sleeping bags, I set about gathering wood for a campfire.
　

米老鼠本应该在报刊连载漫画版中大受欢迎，但迪斯尼对于他的新创作却有更大的计划。他利用当时最新的技术塑造了一只活生生的老鼠。随着米老鼠出现在银幕上，迪斯尼做到了其他导演尚未办到的事，那就是破天荒地在电影里融合了色彩、音效及动作。

米老鼠系列电影上映后立刻声名大噪。但迪斯尼意识到，要让观众不断涌入戏院，他给他们的不能仅仅是一只顽皮的小老鼠。因此，迪斯尼决定赋予米老鼠更多人类的特性。这只原本把农场的动物当乐器来耍、经常闯祸的老鼠，变成了暴风雨中保护身旁动物的贫穷农夫。

对迪斯尼而言，很显然米老鼠也需要同伴为自己的冒险奇遇增色。于是不久后，米妮，一只自视甚高、各方面都是米老鼠女性翻版的老鼠登场了。通过迪斯尼的协助，他们在银幕上携手开创迪斯尼心目中的美好世界。

1. funny page n. （报刊上的）幽默连环漫画
2. animate v. 赋予……生命（亦即制作成动画）
3. motion picture n. 电影
4. self-important adj. 自视甚高的