Jane Austen was born in the English countryside more than 200 years ago. She lived ____33__ simple life. She seldom travelled. She never married and she died from illness when she was only 41.
However, people all over the world remember her. Why? It is because Jane Austen is the author of some of the best-loved novels in the English language. These novels include Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion.
Jane completed her last novel Persuasion in 1816, but it was___34___ (not publish) until after her death. Persuasion is partly based on Jane’s naval brother.
Anne, the daughter of Sir Walter Elliot, falls in love with Captain Wentworth, a person of a ___35___(low) social position. But she breaks off the engagement when_____36____(persuade) by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret. Eight years later, Wentworth returns from sea a rich and successful captain. He finds Anne’s family on the edge of financial ruin. Anne and the captain rediscover their love and get married.
Jane Austen once compared her writing to ____37___(paint) on a little bit of ivory（象牙）, two inches square. Readers of Persuasion will see that ___38____ her skill of delicate, ironic(讽刺的) observations on social custom, love, and marriage nor her ability____39___ ( apply) a sharp focus to English manners and morals has abandoned her in her final finished work.
Persuasion has produced three film adaptations: a 1995 version starring Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds, a 2007 TV miniseries with Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones, and a 1971 miniseries with Ann Firbank and Bryan Marshall.
People who are interested in Jane Austen can still visit many of the places she visited and lived. These places include the village of Steventon, although her family house is now gone. Many of the places Jane visited in Bath are still there. You can visit Jane Austen’s home in Chawton, where she did her best writing, and Winchester, __40___ she died.