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阅读理解
Charles Chaplin was born in London on 16 April, 1889. His parents were
music hall actors. The Chaplin family were very poor, and life was difficult in
London. Charlie, as he was called, used to do his mother's job in the theatre
when she was ill.
When he was only 17 years old, Chaplin got his first real job as an
actor. What he did was do silly things to make people laugh in the theatre. Two
years later he went to the US. And over the next four years, he formed his own
way of art. He developed the character (角色) of a homeless gentleman which became
very popular.
From the 1920s to the 1950s, Chaplin made his most famous films. The
film Modern Times (1936) shows his care about the modern industry workers. Many
of his films describe the poor life and hard time of the working people during
that period.
Although Charles Chaplin was British, he lived in the US until 1953. But
he never got US nationality. Then Chaplin, his wife and his five children had
to move to Switzerland where he lived until he died. When he was 84 years old,
he won the Oscar for the music he wrote for the film limelight, He was named
Sir Charles Chaplin at the age of 86. Charles Chaplin died in Switzerland on
December 25th, 1977.
