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KAPLANのTOEFL Listening Practice CD-ROM



CD1 Lecture 19 (Campus Life & Popular Culture)

Listen to part of a television program doing a biography of Oprah Winfrey.

Perhaps the most powerful woman in media today is Oprah Winfrey.

To quote an old TV commercial when she talks, people listen and they’ve been listening in record numbers since our daytime talk show “Debut” in 1986.

Since then, she has covered a broad range of topics from family issues and drug abuse to celebrity profiles.

A shrewd business woman, Oprah has inspired trends in the market place simply by mentioning a product on the air.

shrewd シュぅるードッ　敏腕の、洞察（どうさつ）力のある,鋭い、明敏な、賢明な、抜け目のない

On top of all this, she has battled with her weight and won while motivating many to make the connection.

Oprah has also championed literacy and inspired thousands to read.

As a result, she has single handedly propelled unknown authors to the top of the best seller list.

All this power did not come easily however, born in a small town rural Mississippi on January 29th, 1954, Opera had a difficult childhood, but eventually over came many hardships.

And at age 19, landed her first job as a radio reporter in Nashville, Tennessee where she attended college.

In her sophomore year, she became the first African American anchor at WTBF TV in Nashville.

After that, it was only a matter of time until she was hosting a talk show in Baltimore which led to her transfer to Chicago in 1984.

Then in 1985, she received an Oscar nomination for her role in “The Color Purple”.


Oprah is only the third woman in history after Mary Pickford and Lucille Ball to own a major studio from which she produces her talk show and numerous other projects.

Recently she produced and starred in a movie version of Toni Morrison Pulitzer Prize winning novel “Beloved”.

A billionaire today, she is now ranked as one of the highest paid entertainers in America according to Forbes Magazine.