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Heavyweight(n/adj) a boxer from the heaviest weight group; a lightheavyweight is a boxer from a lower weight group hook(n) a curved piece of metal used for picking things up jab(n/v) a quick punch in which a boxer's hand goes straight forward knockout(n/adj; knock out,v) a hit by a boxer which is so hard that the other boxer falls down and can't get up again nod(n/v) a movement of your head to say yes or to show agreement opponent(n) somebody who is against you in a sports event polish(n) something used to make things shine, for example shoes priest(n) someone who performs religious services in some religions punch(n/v) a hit with your closed hand referee(n) someone who makes sure that rules are followed in sports relief(n) money, food, or clothes given to those who need them; the feeling that you can stop worrying about something rib(n) one of the curved bones in your chest ring(n) a square area, surrounded by seats, where boxers fight round(n) one stage of a boxing fight, usually lasting three minutes sweat(n/v) liquid that comes from the skin of a hot or nervous person wagon(n) a strong vehicle with four wheels, usually pulled by horses Summary Cinderella Man tells the true story of American boxing legend, James J. Braddock. A man of the people, Braddock fights against poverty and obscurity as hard as he does against his sporting opponents. This book is based on the 2005 movie, directed by Ron Howard and staring Russell Crowe and Renée Zellweger. The story begins in 1928, when the American economy is thriving and Braddock is a popular and successful boxer. He has a promising boxing career ahead of him, plenty of money and a happy home life in New Jersey with his wife and three children. But by the early 1930s Jim Braddock’s career has hit rock bottom. America is suffering from the Great Depression and, like many of his fellow Americans, Braddock finds himself unable to pay the bills or support his young family. After a crushing defeat in the boxing ring, Braddock loses his boxing license and is forced to work for a few dollars a day in the Newark, New Jersey, docks. Despite being so desperately poor that he has to beg his former manager for money, Braddock never loses his pride or his determination to keep his family together. Just when the family are most desperate, Braddock is offered a second chance in the ring. He returns to fighting having sold his boxing shoes and with no recent training. But his work at the docks has strengthened Braddock’s left hand punch … and his resolve. He wins his fight and goes on to win more. He becomes the champion of the American common man – fighting against the odds and carrying the hopes and dreams of his countrymen with every punch. He works his way up the boxing ranks until, finally, he faces Max Baer – the notoriously violent world heavyweight champion. With his wife begging him not to fight on one side, and the demoralized, impoverished American population urging him to win on the other, Braddock enters the ring for the fight of his life. After a long and dramatic fight, the judges announce Braddock’s victory. The fighter’s triumph over great adversity both in and out of the ring is a truly inspirational tale. About the authors Cliff Hollingsworth and Akiva Goldsman worked together to write the story for the movie Cinderella Man. Before the movie, Jim Braddock’s story was not well known in the United States. Hollingsworth wanted to tell modern Americans about this great man, so he contacted Jim Braddock’s sons, Jay and Howard. They read Hollingsworth’s first script and loved it! At last their father’s heroic story would be told. Hollingsworth wanted to keep as close to the true story as possible. When Jim Braddock pays money back to the relief office in Chapter 10, it may seem like a Hollywood fantasy, but it was really true. Jim Braddock’s sons, too, agreed that their parents’ characters and the movie story itself is very accurate. As Hollingsworth says, Jim Braddock “was a character who was too good to be true – but he was true!” Cinderella Man was Cliff Hollingsworth’s first big movie. Akiva Goldsman is an experienced Hollywood scriptwriter. He worked with Hollingsworth on the Cinderella Man script once the main story was ready. Before Cinderella Man, he adapted two John Grisham movies, The Client and A Time to Kill, as well as working with the actor Russell Crowe on the Oscar-winning movie, A Beautiful Mind. (You can read all these stories in the Penguin Readers series, too.) Marc Cerasini wrote the book Cinderella Man from the movie. He has worked as a magazine editor and writer for over twenty years. He often works on novelizations for some of the big movie companies in Hollywood. Background and themes Cinderella Man begins in New York in 1928, during the “Roaring Twenties.” This was an exciting time of great economic prosperity and social change in the United States. After World War I, the American economy grew faster than ever before. Thousands of people were making money quickly on the stock market, the development of massproduced goods meant that industry was thriving, and new music, movies, and literature were inspiring people’s creativity and optimism everywhere. But this all came to a sudden end on Black Tuesday, 29th October 1929, when the US stock market collapsed. The book highlights the sudden and dramatic change in the Braddocks’ fortunes as the United States (and the industrialized world) was plunged into the Great Depression. Although President Herbert Hoover insisted that the only thing to fear was “fear itself,” the American economy did not recover and millions of Americans lost their jobs and their homes. Cinderella Man shows the suffering of the average American citizen during the Depression. We see Mae forced to wait in line for soup to feed her family and to burn street signs to keep her children warm and Jim reduced to begging for a few dollars (Chapter 5) to keep his family together. We also see homeless New Yorkers living on the streets, in cars, on the subway and in Central Park. All over the United States, people began building shanty towns – also known as “Hoovervilles” – to live in. © Pearson Education Limited 2006 Date: 2016-01-14; view: 855
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