内容提要：God Bless America歌曲作者欧文·伯林生平与事迹。
People who are especially good at doing certain things without having been taught how to do them are said to be “born with the gift 天赋.”Irving Berlin was a gifted person. He never had music lessons, and he could not read or write notes 音符. Yet he became one of America’s most famous songwriters.
Irving Berlin, whose real name was Isreal Baline, was born in Russia on May 11, 1888. He moved to New York City with his family when he was four years old.
Berlin’s father died when Berlin was very young. To help support his family, Berlin sang songs on street corners and in saloons for “thrown money.”When he was 14, he worked as a singing waiter at a Chinatown restaurant in New York. At age 19, Berlin had his first published song.
At 23, Berlin wrote “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”It was a big hit and popularized ragtime music throughout the country. In 1917, during World War I, Berlin was a sergeant 军士 in the infantry 步兵团. He organized, wrote and starred in an all-army musical show.
After the war, Berlin started his own publishing company. He wrote hundreds of songs, many of them for famous musicals such as the Ziegfeld Follies. Berlin also composed songs for movies. Some of Berlin’s most successful songs were “White Christmas,”“God Bless America,”“Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning,”and “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”
Berlin received the Medal of Merit 功绩，荣誉 from the United States government for a show called This is the Army. It earned $7 million for the Army Emergency 紧急状态 Relief赈灾，救济 Fund.
Irving Berlin died in 1989. He was 101 years old.
本文选自上海外语教育出版社引进出版的
《听读美国小故事》第5册（五月）
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