| set up, be afraid of, keep healthy, make up one's mind, care about |
About the year 1900, a dark-haired boy called Charlie Chaplin was often seen waiting outside the back entrances of London theatres. He looked thin and hungry. He was hoping to get work in show business. He could sing and dance, and above all, he knew how to make people laugh. But he couldn't get work and therefore walked around the city streets. Sometimes he was sent away to a home for children who had no parents.
But twenty years later, this same Chaplin became the greatest, best-known, and best-loved comedian in the world. Any regular visitors to the cinema must have seen some of his films. People everywhere sat and laughed until the tears ran down their faces. Even people who don't understand English can enjoy his films, because they are mostly silent. It isn't what he says that makes us laugh. His comedy doesn't depend on words or language. It depends on little actions which mean the thing to people all over the world.
Acting out without words of common human situations plays an important part in the dances and plays in many countries. It's a kind of world language. Chaplin lived most of his life in America and died in Switzerland on Christmas Day in 1977, at the age of 88.There was sadness all over the world at the news of his death.
