"Mark Twain" was the name used by Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) when he wrote books. His father was a lawyer, but a poor one, who lived at Florida, Missouri. The family was so poor that Samuel did not receive much teaching. He had to learn all that he could from the people whom he met. His father died when he was very young, and then there was even less money than before.

  Many of the men in this part of America worked in the ships on the great River Mississippi, and he did this himself at one time (1857).

  Where did he find the name "Mark Twain"? It came from the great river itself. It was part of one of the cries used by men who worked in the ships. When a man called "By the mark twain!" he meant that the river was "two marks deep" there, that is to say, six feet deep ( "Twain" is an old form of the word "Two".) Samuel Clemens often heard these words when he was young, and he used them as a penname all his life.

  During his work on the Mississippi he met travelers of all kinds, and this helped him a great deal when he started to write. But the number of travelers became smaller when war started in America in 1861. Many of the great ships on the river stopped work. Samuel left then and went to Nevada with his brother, who was at that time Governor of Nevada. There, near the town of Carson, Samuel became a gold miner, but he never made much money at the time. He soon saw that life in the gold mines was not for him. He also tried writing for the newspapers in Nevada, and this seemed more hopeful. He found that he could write.

  He went to Europe in 1867 and visited France and Italy. In 1870 he married Olivia Langdon, and two years later he was spending nearly all his time writing. Among his books is his own story (1908).

  He is now always known as Mark Twain, and many people do not even know that his family name was Clemens. He traveled in America and in England, and went to Oxford in 1907. He was one of the greatest American writers of the time, and could ake his readers laugh – a thing which few writers can do. He died in 1910.

1. "Mark Twain" was _________.

  A. a famous American writer     B. name of a book

  C. a great river in America      D. a large ship

2 As a child, Samuel did not get much education because _________.

  A. his father died too early

B. the family was very poor

  C. he disliked school very much

D. he could learn what he liked from the people he met

3. What gave him a great deal when he started writing? _______

  A. His poor childhood B. The Mississippi river

  C. All kinds of travelers he met D. His brother

4. We can infer from the passage that ________.

A. Samuel loved writing from his early age

B. Samuel did not love writing at the beginning

  C. his writings to the newspaper were successful

D. his brother encouraged him to write more

5. According to the writer of the passage, a good writer could _________.

A. write a lot for his readers   B. make a lot of money for his family

C. cause his readers to laugh   D. travel everywhere he wanted

 

 0  41732  41740  41746  41750  41756  41758  41762  41768  41770  41776  41782  41786  41788  41792  41798  41800  41806  41810  41812  41816  41818  41822  41824  41826  41827  41828  41830  41831  41832  41834  41836  41840  41842  41846  41848  41852  41858  41860  41866  41870  41872  41876  41882  41888  41890  41896  41900  41902  41908  41912  41918  41926  151629 

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网