Anderson was born in the slums(贫民区) of Odense, Denmark, on April 2,1805. His early life was not easy. His father was a shoemaker and his mother worked as a washerwoman. He received little early education. As a child he was very emotional and was laughed at for being feminine(女性化)and tall.

In l8l6 his father died and Andersen was forced to go out to work. first in a tailor’s shop and then at a tobacco factory. At the age of l4 Anderson moved to Copenhagen to start a career as a singer and actor. He struggled for three years until he had to leave the theatre when his voice broke in l822.

Anderson went to a grammar school after he left the theatre. Having done well he was admitted to Copenhagen University in 1828.

He began to publish his fairy tales in 1835. They came out in small volumes(量) until his death. Nowadays, children all around the world are familiar with his fairy tales such as “The Little Mermaid ”(《美人鱼》)，“The Princess and the Pea” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. The colourful characters from the stories made us laugh and cry throughout our childhood. Although Anderson lived a hard life, he tried to make people laugh in all his stories. He wrote because he didn’t want children to have a sad childhood as he did. “Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched(孵化) from a swan’s egg,” he once said．

The work brought Anderson world fame, but he remained a lonely man. He loved three women in his life but none of them loved him back and he never married. His friends were the people that paid for his work and not people he was particularly close to. “Just living is not enough…One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower,’’ he said.

Anderson died on August 4, l 875.

Anderson

“Colour” and “color”, “favourite” and “favorite”···Have you ever wondered why Americans spell those words without a “u”? Is it because they are lazy?
Of course not. In fact, the difference in spelling was created by Noah Webster (1758—1843). He is a teacher who reformed English to make American identity stronger. Linguists（语言学家） celebrated his 250^th birthday on October 16. After the Revolutionary War(1775—1783), Webster believed that Americans should have their own dictionary, rather than rely on British versions（版本）. He dropped the British “u” in some words. And he changed “centre” into “center” for children to learn English by spelling words more like they sounded.
Webster wasn’t shy about expressing his opinions. In defining（定义） preposterous, he wrote: “A republican government in the hands of females is preposterous.”
Webster spent 28 years on the project before completing the 70,000-word dictionary in 1828 with his American-style spellings. He also added local words. His dictionary was widely used in schools. Linguists believed it helped a new nation achieve unity and cultural independence at a time when most were focused on political freedom.
“He was the shaper of our language and the shaper of American identity,” said Joshua Kendall, who is working on a biography（传记） about Webster. “He at last bonded（联合） us through our language.”
【小题1】          According to the passage, when he worked on his dictionary, Noah Webster did all of the following EXCEPT______.

Long before the white man came to the America, the land belonged to the American Indian nations, The nation of the Cherokees lived in what is now the southeastern part of the United States.

After the white man came, the Cherokees copied many of their ways. One Cherokee named Sequoyah saw how important reading and writing was to the white man. He decided to invent a way to write down the spoken Cherokee language. He began by making word pictures. For each word he drew a picture. But that proved impossible; there were just too many words. Then he took the 85 sounds that made up the language. Using his own imagination and an English spelling book, Sequoyah invented a sign for each sound. His alphabet proved amazingly easy to learn. Before long, many Cherokees knew how to read and write in their own language. By 1828, they were even printing their own newspaper.

In 1830, the US congress passed a law. It allowed the government to remove Indians from their lands. The Cherokees refused to go. They had lived on their lands for centuries. It belonged to them. Why should they go to a strange land far beyond the Mississippi River?

The army was sent to drive the Cherokees out. Soldiers surrounded their villages and marched them at gunpoint into the western territory. The sick, the old and the small children went in carts, along with their belongings. The rest of the people marched on foot or rode on horseback. It was November, yet many of them still wore their summer clothes. Cold and hungry, the Cherokees were quickly exhausted by the hardships of journey. Many dropped dead and were buried by the roadside. When the last group arrived in their new home in March 1839, more than 4000 had died. It was in deed a march of death.

The Cherokee Nation used to live____________.

A. on the American continent        B. in the southeastern part of the US

C. beyond the Mississippi River         D. in the western territory

One of the ways that Sequoyah copied from the white man is the way of__________.

A. writing down the spoken language         B. making word pictures

C. teaching his people reading               D. printing their own newspaper

A law was passed in 1830 to__________.

A. allow the Cherokees to stay where they were    

B. send the army to help the Cherokees

C. force the Cherokees to move westward         

D. forbid the Cherokees to read their newspaper

When the Cherokees began to leave their lands, __________.

A. they went in carts            B. they went on horseback

C. they marched on foot         D. all of the above

Many Cherokees died on their way to their new home mainly because________.

A. they were not willing to go there

B. the government did not provide transportation

C. they did not have enough food and clothes

D. the journey was long and boring

"Colour" and "color"，"favourite" and "favorite"... Have you ever wondered why Americans spell those words without a "u"? Is it because they are lazy?

Of course not. In fact，the difference in spelling was created by Noah Webster (1758-1843). He is a teacher who reformed English to make American identity stronger. Linguists (语言学家) celebrated his 250th birthday on October 16. After the Revolutionary War (1775~ 1783)，Webster believed that Americans should have their own dictionary，rather than rely on British versions (版本). He dropped the British "u" in some words. And he changed "centre" into "center" for children to learn English by spelling words more like they sounded.

Webster wasn't shy about expressing his opinions. In defining (定义) preposterous (unreasonable)，he wrote: "A republican government in the hands of females is preposterous."

Webster spent 28 years on the project before completing the 70,000-word dictionary in 1828 with his American-style spellings. He also added local words. His dictionary was widely used in schools. Linguists believed it helped a new nation achieve unity and cultural independence at a time when most were focused on political freedom.

"He was the shaper of our language and the shaper of American identity，"said Joshua Kendall，who is working on a biography (传记) about Webster. "He at last bonded (联合)us through our language."

1.Which of the following would probably be the best title for the passage?

2.According to the passage，when he worked on his dictionary, Noah Webster did all of the following EXCEPT        .

3.Which of the following word can best describe Noah Webster’s work?

4.Why did Noah Webster create these differences in his dictionary?

5.When did Noah Webster probably begin his project of the dictionary?