Mark Twain was a pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He was born on November 30, 1835, in a small town in Florida, rile USA. He 1 a few naughty boys who later 2 in his stories. At the age of 12, his father died. and he began to work, first as a printer, then on a river boat. Those years on the boat went into his book “Life 3 the Mississipi”. 4 the Civil War he worked as a reporter and used Mark Twain as his pen name. The stories he wrote in this period 5 him famous and popular. He made a lot of money by writing, lecturing and running 6 publishing house. But he spent all of it on high living and 7 business. Mark Twain 8 as a “funny man”. But in fact he took a serious view of fife. Many sad things happened in his own life. All his 9 helped to shape his stories 10 showed the dark side of society. He died as an old man of 75 in 1910.

　　On his last evening with the Andrews, George said to them, “My plane to New York 4 very early tomorrow morning. I'm going to 5 at five o'clock and make my breakfast. Please don't come down.”

　　George laughed happily and said, “That's 9 . I'm not going to eat my breakfast 10 this morning!”

　　There is something about New Year's Eve. In Scotland （苏格兰） the last day of the year is the ____1____ important holiday of the winter,more important than ____2____ On New Year's Eve friends and neighbors（邻居）go about from house to house drinking to each other's health and wishing good luck. ____3___ New Year's Day all shops and factories are closed and no ____4___ is done. Families meet ____5___for a big meal and a family party.

　　In England New Year's Day is not ____6___ holiday and people go to work as ____7___ But on New Year's Eve most people sit up till ____8___ “to see the New Year in” or they ____9___to parties and dances. Most of the big London hotels ____10___ a New Year's Eve dance.

　　Mr. Jenkins'lawyer（律师）came and asked the boy 5 questions in the court（法庭）.

　　“Now, my boy,” he said, “Mr. Jenkins truck knocked you down 6 ?”

　　“Yes, sir,” said the boy.

　　“And you cannot lift your right arm now?”

　　“ 7 , sir.”

　　“Could you 8 us how high you can lift your right arm?”

　　“Poor boy,” said the lawyer. “And how high 9 you lift it before the accident（事故）?”

　　“Oh, I could lift it very high,” said the boy, and the 10 went up high over his head.

　　A long time past, the Chinese made kites to 5 them in the fight against the enemies（敌人）. They would fly these kites in the night. The kites were made 6 from the others and when they flew they made 7 . The enemies were afraid and 8 . They thought those strange sounds were made by gods（神）in the sky.

　　The Chinese people also flew kites to 9 good luck and to make their crops tall and rich. Sometimes they would fly the kites 10 the water, pulling hooks（钩）hung down to catch fish.

　　 2 she was ready, she got on her bike and left for the park－it was on the other side of the town. Suddenly, as she was riding fast, she 3 sirens （警笛）. The sound of the sirens was getting 4 , so Debbie looked 5 her to see what was happening. As a result, she fell off her bike and lay in the middle of the road. Luckily, Debbie wasn't hurt, 6 a car hit her bike. After the car 7 , two men got out and started running. 8 , a police car stopped next to the same car and three policemen got out and started running after the two men. One of the policemen shouted, “Stop the thieves（贼）   9   a policeman came to see Debbie. He thanked her because, in a way, she had helped them 10 .

　　When you are invited to a meal in Thailand（泰国）, the words of the invitation mean “come and eat rice”. In fact, nearly all Thai dishes are 1 with rice, which grows there very easily 2 the climate（气候）is warm and there is much rain.

　　The food that is served is 3 cut into pieces, so there is no need to use knives and forks, but, instead, special spoons and forks are used. The Thais 4 to eat with their hands and now there are still some people who eat this way. There is a special 5 of doing it. First they wash their 6 hands in bowl of water－they only eat with their right hands. They are careful not to let the food 7 the palms（手掌心）of their hands. After the meal, the 8 are again carefully washed.

　　The meal usually has several different dishes. They are all hot. They are served in bowls which everyone shares（共享）, 9 each person has their own bowl of 10 . As Thailand has a long coastline（海岸线）, it is not surprising that fish and shellfish play an important part in Thai cooking.

　　You are learning large numbers of new 3 from reading. This can help you to have a bigger and richer vocabulary（词汇量）. 4 you read a lot, you will meet with many new words that you would not often use in daily life. Reading often also helps 5 your writing because new words 6 in your compositions.

　　Tiger Woods is a famous professional golfer（职业高尔夫球手）. In fact, he is probably 1 golfer in the world today. He 2 in the United States in 1975. When he was very young, he learned how to play golf 3 his father. In 1978, when Tiger was three years old, he was on 4 first TV show. He played golf with some famous people 5 he surprised everyone. Between the ages of 8 and 16, Tiger Woods learned a lot about playing 6 . He won his first championship(冠军) in 7 years. In 1994, Tiger became a student of Stanford University. He won 10 golf championships while he 8 at the university. In 1996, Tiger became a professional golfer and 9 more money. He was very famous and rich 10 he was still young. Now he has many fans and is a model for young people.