阅读短文, 根据短文内容回答问题。(共10分，每小题2分)

Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He was born on November 30, 1835, in a small town in Florida, the USA. He grew up with a few naughty boys who later appeared in his stories. Perhaps you are familiar with some of his books, as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. At the age of 12, his father died, and he began to work, first as a printer, then a pilot on a river boat. Those years on the boat went into his book Life on the Mississippi.

    During the Civil War he worked as a reporter and used Mark Twain as his pen name. The stories he wrote in this period made him famous and popular. He made a lot of money by writing, lecturing and running his own publishing house. But he spent all of it on his high living and unsuccessful business.

    Mark Twain was known as a world-wide famous writer and a humorist, which means funny man. But in fact, he took a serious view of life. Many sad things happened in his own life. All his experiences helped to shape his stories which showed the dark side of the society. He died as an old man of 75 in 1910.  (200)

1.What did Mark Twain do when he was 12?

2.Did Mark Twain write himself and his friends in his stories?

3.When did Mark Twain become famous?

4.What is Mark Twain’s writing style?

5.What does the passage mainly tell us and what does the writer think of Mark Twain?

When my son, Mark, was in the third grade, he saved all his pocket money for over three months to buy holiday presents. The third Saturday in December Mark said he had made his list and had twenty dollars in his pocket.
I drove him to a nearby supermarket. Mark picked up a hand basket and went in while I waited and watched in the car. It took Mark over 45 minutes to choose his presents. Finally he came to the checkout counter (交款处) and reached into his pocket ... Mark stood there holding his basket, tears falling down his face.
Then a surprising thing happened. A woman came up to Mark and took him in her arms. “You would help me a lot if you let me pay for you,” said the woman. “It would be the most wonderful gift you could give me. I only ask one day you will pass it on. When you grow up, I would like you to find someone you can help. When you help others, I know you will feel as good about it as I do now.”
Mark took the money, dried his tears and ran back to the checkout counter as fast as he could. That year we all enjoyed our gifts almost as much as Mark enjoyed giving them to us.
I would like to say “thank you” to that very kind woman, and tell her that four years later, Mark went house to house collecting blankets and clothes for the homeless people in the fire. And I want to promise her that Mark will never forget to keep passing it on.
【小题1】When did the story probably happen?