Roald Dahl was one of the most successful writers of children's books. He sold millions of books all over the world. Many of his books have been made into films and videos. He is so famous that there is even a Roald Dahl Museum you can visit.

    Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in Wales, Britain. His father was rich but he died when Roald was very young. Roald and his mother lived a hard life. He had to leave school and went to Africa where he worked for an oil company.

    In 1939 Roald became a pilot, but he had a bad accident. It made him limp(瘸的) for the rest of his life. After this, Roald went to America where he wrote a story about his experience as a pilot. It was so good that it was put in a magazine.

    Roald married an American film star. They bought a house in England and had five children. From 1960 to 1965, ____： Theo, one of his children, was hit by a taxi and was seriously hurt. Olivia, one of Roald's daughters, died of a strange illness. Soon after this, his wife also had a serious illness. It took her years to get completely better.

    Gradually Roald became more and more successful. He always did his writing in an old shed(棚) at the back of his house. He always sat in the same old armchair with a wooden board on his lap.

    “One of the nice things about being a writer,” he once said, “is that all you need is what you've got in your head and a pencil and a bit of paper.”

    In 1983 Roald won a big prize for his book The BFG. During his life, Roald wrote many famous books, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, Fantastic Mr. Fox.

    After he died in 1990, Roald left money to help people with serious illnesses and those with problems with reading and writing.

    People usually hate mice, but one mouse has won the hearts of the people all over the world—the famous Mickey Mouse.

    Fifty years ago most movies were silent. A man called Walt Disney made a cartoon mouse that could talk his movies. He named his mouse Mickey Mouse. People, both young and old, were very excited at the talking mouse. Children loved to see their friend, because he brought joy and laughter to them.

    Mickey was a clean mouse right from the beginning. Perhaps this is one reason why people hate real mice and love Mickey Mouse. In his early life Mickey made some mistakes. People were angry. They wrote to Disney and said that they did not want Mickey to do silly things. So Disney made a new animal named Donald Duck. He also made a dog called Pluto. This dog does stupid things and makes mistakes wherever he goes. Now our Mickey Mouse is not only clean but also important. He appears as a beautiful and clever star. He has his friends in almost every country.

    One day a poor farmer was taking a bag of rice to the town. Suddenly the bag fell down from his horse on the road. He didn't know what to do about it because it was too heavy for him to lift (举起) it by himself. He only hoped that somebody would soon pass (经过) by and help him.

    Just at this moment a man riding a horse came up to him. But the farmer was very disappointed(失望的)when he saw who he was. It was the great man living nearby. The farmer had hoped to ask another farmer or a poor man like him for help.

    But to his surprise, the great man got off his horse as soon as he came near. He said to the farmer, "I see you need help, my friend. How good it is that I'm here just at the right time！" Then he took one end of the bag, the farmer took the other. They together lifted it and put it on the horse.

    "Sir, " asked the farmer, "how can I pay you？"

    "It's quite easy, " the great man answered with a smile, "Wherever (无论在哪里) you see anyone in trouble, do the same for him. "

    Neel Sethi starred in Disney's cartoon The Jungle Book. The cartoon started being shown in theaters on April 15th. In this cartoon, Neel Sethi plays Mowgli, a boy growing up in the jungle with some wild wolves. When a big tiger named Shere Khan tries to kill him, Mowgli has to leave his wolf family. Along the way, Mowgli meets many animals. Some of them put him in danger, and others help him out of danger. Bill Murray, Lupita Nyong'o and Scarlett Johansson give their voices for the animals in the cartoon.

    In fact, Neel finished most of his parts in front of a blue screen. Later on, people put his parts with the animals and jungle pictures together. In the movie, Mowgli enjoys living with the bear, Baloo, very much. Mowgli stays on the top of Baloo as they play in a river and sing The Bare Necessities.

    "To do well in the movie, I ran and jumped around in my own time," Neel said. "So it really wasn't that hard to be Mowgli."

    Andrew Holleman, a 12-year-old boy, loved playing in the open land near his home. The land was wet and forested, and made a home for birds, other animals and many different plants.

    It made the perfect place for him to study and get to know nature. He had seen some red-tail hawks, red foxes, wood turtles and other animals. He also found special native flowers.

    Suddenly it was reported that the "empty" land would be improved by a lot of houses on it. The plants would be removed, the animals would run away and most would probably die. Then the wet soil would be covered with extra grounds.

    When he heard about the news, he was not happy. He was very worried that the land and water would be polluted. Andrew wrote down clearly all the research he had done about the area, and how the houses would affect(影响)the local environment. He sent letters to members of local government and television reporters. He also called on his neighbors to oppose the building of the houses.

    Although he was only 12 years old, he had the courage and wisdom of a person much older.

    Andrew's teachers described him as a gentle, shy and active. His classmates also admired how much he knew about local animals and plants, and the environment. Each day after school, Andrew went door-to-door, to ask the people to sign(签字), who did not want the houses to be built. In only one month, he got the signatures of 250 people.

    In the end, the land remained a safe place for birds, animals and plants that belonged there.

    Andrew won many prizes for his brave and great work to stop the houses being built, and he helped save the environment.