Doctor Seuss was born in 1904. By the middle 1950s, he had become one of the best-loved and most successful children's book writers in the world. His books are very popular with young readers. They enjoy the invented words and the pictures of unusual funny animals and plants.

    In 1954, life magazine published a report about school children who could not read. The report said many children's books were not interesting. Doctor Seuss strongly hoped to help children and decided to write books that were interesting and easy to read. He used words with the same ending sound, like fish and wish. He did not receive training in art. Yet, he drew the pictures for most of his books.

    In 1957, Dr. Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat. He used less than 230 words to write the book and even a six-year-old should be able to read it. It was a fun story and easy to read. Children loved it. Their parents loved it, too. Today it is still one of the stories they like best. The success of The Cat in the Hat made him want to write more books for children. In 1960, he wrote a book using less than fifty words. The book is called Green Eggs and Ham.

    In 1984, Doctor Seuss won a Pulitzer Prize (普利策奖). He was honored for the education and enjoyment his books provided American children and their parents.

    He died at the age of 87, but his influence remains. Millions of his books have been sold worldwide. People say his books helped change the way American children learned to read. Yet, his books are loved by people of all ages. Doctor Seuss once said, “I do not write for children. I write for people.”

    Mary was afraid of the dark. She thought there were terrible monsters（怪物） in the dark. One day her aunt Valerie came to visit. Valerie was a brave woman. Mary wanted to be like her. So Mary asked her aunt, "Are you afraid of the dark?"

    "A lot of times" answered her aunt. "When I was small, I was afraid of staying in the dark."

    Hearing this, Mary felt better.

    "I know a secret not to be afraid of the dark. Some blind children told it to me."

    "Can you tell me?" asked Mary.

    "Of course! The secret is to change your eyes. Because blind children can't see, and their hands are their eyes. At night, if anything makes you afraid, close your eyes, get out of bed, and try to see what it is. But use your hands as eyes..."

    That night when Mary felt afraid of something in the bedroom, she closed the eyes of her face and opened the eyes of her hands. She went to touch it with her hands...

    The next morning, Mary ran into the kitchen.

There was a big smile on her face. "The monster is so lovely," she cried. "It's my toy dog!"

Last Saturday, our class went to the science museum. We {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (visit) the dinosaur （恐龙） room. All of us {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (be) very excited. Dinosaurs lived in the world millions of {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (year) ago. But now they have died out. There was a robot dinosaur in {#blank#}4{#/blank#} museum. It could make sounds and walk just {#blank#}5{#/blank#} real dinosaurs. 

Some dinosaurs were scary （吓人的）. We were afraid {#blank#}6{#/blank#} them. We even {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (watch) a large dinosaur "eating" a small animal. Some dinosaurs looked very big, but they only used their {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (tooth) to eat plants, They didn't eat meat. Some dinosaurs could {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (fly)! 

Some scientists {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (study) the dinosaurs and they thought that these dinosaurs lived in trees and had wings （翅膀） like birds. So are birds part of the dinosaur family? It's really an interesting idea.

Once upon a time, a king went for hunting in the forest. While returning back, because of the dark he couldn't find his way. At last he found a small 1 . The king went over and 2 the door. A poor farmer lived in the house. He 3 great care of the king. 

Before leaving the next day, the king gave the farmer a nearby sandalwood (檀香木) forest as a gift. But 4 , the farmer didn't know the value of sandalwood. He started to make coal from the sandalwood and 5 it in the market. At last, only a few sandalwood trees were left in the forest. 

One day, it rained a lot, and the farmer couldn't make coal from the 6 wood. So he cut down some branches (树枝) and took them to the market. The sandalwood 7 very good. Many customers came to buy it and they wanted to pay a lot for a small branch. The farmer didn't 8 that. He asked one of his 9 , "Why does everyone want to pay huge amount for this wood?"

The buyer 10 , "This is sandalwood. It has good smell and it's very 11 "

When the farmer understood this, he started to cry and just at that moment an old man was passing by.

 12 he knew everything, he said to the farmer, "All people in the world can make 13 But it's better late than never. You still have some sandalwood trees left. You can use 14 wisely."

The farmer 15 his mistake and then went back and sowed (播种) more sandalwood seeds in the forest. He would use his sandalwood wisely from then on. 

Martin Strel is a swimmer, who is best known for swimming the big rivers. Martin holds Guinness World Records for swimming the Danube River, the Mississippi River, the Yangtze River and the Amazon River. 

Of all his achievements (成就), the greatest is his Amazon River swim: The Amazon is one of the largest and most dangerous rivers in the world. Many swimmers failed to swim it. Martin decided to make history and show the world that people could achieve their dreams with hard work and perseverance (毅力). 

On 8th April 2007, Martin completed his Amazon River swim all the way. He spent 67 days swimming about 3, 274 miles in total. His hard work and perseverance at last bore fruit. He became a big shot as well as a worldwide hero. 

Many people still cannot believe what he has done so far and they describe him as"the Craziest Man in the World". In 2009, American filmmakers produced a documentary called Big River Man. And the book, The Man Who Swam the Amazon, has been sold in many countries. The story of Martin's perseverance and hard work has encouraged many people. 

Does Martin swim for money? That's not the truth. Instead, he wants to teach people about the importance of keeping water clean. Martin has always been looking for the challenges of the impossible. What is his next?