Mark Twain left school when he was twelve. He had little school education. In spite of this, he became the most famous writer of his time. He made millions of dollars by writing. His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, but he is better known all over the world as Mark Twain, his penname.

    Mark Twain was born in 1835 and he was not a healthy baby. In fact, he was not expected to live through the first winter. But with his mother's care, he managed to survive. As a boy, he caused much trouble for his parents. He used to play jokes on all his friends and neighbors. He didn't like to go to school, and he often ran away from home. He always went in the direction of the nearby Mississippi. He was nearly drowned nine times.

    After his father's death, Mark Twain began to work for a printer, who only provided him with food and clothing. Then, he worked as a printer, a river-boat pilot and later joined the army. But shortly after that he became a miner. During this period, he started to write short stories. Afterwards he became a full time writer.

    In 1870, Mark Twain got married. In the years that followed he wrote many books including Tom Sawyer in 1876, and Huckleberry Finn in 1884, which made him famous, and brought him great fortune.

    Unfortunately, Mark Twain got into debts in bad investments(投资) and he had to write large numbers of stories to pay these debts. In 1904, his wife died, and then three of his children passed away.

    At the age of 70, his hair was completely white. He bought many white suits and neckties. He wore nothing but white from head to foot until his death on April 21, 1910.

    H. G. Wells lived from 1866 to 1946. He wrote many famous stories. He was best at writing stories about the future. One story is called The Time Machine. Here is the story.

    More than 100 years ago, there was an English scientist and inventor living in London. One day, four friends went to his house for dinner. The inventor was not there. Feeling hungry, they started dinner without him. Then they heard a sound. A few moments later, the inventor came in, looking dirty.

    He told his friends that he built a time machine. He could travel into the future.

    The inventor went thousands of years in the future. He met people called the Eloi. They were smaller than him. They had no machines. Growing fruit and vegetables was all that they did. They had no hobbies. Only one girl, Weena, spoke to him.

    Four days later, he met other people called Morlocks. They lived underground. They caught Eloi people and ate them! The inventor wanted to fight against the Morlocks. The Eloi didn't want to help him, not even the strong men. He tried to fight against the Morlocks. At last, Weena went underground with him. Unfortunately, Weena died.

    After that, he got in his time machine. He came back to his time. Seeing the future made him sad. The people in the future were worse. They were not clever.

    His friends didn't think it was a real story. But they never saw him again. Maybe he went to save the future.

    One day, I walked into a stranger as he walked by me. "Oh, excuse me." I said. He replied with a smile and said, "Please excuse me, too. I wasn't watching out for you." We apologized(道歉) and went our own ways.

    Later that day, when I was cooking, my daughter was standing too close to me. When I turned to reach for some milk, I nearly knocked her over. "Move out of the way." I shouted. She walked away sadly. But I didn't feel like I had to apologize to her.

    While I was in bed that evening, my husband said to me, "Dealing with a stranger, you were polite, but with a daughter you love, you were unkind. Your daughter brought you some flowers that she picked herself this afternoon. You'll find them in the kitchen by the door. Have you seen the tears in her eyes?"

    I quietly went and knelt down by my daughter's bed. "Honey, I am so sorry." I said, "Are these the flowers you picked for me?" She said, "I found them by the tree. I picked them because they're pretty like you. I knew you'd like them especially the blue ones." I tearfully replied, "Sweetie, I'm really sorry for the way I acted today. I shouldn't have shouted at you." "It's okay. I love you anyway." she said as she kissed me on my cheek.

    If we can be polite to strangers, why can't we be kind to the ones we love?

Hello, everyone!My name is Liu Wei. I am 12 years old. I was born in Nanjing. I am a friendly and honest boy. I have a happy family. There are four people in my family—my father, my mother, my sister and me. 

My father looks strong. He is a doctor in a hospital near my home. He is so busy that he has no time to play with me. But I know he loves me. He likes running, swimming and playing basketball. 

My mother is tall and slim. Her hair is long and black. She has many hobbies. She is good at planting vegetables and flowers. She also enjoys traveling with me. My mother does a lot for me. She always looks after me well. And she is very strict(严格的)about my study. 

My sister is 13 years old. Her name is Liu Li. She has big eyes. She looks cute. In her free time, she likes reading, dancing and listening to music. We study in the same school. She is good at all her lessons. She wants to be a Chinese teacher when she grows up. 

I love my family very much. I hope all my family members always stay happy and healthy. 

It was late afternoon. The shade(阴凉处) came around to the front of the house,1 it was not too hot. My brother Tommy and I decided to do some drawing there.

Tommy drew a picture2 shade. He said," It helps me feel cool."I looked at my hot sun picture and planned to try to draw 3 in Tommy's way.

Then I saw our friends Mario and Katie walking to us, They stopped and looked at our pictures, Mario 4 at Tommy's picture and asked," What's this?"

" Shade," Tommy answered. Mario looked at the picture for a few 5 , and then picked up the blue chalk(粉笔). When he finished 6 , he told us," Do you know7 it is? It's cool water!" Tommy and I liked his picture. Then, Katie jumped up and took the white chalk.

" Watch this, Joe," she said to 8 and started to draw," It's snow. Now we can dream we' re in winter."

" Good idea! Then we can make some snowballs and 9 snowman,"I said. We looked at each other and laughed. The pictures seemed 10 the weather cool.