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.

My husband and I bought a house when we were in our fifties. One of the1 we bought it was thatit was so amazing. It had a big Japanese red pine（松树）, which looked2 in our front yard. For 20years, it was a beauty to all who3 . Animals liked to climb it and play there. Beside it was my smallgarden of4 and bushes that I'd planted. 

Early last year, a heavy snowfall hit our city.5 we were enjoying a quiet Saturday morning, thehouse shook and we heard a loud sound. The tree had6 , destroying most of the bushes and roses in thegarden. We called some workers to take the tree away. After a week, the yard was7 a mess with woodshaving（刨花）and holes everywhere. 

In March, I bought a few bush and rose seedlings（幼苗）to8 those that I thought hadn't lived. But in May, plenty of new flowers were growing in the yard! My old bushes and roses grew back and werehealthier than ever before! Our yard turned9 a beautiful garden. And this summer, one year later, allof the plants are three times bigger than they were before. 

Life might be10 for you at the moment, but you never know what the future holds. It might just bemuch brighter. 

Martin had a lot of friends at school. He 1 told his family how many friends he had. 

One day, his father called him for a bet (打赌). "Martin, I bet you for the bike you wanted."

"Really?! What's the bet? " Martin couldn't believe his 2 .

"You do not have as many friends as you think. Not everyone is 3 friend."

Martin asked, " 4 can I test whether they are my friends?"

"I have something special. 5 me."

A few minutes later, Martin saw his father walking back, looking like he was carrying something heavy. But Martin could not see anything.

"This is a magic chair. Take this to the club, and sit on it 6 . Then you can tell who are your real friends," his father said. 

The next day when Martin was in the club with the "chair", he asked everyone together and said, "Friends, you are about to see my magic here. 7 closely."

Then Martin tried sitting on the chair. But he fell. Everyone laughed. 

He made another try and fell again. The laughs 8 .

Martin kept trying and fell.

He tried again but did not fall this time. He saw John, Abram, Julie, and Terry carrying him up 9 he would not fall. The others still laughed. 

Now he 10 his real friends.

Wang Ming and Leo are two students of Shenzhen. Last summer holiday they went to Beijing from Shenzhen by bike. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} They took a map, enough food, water and some medicine with them. The journey was hard, but they felt happy.

They didn't have much money with them. They went through many cities and villages during the travelling. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} When they were tired, they stayed in the farmers' houses. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} They never stayed in a hotel. When it was rainy, they stopped for a while and went on with their travelling.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#} They visited a lot of places of interest(名胜古迹) in Beijing, such as the Great Wall, the Palace Museum and Tian' anmen Square. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} At last, they had to return to Shenzhen by train because the new term began in September.

A. They had a fun time in Beijing for ten days.

B. On August 20, they got to Beijing successfully.

C. They spent nearly two months on the bicycle travelling.

D. Sometimes they stayed on the street overnight.

E. When they were hungry, they had cheap meals.

F. They will never do this again.