Tom was a little boy, and he was only seven years old. Once he went to the cinema alone because his parents were both busy. It was the first time for him to do that. He bought a ticket and went in. After two or three minutes he came out, and bought the second ticket and went in again. After a few minutes he came out again and bought the third ticket .Two or three minutes after that, he came out and asked for another ticket. But a girl amazed and asked him, “Why do you buy so many tickets? How many friends do you meet?” “No, I have no friends here, _________”

    I once had a hard time making a living in France. Three years ago, I moved to a new neighborhood and felt an intense(强烈的) need to meet people so I went to the cinema. Outside the cinema was a woman with long gray hair who had a strong smell and was asking for money. I reached for my wallet to give her a Euro and then something made me stop and enter into conversation with her. I said, “Look, all the women going to the cinema here on a Tuesday night are seeing a film that can change your life. I'd rather buy you a ticket than give you money.”

    She hesitated（犹豫） for a moment and then came in with me. She hid behind me because, she said, the people running the theater didn't like her. I got her a ticket and she sat next to me. There were about 80 women there; I noticed some of them were turning around and looking at me with expressions of surprise and curiosity(好奇心).

    I encouraged the woman I had bought the ticket for to come the following night to an event where there would be many representatives(代表) of various social services. I thought they could be of some help to her. She did come and I was able to direct her to an agency that helped women in her situation. At the same time, a woman came toward me and said, “Are you the person who bought a ticket for the woman outside the theater asking for handouts?” When I said yes she said, “I want you to come to the community center where I work. I want the other employees there to meet you.”

    This was the beginning of a deep friendship and colleague relationship. I now have a great job and have more work than I've ever had in my 20 years in France. And the woman I took to the cinema that night? I learned that she was not homeless and that she was a secretary.

    Mark Twain is someone Americans are taught to love. Older relatives, English teachers and the media always praise him. But when you actually take the time to read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, you find that his work is more wonderful than you could ever imagine.

    The novel describes a young boy named Tom Sawyer growing up in a small town along the Mississippi River. He explores the countryside on a riverboat with his friends, falls in love with girls, starts secret clubs and searches for treasure. Twain's idea of childhood is magical – a time of imagination, wonder and, of course, adventure.

    More importantly, through the eyes of Tom Sawyer, Twain cleverly makes fun of US culture. For example, Tom hates going to church, and Twain uses scenes of Tom there to mock religion and its old traditions.

    Twain's writing is full of these kinds of critical (批判的) points about culture and politics. That's why he is so loved in the US – he wasn't afraid to state his opinions, and he did so clearly.

    He also believed strongly in women's right to vote in elections and gave a famous speech on the subject, called "Votes for Women", in 1901.

    "Tom was a great hero once more – the pet of the old, the envy of the young," Twain writes in Tom Sawyer. But he could just as well be describing himself.

One day, five blind men were walking along, when suddenly they bumped into something very big in front of them. Each one put out his hand and touched it. The first man thought it was a tree —it was tall and round. The second man felt something tall and wide and rough(粗糙的) and said, “Aha! This must be a wall !” The third man touched a very long smooth thing. He guessed this was a spear (矛).Then the fourth man said, “I feel cool. There must be a fan up there. Oh, yes! Here it is!” He touched something big and round that was moving. What did the fifth man find? Well, he started shouting that he was being chased(追赶) by a snake.

    Each man was sure he knew what he had touched, but they were wrong. They finally understood the mystery when the big thing attempted （尝试）to move, and they felt silly because everything they had touched belonged to an elephant.

C

    When Matty Sallin，34，was working on a degree in art and technology at New York University，he got interesting homework in electronics class．He decided to create an alarm clock(闹钟)．

    "Everybody has to deal with these every day，and they are really unpleasant!"he says．He asked different people what they would like to wake up to instead of a noisy alarm．A lot of them said，"The smell of bacon(培根肉)"．

    So Sallin and two classmates invented a new kind of alarm clock：a wooden box with a pig face and a digital clock that uses the smell of cooking bacon instead of the sound to wake someone up．He explains．"There's no danger of burning，because I built it carefully．It uses halogen light bulbs(卤素灯)instead of a fire for cooking and turns off automatically after ten minutes．Yes,the clock itself can do it．Just a few easy steps are needed to set the alarm．"

    "What you do is to put some frozen bacon in the night before and set the alarm，"says Sallin．

    "If you set the alarm for 8：00,it will turn on at 7：50 and slow cook for ten minutes under the halogen bulbs．"he says，Then the bulbs turn off and a fan blows the smell out through the nose of the pig．

    "So instead of an alarm，  ▲，"says Sallin．"Then you can open the door on the side and pull the bacon out and eat it．"

    When Sallin was a kid，he spent a lot of time making drawing of inventions．"I wanted to make an lift in my backyard and a special tree house．"he says．"But I never really thought I'd be called an inventor!"

    Sallin got an A in the class and went on to other things—but people continue to hear about his invention and email him every day asking where they can buy his alarm clock．

    Doctor Seuss was born in 1904. By the middle 1950s, he had become one of the most famous and most successful children's book writers around 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 well. The report said many children's books were not interesting at all. Doctor Seuss read it and strongly wanted to help the children and decided to write books that were full of fun and easy to read. He used words with the same ending sound, like bike and like. He did not receive any training in art. However, he drew wonderful pictures for most of his books.

    In 1957, Doctor Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat. He used less than 230 words to write the book and even a 6-year-old kid could read it. It was a fun story and easy to read. Children loved it very much. Their parents loved it as well. Today it is still one of the stories they like best. The success of The Cat in the Hat made him really 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. He was honoured 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 all over the world. People say his books helped change the way American children learnt to read. Up till now, his books are loved by people of all ages. Doctor Seuss once said, "I do not write for children. I write for people."