Would you believe that the first outstanding deaf teacher in America was a Frenchman? His name was Laurent Clerc. He became a friend of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and together they founded America's first school for the deaf.

    Laurent Clerc was born in a small village near Lyons, France, on December 26, 1785. When he was one year old, he fell into a fire, losing both his hearing and his sense of smell.

    At 12, Laurent entered the Royal Institution for the Deaf in Paris where he did well in his studies. After he graduated, the school asked him to stay on as an assistant teacher.

    Meanwhile, in America, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was studying to be a minister. He was very concerned about the lack of educational opportunities for the deaf. Therefore, in 1815, Gallaudet sailed to London, England to seek ideas on how to teach deaf people. While he was there, he met a French educator of the deaf who invited him to go to Paris to spend three months learning at the Royal Institution for the Deaf, the school where Laurent Clerc was teaching. Gallaudet accepted the offer. The two worked and studied well together. When the time came for Gallaudet to return, he asked Clerc to come with him. Clerc accepted on one condition: that he would stay in America only a short time.

    The two men set sail on June 18, 1816. The voyage across the Atlantic Ocean took 52 days; however, Clerc and Gallaudet put the time to good use. Clerc studied English, and Gallaudet studied sign language. They discussed the school for the deaf which they planned to open. On the long trip, they had many conversations about education and deafness. The year after they arrived, they founded a school for the deaf in Harford, Connecticut.

At the school, Clerc led a busy life. He taught signs to Principal Gallaudet; he taught the pupils; and he taught hearing men who came to the school to study deaf education.

    In 1819, Clerc married Eliza Crocker Boardman, one of his pupils. They had six children. He retired from teaching in 1858. Although he had intended to return to France, he never did. He died on July 18, 1869 in the United States.

    My father was German, but he worked in England. He married my mother, who was English. Her family name was Robinson, so when I was born in 1632 in England, they called me Robinson, after her.

My father did well in his business and I went to a good school. He wanted me to get a good job, and live a quiet, pleasant life. But I wanted adventure and an exciting life.

    "I want to be a sailor and go to sea", I told my mother and father. They were very unhappy about this.

    "Please don't go." my father said, "You won't be happy you know. Sailors have a difficult and dangerous life." And because I loved him, and he was unhappy, I tried to forget about the sea.

    But I couldn't forget, and about a year later, I saw a friend in town. His father had a ship and my friend said to me, "We are sailing to London tomorrow. Why don't you go with us?"

    On September 1, 1651, I went to Hull and the next day we sailed for London.

    But, a few days later, there was a strong wind. The sea was rough and dangerous, and the ship went up and down, up and down. I was very ill, and was very afraid.

    "Oh, I don't want to die!" I cried, "I want to live! If I live, I will go home and never go to sea again!"

    The next day the wind stopped, and the sea was quiet and beautiful again.

    "Well, Robinson," my friend laughed, "How do you feel now? The wind wasn't too bad."

    "What!" I cried. "It was a terrible storm."

    "Oh, that wasn't a storm," my friend answered, "Just a little wind. Forget it, come and have a drink."

    After a few drinks with my friend, I felt better. I forgot about the danger, and made up my mind not to go home. I didn't want my friend and family to laugh at me!

    I stayed in London for some time, but I still wanted to go to the sea. So, when the captain of a ship asked me to go with him to Guinea in Africa, I agreed. And so I went to the sea for the second time.

    It was a good ship, and everything went well at first, but I was very ill again. Then when we were near the Canary Islands, a Turkish pirate (海盗) ship came after us. They were famous thieves of the sea at that time. There was a long, hard fight, but when it finished, we and the ship were prisoners. The Turkish captain and his men took us to Sallee in Morocco. They wanted to sell us as slaves (奴隶) in the market. But in the end, the Turkish captain decided to keep me for himself, and took me home with him. This was a sudden and terrible change in my life.

    Before Monica goes to bed, she looks out of her window and sees the Moon. The Moon looks so beautiful. "I wish I could get the Moon," thinks Monica. But no matter (无论) how hard she tries, she cannot get the Moon. "Papa," Monica says to her father, "please get the Moon for me."

    Papa gets a very long ladder (梯子). He carries the very long ladder to a very high mountain. Then Papa puts the very long ladder on top (顶部) of it. Up and up he climbs. At last, Papa gets to the Moon.

    "My daughter Monica would like to play with you, but you are much too big," says Papa.

    "Every night I get a little smaller," says the Moon. "When I am just the right size, you can take me with you." After a few days, Papa takes it. Down and down he climbs.

    "Here," Papa says to Monica, "I have the Moon for you." Monica jumps and dances with the Moon. But the Moon keeps getting smaller and smaller. And at last, it disappears. Then, one night, Monica sees a small Moon come out. Each night the Moon grows, grows and grows.

    Patrick Johnson, an artist for the Washington Post, found some treasure in his new house-35, 000 dollars in a place where no one could see it. Although he had car and house payments in his head, he still decided to return all of the money to the previous(先前的)owner of the house, Mr Williams. Would you had done the same？

    Just hours after he had bought the house, Patrick came into the small house, where he was planning to lay out his tools and hang things up. He looked up and saw a little hole in the wall. He didn't know what it was inside, so he walked towards the wall. It was very dark inside, but an old box caught his eye." I caught the thing. It was heavy. I thought it might be some pieces of wood, "he said. Actually it was not. It was filled with lots of dollar bills. But he and his wife knew they had to return the money to Mr Williams.

    "I've got two boys and we teach them to be honest and to do what is right. I knew this was a teachable moment that I would never get back again, "Patrick said to his wife." So I thought we would do something honest with it. It's been a great thing for us and our kids."

要求：1. 40词左右； 2. 语句通顺。(以三人称写)