William Shakespeare was a writer of plays and poems. Some of his most famous plays are Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth. He wrote thirty-seven plays in all. They are still popular today.

He was born in 1564 in England. At school he liked watching plays. He decided to be an actor when he finished school at the age of fourteen. In 1582, he married a farmer's daughter. She was eight years older than he was. Their first child was a daughter. Later they had twins. In 1585, Shakespeare left his hometown, Stratford- upon-Avon. His wife and children stayed behind. No one knows why he left or what he did between 1585 and 1592.

    At twenty-eight he moved to London and joined a theatre company which opened the Globe Theatre in 1599. He became an actor, and he also wrote plays. He usually acted in his own plays. He earned almost no money from his writing. But he made a lot of money from acting. With the money he bought a large house in his hometown.

    At the age of forty-nine，Shakespeare retired (退休）and went to live in Stratford-upon-Avon. He died at the age of fifty-two. He left his money to his family. He left his genius to the world. You still see his plays in English and in many other languages. He is one of the most famous writers in the world.

    Be honest. That's all you have to do on Honesty Day. It would be great if we were all honest every day of the year. It's good that there is a day to encourage honesty. M. Hirsh Goldberg started Honesty Day. He chose the last day of April because the first day is April Fool's Day, which celebrates lies. On Honesty Day, anyone may ask you any question and you should give a true and honest answer. That means that you have knowledge of Honesty Day.

M. Hirsh Goldberg wrote a book on telling lies. He said in his book mat almost all person lie about 200 times a day. In our daily life, a typical(典型的) life for a man is "I did not drink that much” and for a woman is "Nothing is wrong I'm fine.” It is found that nurses are the most honest people, while sales people and politicians(政客) are the biggest liars.

    Every Honesty Day, M. Hirsh Goldberg hands out prizes to honest people.

    It was Saturday again. Grace and Karen disliked Saturdays. That was another thing the twins had in common. They shared the same clothes and tied their hair in the same manner. In fact, it was hard for their classmates and teachers to tell them apart sometimes.

    Unlike their classmates, they had to get up early every Saturday to prepare for their lessons. Grace had to attend the art lesson and Karen had to attend her ballet lesson. "How I wish I could do something different today," said the twins with one voice. All at once, an idea came to Grace and Karen at the same time. "How would you like to be me for a day?" they asked each other. It seemed like a wonderful plan to them. After giving each other a description of their own mends. Grace put on Karen's ballet dress while Karen put Grace's brushes and paints into her bag. Then they left for their classes.

    When the art lesson started, Karen was lost. Unlike Grace, Karen was poor at drawing. When the art lesson finally ended, Karen didn't dare to hand in her work.

    Meanwhile, Grace was struggling in the ballet class as well. As she had no idea about the dance steps, she had to follow her classmates blindly. As a result, she kept knocking into them. Their ballet teacher became impatient with her, "Karen, you should remember the basic steps. You can't rely on copying what others are doing."

    When Karen and Grace got home, they were tired out. They decided that they would never try to be someone else they were not. It seemed that the grass was not always greener on the other side.

    Chicago Children's Museum (CCM) is to improve children's lives by creating a small society for children to play and learn in.

    About Us

    Chicago Children's Museum is a place where families and children are encouraged to create, explore, and discover together through play. We focus on literacy, science, math, art and health.

    Some of Chicago Children's Museum's most popular exhibits include: Dinosaur Expedition(恐龙之旅)，where kids can dig for dinosaur bones; Water Ways (水道探险), which shows the wonders of water; Kids Town, where children buy and sell in shops and build their own city; Play It Safe(小小消防员), a firehouse that invites families to learn about fire safety through play.

    Chicago Children's Museum is a not for profit cultural center.

    History

    Located at Navy Pier(海军码头) since 1995, Chicago Children's Museum is I now one of the city's top cultural attractions and the second most visited children's museum in the country. Chicago

Children's Museum serves more than 650, 000 visitors per year throughout Chicago.

    Teenager Jake Denham was sking(滑雪)with his family in the US when he fell over and lost one of his skis. His family didn't know that he had a problem. They kept on sking. When they got to the foot of the mountain, there was no sign of Jake.

    Jake couldn't find his ski anywhere. In the end, he decided to take off his other ski and walk down the mountain. But he couldn't work out the right way to go.

    It was now getting dark and he was a long way from any place of safety. He knew that he might die that night in the cold temperatures. But Jake kept calm. At home, Jake watched a lot of TV programmes about living in difficult situations. He remembered the advice from these programmes and knew that he should build a hole in the snow. He made a hole and pointed it up the hill so the wind couldn't blow into it. Outside the temperature fell to a dangerous-15℃ that night, but inside it Jake was safe from the cold.

    But he had to get down the mountain. The TV programmes always said, "If you are lost, you should find someone else's tracks(轨迹)through the snow and follow them." "I wanted to live my life," remembers Jake. "So I got up and I found some ski tracks and I followed those." He walked and walked and finally he saw lights. Nine hours after he lost his ski, he found a team of workers, who came to save him. He was safe!

    His mum was very happy when she heard the news. Amazingly, Jake didn't even have to go to hospital. He got through the terrible experience without any injuries.

    So, the next time someone says that watching TV is a waste of time, think of Jake. Sometimes TV can save your life.