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."

    My great-grandmother, Ethel, came from England to the United States in 1921. She brought almost nothing with her-just a few clothes and trinkets(小饰物). But she did bring some customs from "the old country" that she had learned as she grew up.

    One custom was that if you dropped a glass or a cup and it broke, you would throw a little salt over your left shoulder. It was funny that she did that-she wasn't superstitious(迷信的) in other ways. I think that she grew up doing that, so she continued to do it as a connection to her childhood.

    Ethel also taught us a New Year's Day custom that our family continues to follow today. To celebrate the new year, we would travel to a friend's house for a quick visit. My great-grandmother always took a pound of butter with her on our visits. We would enter the friend's house through the back door. The butter we brought was to give our friend a "gift of gold" to symbolize hope for prosperity in the new year.

    After my great-grandmother died, we still visited people on the first day of January, but eventually we stopped bringing the butter. We never did throw salt over our shoulders after breaking a glass or a cup. Some customs are continued when they cross from one country to another, but some customs fade away.

    Sam's dad told camping stories all through dinner. "Once I saw a snake outside my tent. Did I tell you about that?" Sam shook his head and tried not to look impatient. In fact, he really wanted to get out to the tent in the backyard (后院). His friend, Kent would go there.

    Finally, everyone finished dinner. Sam asked if he could go out. "I think you should help do the dishes first," said Mom. Sam washed all the dishes and helped clean the kitchen, and then he ran to the tent.

Kent was waiting for him. "Have you been waiting long?" asked Sam.

    "Not long,"said Kent. "Oh, well, we're here now. Let's get ready." "Ready for what?" asked Kent.

    "For anything that is going to happen," answered Sam. They played cards for some time in the tent. Then they read some books. After that, Sam told some of his dad's camping stories. When they got tired, they turned out the light ( 灯) and listened for noises in the dark. But they didn't hear any noises for a very long time ...

    Finally, Sam heard something at the tent flap ( 帐篷门帘). He felt very scared and kept his eyes closed.

    "Hey, get up, boys! Breakfast is ready." It was Sam's mom.

    Sam opened his eyes and looked at Kent. He was still sleeping. Sam sighed (叹息道), "We slept through the night, and nothing happened!"

It was Lisa's seventh birthday. She received a special gift from Uncle To by. It was a box of little ducks. Lisa was very excited, because she was looking forward to playing with little ducks.

Lisa tried to carry the box to her garden. However, the box of ducks was heavy and she dropped it. The box fell to the ground and broke. The ducks all ran out. They ran everywhere—into neighbours' gardens, into the field, even into the next street. Lisa spent hours trying to find them and took them back to her garden.

Then she called her uncle and told him about the little accident.

"Did you find them all?" her uncle asked.

"I hope so," Lisa replied. "I caught ten of them."

"That's very interesting," her uncle said with a smile, "because I only sent you eight."

Once upon a time, there was an old woman. Her1  died after their son came to the world. She lived with her only son.

However, something 2  happened to her son and the old woman lost her only son. She felt really 3  and went to a wise man and asked,"Is there any way to help me throw away my sadness?"

The wise man said to her, "Go and bring 4  a seed(种子) from a home that has never known sadness. I will 5 it to drive the sadness out of your life." The woman went off at once to 6  {#blank#}1{#/blank#}that special seed.

First, she came to a beautiful house and knocked at the door 7   , "Excuse me, I am looking for a 8  that has never known sadness. Is this such a place? It is very 9  to me. "

They told her, "You've certainly come to the 10  place."They began to describe all the sad things that had recently happened to them.

The woman said to herself,"Who is able to 11  these people that have had such sadness like me?" She stayed to cheer them up 12  she went on looking for a home that had never known sadness.

But wherever she went, whether in the homes of the poor or the rich, she found one sad 13  after another. She became so busy helping other people that she 14  about looking for the special seed. She even never found that helping others 15  the sadness out of her life.