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.

    Gustavo's favourite sport is football, when he was only four, his older brother taught him how to play it. Now Gustavo is eight, and he has a lot of 1 Gustavo's brother likes to kick (踢) the ball with his right foot, 2 Gustavo doesn't. He likes to kick it with his left foot. Gustavo calls it his lucky left foot. All of Gustavo's friends love to play football when they get out of 3 

    Earlier this year, a new boy came to Gustavo' s school. His name is Felipe. One day, the boys asked Felipe to play football with them after school. Felipe said OK but looked very 4 .

    As they walked to the football field, Gustavo asked Felipe, "Are you all right?" Felipe said, "I don't know 5 to play football. I tried once and everybody laughed at (嘲笑) me." "Don't worry," said Gustavo. "I was really bad too when I first started playing football. 6 just have to keep (保持) trying."

    The game started, and Gustavo moved to the from of the field and was ready to kick the ball with his lucky left foot. Gustavo felt 7 every time he played football and today he was playing even better than usual.

    After the game, Gustavo and Felipe stayed on the field to practise Felipe was a little bit 8 . Then Gustavo and Felipe practised on the football field every day after the other boys 9 Felipe .also practised before school.

    Now Felipe loves playing football, and Gustavo has a new 10 Gustavo believes that Felipe will be able to score his first goal (进球) soon.

    Mr. Smith is a teacher. He is near-sighted（近视的）. But he doesn't wear glasses. One day, he is walking in a street. He is thinking something. Suddenly a strong wind blows his cap off his head. Mr. Smith runs after it.

    He wants to catch it but he can't. At this time, an old woman from a door of the house says to him,

    "Hi! What are you doing, sir?"

    "Running after my cap."

    "Your cap? Aha… that's my black cat," she says.

    "Your cat? Sorry, but where is my cap?"