Look up in the sky. Do you see any clouds? What do they look like? Some clouds are fluffy(绒毛状的) and white, like cotton balls. Others are dark almost black, and make you hold an umbrella. At sunrise and sunset, clouds can look red, purple, or yellow—as if they were colored with crayons. But what are clouds anyway?

    You can't reach out and touch the clouds, but you can make your own in a bottle.

    You need

    * an adult helper

    * a huge, empty glass jar

    * a metal strainer(过滤器)

    * hot water

    * ice

    Do these

    Step1. Have your helper fill the jar with hot water, leave it there for two minutes, then pour out most of the water. Leaving just an inch or two at the bottom of the jar.

    Step2. It's your turn, put the strainer over the mouth of the jar, fill the strainer with ice. Watch the jar.

    What happened?

    A cloud formed in the jar! Some of the hot water at the bottom of the jar turned into hot water vapor(蒸汽). The water vapor rose and met with the cold air coming off the ice. When the water vapor condensed, it formed a cloud. Hot air rises and carries with it lots of water vapor, the higher the air rises, the more it cools down. Soon the cold air can't hold all the water vapor so it starts turning into tiny water drops, and becomes a cloud.

    There are lots of objects that we see in the sky. During the day we see the sun. After the sunset in the evening, we see mostly the stars. Not all the lights in the sky that we see are really stars.

    Of course, we see the moon. Some of the other lights in the sky are planets. Planets revolve (转动) around the sun like earth does.

    Once in a while someone will see what they call a shooting star.

    Shooting star looks like a star that is moving quickly across the sky. Some people believe that seeing a shooting star will bring them good luck. It's hard to find shooting star because they disappear fast.

    The correct name for a shooting star is meteor. Besides very large objects like stars, planets and moons, space has lots of little objects. These can be rocks in space left over from old planets.

    These objects can even be as small as dust. These objects are called meteorites(陨石).

    When a meteorite gets close to the earth, it gets pulled towards the earth by gravity. Earth is surrounded by atmosphere. Atmosphere is made up of air and clouds. A meteorite blows up in the earth's atmosphere. This makes the short bright moving light in the night sky. A meteorite thus turns into a meteor.

    It was Sunday yesterday. Michael sat on the sofa and watched TV. He was very relaxed. His mother was doing the dishes. Suddenly, she felt terrible. She had to stop. Michael came to his mother and asked, "Are you all right, Mom?" "Yes. I'm OK, but I need to take a rest," said his mother.

    Michael felt sorry for his mother. He thought he should help his mother do the dishes. She felt terrible because she was too tired. So he did the dishes and cleaned the room when his mother was lying in bed. Michael felt happy because the room looked clean.

    When Michael's mother felt better, she went to do the dishes. But she was surprised to see the clean room. "You are really a great boy," she said happily. Michael was happy, too.

    An English traveller found himself in Norway with only enough money to buy the ticket for his journey back home. As he knew that it would take him only two days to get to England, he decided that he could easily spend the time without food. So he bought a ticket and got on the ship. The man closed his ears to the sound of the lunch bell. When dinner time came, he didn't go to the dining room, saying that he was not feeling very well.

    The next morning, he still didn't have breakfast and at lunch time he again stayed in his room. But at dinner time he was so hungry that he went to the dining room and ate everything the waiter put in front of him. He got ready for the quarrel(争吵).

     “Bring me the bill,” he said. “The bill, sir?” said the waiter in surprise. “There isn't any bill. On our ship meals are included(包括)in the money for the ticket,'' said the waiter.

    Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in 1835,in the state of Missouri. When he was four, his family moved to the town ofHannibal, Missouri. Hannibal was a port on the Missippi River, and Clemensloved to watch the big steamboats going up and down the river. He said that allthe boys in his school had one ambition in life: to work on a steamboat!

    His father died when he was just 12 yearsold, and Clemens then went to work for a printer to help support his family. Hetravelled around, and worked in many different cities. But when he was 22, heachieved his ambition—he got a job working on a steamboat. He sailed up anddown the wide Missippi River until the American Civil War began.

    He then moved around America, and triedseveral jobs. He was a soldier, and a silver miner. Then he started working asa writer for a newspaper. It was at that time that he decided to use a pen namefor his stories, and he chose the name "Mark Twain".

    The name is interesting. It comes from hisdays on the steamboats. He used to throw a piece of rope into the river. Therewas a heavy weight on the end of the rope, and the rope had some marks on it.He used the rope to find how deep the river was. Then he shouted out, "MarkOne" or "Mark Twain", meaning "Mark Two". Each markwas about two metres, so when he shouted "Mark Twain", it meant thatthe river was deep enough for the big boat.

    In 1865 Clemens wrote a story about ajumping frog. The story and the writer became famous. In 1867 he toured Europe.He married when he returned, and lived for most of the rest of his in Harfort,Connecticut. He wrote many books, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, whichhe wrote in 1876. He also gave many lectures, and became a very famous andpopular man.

    Once two of his friends decided to write tohim, but they had lost his address. So on the envelope they just wrote "MarkTwain, God knows where". Several weeks later, they received a replay fromthe writer. It just said, "He does!"

    Samuel Clemens died in 1910. He isconsidered to be one of America's most important writers.

Louis's Dream Came True

Louis is a thirteen-year-old boy. Writing is one of his {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(业余爱好) and he is good at it.

Once his school {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(派遣去) him to enter an international writing competition. He made up an interesting story about a {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(塔). To his surprise, he won first {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(奖项) and he got the chance to travel in Europe for free. It had been his {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(梦寐以求的) journey. But he couldn't{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(付得起) that because his family didn't have much money. Before the journey he {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (数)down the days every day. How excited he was!

Then he travelled to England, {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(德国), France, Greece and Italy. He visited many {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(古老的;古代的) buildings and talked a lot with local people. In this way, Louis learnt a lot and now he still {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(想念) everything there.