English people are famous for their humour (幽默). {#blank#}1{#/blank#} it is often difficult for foreigners to understand their jokes. The main thing to {#blank#}2{#/blank#} is that English people often use understatement.

    Understatement means saying less{#blank#}3{#/blank#}you think or feel. For example, if {#blank#}4{#/blank#}gets very wet in a shower of rain, he might say, "It's a little damp (潮湿的) {#blank#}5{#/blank#}" Or, if someone is very impolite and shouts at another person {#blank#}6{#/blank#} people might say, "He isn't exactly friendly." People often use understatement in unpleasant (使人不愉快的) {#blank#}7{#/blank#} or to make another person look silly.

    Also, English people like to make fun of themselves as well as others. The comedy (喜剧) 'Mr Bean' is a(n) {#blank#}8{#/blank#}example of this kind of humour. Mr Bean always speaks as little as {#blank#}9{#/blank#} in the comedy. He always {#blank#}10{#/blank#} to use his body to make people happy. Maybe what makes Mr Bean so funny is that he does things that people in the real world will never do.

A book review of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer

    The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a lively story full of fun.

    Tom, the hero of the book, lives with his aunt Polly. He is a lively and clever boy. He doesn't like people telling him {#blank#}1{#/blank#} to do, so he always gets into trouble. He and his best friend, Huck Finn, run away to an island in the middle of the Mississippi River. Tom has more {#blank#}2{#/blank#}        because a bad man named Injun Joe is looking for him. Later, Tom escapes ( 逃跑) from a cave with another friend, Becky. He also finds Injun Joe's treasure box and takes it {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    My favourite part of the book is when Tom and Hunk start {#blank#}4{#/blank#}adventures on the island in the Mississippi River. At first, they are {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. But when they hear that everyone thinks they are dead, they feel very sorry, so they come back home. They hide and watch for a time when they see their family and neighbours {#blank#}6{#/blank#} to their funeral in the church. Then, Tom and Huck {#blank#}7{#/blank#} appear. Everyone is surprised to see them at first, but very pleased to find that they are alive.

    The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a great book. It is more than an adventure story. Mark Twain wrote it in 1876. It describes people's lives in the southern {#blank#}8{#/blank#}  of America at that time. It tells how young people grow, how people love each other and how bad people {#blank#}9{#/blank#} for their actions. It is written in everyday English and the dialogues sound especially real. Today, it is still read and loved {#blank#}10{#/blank#} people all over the world, and it is thought to be one of the greatest American stories.

    Once there was a teacher who took all of his students for tea. What made the student surprised was that all the{#blank#}1{#/blank#}on the table were different. Each of them took a cup and stalled drinking their own tea, looking at the others' cups.

    The teacher said, "Do you notice your behavior(行为)? You are all looking at each other's tea cups and some of you even envy(羡慕)the{#blank#}2{#/blank#}cups of others. "Then he{#blank#}3{#/blank#}on." I put the different cups here on purpose(故意地)!Life is like this tea. You all have the same thing in your cups—tea. And yet you can't{#blank#}4{#/blank#}enjoy it with your envy of another's cup. You forget{#blank#}5{#/blank#}your own life when you envy someone else's life. So now, taste your own tea! Does it matter from which cup it comes?"

    Many children know Garfield. It is the name{#blank#}1{#/blank#} a cat in cartoon. At first, Garfield thought his life wasn't interesting at all. He wanted to leave the cartoon world. One day he left his family and{#blank#}2{#/blank#}a new life in the real word. He lived{#blank#}3{#/blank#}at the beginning,{#blank#}4{#/blank#}later he missed his old friends. Finally, he was so{#blank#}5{#/blank#}that he went back to his cartoon world.

    Life today is much easier than it was hundreds of years ago, but it has brought new problems. One of the biggest problems is pollution. To pollute means to make things {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Pollution comes in many forms. We see it, smell it, drink it and {#blank#}2{#/blank#} hear it.

    Man is now slowly polluting the whole {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Air pollution is still the most serious. It's bad for all living things in the world, {#blank#}4{#/blank#}it is not the only kind of pollution. Water pollution kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us {#blank#}5{#/blank#}more easily.

    Many countries are making rules to {#blank#}6{#/blank#}pollution. They stop people {#blank#}7{#/blank#}burning coal in houses and factories in the city, and from putting dirty smoke into the air. Pollution by SO₂ is now the most dangerous kind of air pollution. It is {#blank#}8{#/blank#}by heavy traffic. We are sure that if there are fewer people driving, there will be {#blank#}9{#/blank#} air pollution.

    The Earth is our home. We must take care of it. That means {#blank#}10{#/blank#}the land, water and air clean .And we must take care of the rise in pollution at the same time.