Jane Austen(1775-1817),an English novelist, started writing young and completed six novels in her life. Today Austen's books are more popular than ever. In the last 10 years, five of her six novels have been made into Hollywood films, while her books continue to be best-sellers.

Richard Jenkyns, a professor of English at Oxford University, says that her novels are about marriage, friendships and the family, which are still with us today. “The stories are timeless," Jenkyns said.

Pride and Prejudice(偏见)(1813) is Austen's most famous work. It is a love story about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. At first, these two dislike each other. Elizabeth is pretty ,smart and lively. She is proud because Darcy doesn't know about her family.  Mr. Darcy is handsome, rich and has a better family background. So, he is proud as well. At the same time, Darcy holds a prejudice against the Bennet family. He has no understanding of why the family, especially its mother and daughters should try so hard to find wealthy and powerful husbands. He thinks they are vulgar. Anyway, Elizabeth and Darcy finally fall in love and become a romantic couple but their families don't want them to.

In Pride and Prejudice, some of the main things that Jane Austen wants to teach people are as follows.  Opposites can attract each other. Lovers should not ony make each other feel relaxed or comfortable, but also educate and improve each other.

 Austen is often called the greatest romanti writer, so it is surprising she remained unmarried. "Maybe she was too romantic, waiting for the perfect man,”Jenkyns says.

    My friend Mr. Smith is a famous doctor and has a hospital. So he has enough money to travel all over the world. And he's been to a lot of places of interest. He likes to play with children and has a lot of little friends. They often ask him to tell them all kinds of funny things he saw. It makes them happy and his room is always full of children when he's free.

    It was my little son's seventh birthday yesterday. The boy wanted to ask his old friend Mr. Smith to the party. He called Mr. Smith himself and told him about it. The doctor accepted his invitation happily.

    Mr. Smith came on time, with a nice present in his hand. After dinner the children sat around the traveler and asked him to tell them some funny stories. Mr. Smith agreed and his stories made them laugh again and again. At last he told them the funniest story. He said, “Once I reached a city on a foggy day. The fog was the thickest in the world…”

    “Please wait a moment, Mr. Smith,” said my son, “It's said that the fog in London is the thickest in the world.”

    “You're right, my clever boy.” said the funny doctor.” The city had much fog that day…” “What's it, then?” the boy couldn't wait to ask again.

    “The fog was so thick that I couldn't see it at all.” the funny doctor said with a smile.

    Barbie dolls always wear beautiful clothes. Do you know who makes the clothes for them? Kim Culmone from the US is a fashion designer. But unlike other designers, she only makes clothes for Barbie.

    Culmone is 48 years old. Her job is to design and make new clothes for Barbie. Culmone likes to watch fashion shows on the streets. When she sees beautiful clothes, she gets some ideas for her designs.

    Culmone is interested in the world of Barbie's clothes. Every day, she spends most of her time drawing different kinds of dresses for Barbie, and making them into real clothes.

    "I love dolls very much. When I was young, Barbie was a very important part of my childhood. I dreamed of making clothes for my own dolls." Culmone says. But it's not an easy job. She has to spend a lot of time planning for Barbie's clothes.

    "Sometimes, you think a dress is beautiful." Culmone says, "But when Barbie wears it, it looks different. Barbie dolls are a bit taller than a bottle of water."

Stand Straight and Stand Tall!

    High school was wonderful, but I had always felt uncomfortable as one of the taller members of my class, standing a head above the other girls and bowing at the back of the line to avoid sticking out.

    I especially hated being around large groups of people, like during the social hour after the church services.

    My grandfather watched me grow increasingly uncomfortable, but he didn't laugh at me or try to comfort me. Instead, he would warn me. "Stand straight and stand tall, " he would say, as I tried to shrink（退缩）.

    And each time, I would obey him. Even at age 15, I understood that his advice was about more than just feet and inches. My grandfather grew up in war-torn（饱受战争摧残的） Europe. When German soldiers took his hometown, the beautiful and exciting city of Tarnow, Poland, he joined the Soviet army for his country's freedom. "Stand straight, stand tall" meant something else since then. I trusted my grandfather more than anyone else in my childhood. And whenever I was afraid of something, he would tell me stories of his life.

    After the war, he took a boat for America on January 27, 1947. All alone in a new country, he was frightened about his future. Soon he met other European immigrants（移民）, each of whom tried to find his or her own way.

    If they could do it, why couldn't he? "Stand straight, stand tall," he would tell himself. At first my grandfather refused to enter an American church. He was angry with God for the loss of his whole family in Europe. But soon he felt his self-confidence returning. When he walked into the church the first time, he walked in proudly.

    Bob comes out of the station and at once（立刻） he doesn't know where to go. This is the first time he comes to this town. He comes to see his good friend, Peter. Peter is a worker. He works in a factory. But Bob doesn't know where the factory is.

    He walks in the streets. He passes（经过） a hospital, a post office, a bookshop and at last he gets to a school. Some students are coming out. So he asks one of them for help. "Excuse me. Do you know where the watch factory is?"

    "Of course, I know. I live near there. My father works there. It's outside this town." answers the boy.

    "Is it far from here? Can you show me the way, please?" Bob asks again.

    "It's about 8 kilometres away from here. I'm going home now. Will you go with me? I'll take you there."

    "That's great! Thank you very much!"

    "Now let's take a No. 10 bus. It'll take about 15minutes to get there."

    "It's very kind of you." says Bob.

    A 50-year-old American officer(官员)came back to his school. The teacher asked him to give a talk to the small boys and girls there. The talk was about the love of their great country. All the little ones were sitting in a large meeting-room. The old officer went up and began speaking. He said, "Boys and girls, I studied in the school forty years ago. When l was your age, we were not as happy as you are today. Think about it and answer me, why are you so happy now?"

    No sound came from the children. The old marl waited for a long time. Then a short boy in the front put up his small dirty hand. "Good boy! Please answer me, dear, "said the officer.

    With a big smile on his face, the boy stood up and said. "If you speak long enough, we won't have math and biology(生物)lessons this morning."