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.

Gemma Burford

    Gemma was born in 1978 in a quiet village in England. Her mother worked in a library and her father worked in a hospital. When she was a student at Oxford University, she traveled (旅行) to Tanzania and met her husband (丈夫), Lesikar, for the first time. They got married (结婚) in 2003 and had their daughter, Lucia, two years later. Now Lucia studies in a small primary school, and Gemma and Lesikar also teach her at home.

 Judy Boehmer

    Adam is Judy's first child. She now has four sons, seven daughters and a pet dog, Bosco. Judy and her husband, Larry, live in Atlanta, Georgia, but they also have a motorhome (野营车). The Boehmers are a circus (马戏团) family and all the children are performers at the circus. The children don't go to school, but study at home. The family travels more than 40,000 kilometers a year for their work. The first show of the Boehmers was at a park in Lowa in 1989, and they now perform all over America.

    Look at the Sky from the Bottom of a Well

    There is a frog(青蛙). He lives in a well(水井) and he never goes out of the well. He thinks the sky is as big as the mouth of the well.

    One day a crow(乌鸦)comes to the well. He sees the frog .

    The frog asks, “Where are you from?”

    “I fly from the sky.” the crow says.

    The frog feels surprised and says, “The sky is only as big as the mouth of the well. How do you fly from the sky?”

    The crow says, “The sky is very big. You always stay in the well, so you don't know the world is big.”

    The frog says, “I don't believe it .”

    But the crow says, “You can come out and have a look by yourself.”

    So the frog comes out from the well. He is very surprised. How big the world is!

    The famous scientist and thinker, Charles Darwin, was born on February 12, 1809. His family lived not far from the River Severn, England. As a boy, Charles liked to go for walks in the fields and forests. He enjoyed watching nature, and comparing what he saw with everything he had read in science books. He also liked collecting very much. He collected many things, birds, eggs, stones and leaves.

    At sixteen Darwin was sent to Edinburgh University to become a doctor. But he was interested in the history of nature.

    Then he was sent to study in Cambridge University. There he studied until 1831.

    Some time later he heard that the ship Beagle was going on a trip to South America and wanted a scientist. His teacher advised him to go. So when the Beagle left England in December, 1831, Darwin was on it. The trip lasted almost five years. Darwin saw many new plants and animals. He collected all kinds of plants.

    In 1842 Darwin went to live in Kent, and there he continued his studies of change in nature. Darwin understood that plants and animals are not always the same, and that they really change. By 1859 Darwin had finished his famous book The Origin of Species.

    In 1871 Darwin wrote another important book, the Theory of Evolution.

    Darwin continued his studies in science until he died in 1882.

    It is a fine Saturday morning. Alice and her parents are in a big bus. There are many people in it, Some of them are from England and others come from the USA and Canada. They are going to the Great Wall. Alice finds there are two Chinese in the bus. One is Mr Li, the bus driver. The other is a young man about twenty. He speaks English very well. He is now talking about the Great Wall. People in the bus are all listening to him. They like to see the Great Wall. They want to see it very much.