This year the US will honour(纪念) one of the country's most famous writers—Mark Twain (1835-1910). Most readers know that his real name was Samuel Longhome Clemens, but how many know where the pen name “Mark Twain” came from?

    The answer shows Clemens' colorful early life before he became a writer. “Mark Twain” was the cry shouted on a ship when the ship entered a part of a river that was two fathoms (6 feet) deep. “Twain” is an old-fashioned way of saying “two”. Twain trained as a ship pilot on the Mississippi river for two years, a time that he wrote about in the humourousLife on the Mississippi (1883).

    The famous river would become an important theme in many of his works—who could forget the journey of the Huck and Jim along it in his most famous book. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)?

    With little education, he had to teach himself how to write stories. Whenever possible, he would go to public libraries. There he spent much time reading and thinking, which greatly helped him with his writing.

    On the other hand, his life experiences gave him wonderful material to write about and attract readers. Twain wrote in a style that has been called “local colour” because it shows great knowledge of local people and their customs.

    Last December it was very cold and it snowed a lot. One Saturday, John was playing on the hill near his house with some friends. Suddenly, he fell over and hurt his leg. His friends ran to tell his mother. His mother and brother took him to the hospital.

    The doctor said John had to stay in hospital for four to five weeks. John liked the doctors and the other children in the hospital because they were very friendly. At first he was happy because he didn't have to go to school. He laughed at all of his friends. They had to do a lot of homework. He enjoyed listening to music and watching his favourite television programmes all day.

    But soon the Christmas holidays started. John was still in hospital. He was tired of watching television and listening to his CDs and he wanted to go home. "This is ▲" he thought. He felt sad so he started to cry.

    But then a man came to his room with a bag of presents and a Christmas tree. John knew him from the television. He was a famous sports star who was visiting all the sick (生病的) children. And the man was not the only person who came that day. All the students from John's class came to visit him. And his maths teacher brought him his "favourite" present — some maths homework!

B

    Mr. Jenkins liked all kinds of delicious food. As an important officer, he was often asked to dinner.The shopkeepers tried their best to fawn on(巴结) him. They knew it was good for their business.

    Now the officer got fatter and fatter. He could hardly go upstairs at home and had to sleep downstairs. He often felt tired if he walked or did some housework. He was worried about it and had to go to a doctor. "Stop eating much fat(脂肪) and sugar,Mr. Jenkins," said the doctor,"or it will be worse for your health!" It was difficult for the officer to do it. He wouldn't do as the doctor said. He found something was wrong with his heart a few months later. Now he thought the doctor was right. And he had to be in hospital.

    "You must lose weight(减肥),sir," said the doctor,"unless you want to die soon! .... Could you tell me a way to lose weight,please. "You must do some exercise first."Which exercise?" "To move your head from side to side when you are invited to dinner!"

    Miya, nine years old, and her six-year-old sister Tiffany were in the swimming pool in the back garden of their house. Their father David was with them. It was a lovely day. There wasn't a cloud in the sky.

    Suddenly David shouted. He was in trouble. It was his leg His legs weren't right. He was in pain. Then he was under the water. The girls weren't scared but they were worried. Was it just a joke or was he really in trouble? Twenty seconds later, he was still under the water. Now Miya was scared.

    There was no time to wait. In seconds, Miya was under the water with her father. He was heavy but with the help of the water, she was able to pull him to one side of the pool. Now his head was out of the water. He was alive but he wasn't conscious(苏醒).

    There was a mobile phone in the house. Tiffany called 911 as quickly as she could. Ten minutes later, doctors came. Soon their father was conscious again. The girls were relieved.

    David still doesn't know what was wrong with his legs on that day. But he knows that his daughters were heroes and thanks them every day for saving his life He is a very proud father.

    Ali, who was working a long way from his home, wanted to send a letter to his wife, but he could neither read nor write, and he had to work all day, so he could only look for somebody to write his letter late at night. At last he found the house of a letter writer whose name was Nasreddin.

     Nasreddin was already in bed. "It is late," he said. "What do you want?" "I want you to write a letter to my wife," said Ali. Nasreddin was not pleased. He thought for a few seconds and then said, "Has the letter got to go far? What does that matter?" answered Ali.

    "Well. My writing is so strange that only I can read it, and if I have to travel a long way to read your letter to your wife, it will cost you a lot of money. "Ali went away quickly.

    When I was a kid, I did something really terrible. My father bought me two goldfish and named them "Iasc" and" Iasc Elie". He told me that meant "Fish" and "Other Fish" in Irish. To an eight-year-old child, the names seemed really boring.

    These boring names made me feel the goldfish were boring, too.  They did nothing more than swim around in their bowl. Sometimes, for fun, they would swim to the bottom of their bowl and dance around along the bottom, looking for interesting pieces of gravel.

    I tried many ways to make the goldfish more exciting. The most interesting thing was to see how long they could live out of the water. I took a fish out of the water with my hands and watched it gasping for air. Then I put it back in the bowl.  And then I would take them out of the water again, for longer and longer each time.

    Iasc and Iasc Elie started swimming towards the top of the water, not moving very much. Then they started floating on the top of the water. In other words, they were dead.

    I thought that bigger pets are more exciting, such as a cat and a dog. It would live longer than a goldfish, and then I kept a dog as my pet.