In Paris, one freezing winter evening, I was having dinner with my friend, Mr. Dupin, the famous detective. We had just finished our meal, when there was a loud knocking at the door. Dupin opened it. There stood Mr. Germain, the chief警长）of the Paris Police.

      We welcomed him warmly, for he was an old acquaintance（熟人）whom we hadn't seen for a great time.

      "I need your assistance," said Germain. "I met a case（案件）that has been giving me a great deal of trouble. It is very simple but very strange."

      “Also, please keep this secret. If anyone found out that I told you this. I would certainly lose my job.”

      “Well, then,” said the Chief,” I have learned that a very important letter has been stolen from the king. We are sure who stole it and that the letter is in his house."

      "But who would dare do such a thing" I cried.

      "The thief," said Germain softly, "He's a man who darers do many dangerous things. He is one of the most powerful and important ministers in the government. He is Minister Danton.”

      "A lot of times, while Minister Danton was out, a lot of well-trained police officers carefully searched the entire house, room by room. In fact, we examined everything in the house but found nothing."…

       A month later, Dupin asked Germain and me to his house. There he took out a letter and handed it to the Chief. We were both very surprised.

      Dupin explained, "I know Minister Danton very well. He could not hide the letter in any of the usual hiding places. I realized that he might have left the letter out in the open, right under everyone's nose, where no one would search for it."

      "Then I visited him with my dark glasses on to help me observe（观察）better. While we were chatting, a dirty, torn letter in the letter holder suddenly caught my eyes-unusual for the Minister, who is careful and neat."

      "I was sure it was the letter."

      "Then I purposely left my gloves behind so I could come back again."

"The next morning, I hired a man to fire a gun on the street, while the Minister went to see what happened, I stole the letter by replacing it with a similar one, On it Dupin wrote these words:

             Your plan was good, but mine was better

             As you can see, I took the letter.

—-Based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe

    Doctor Seuss was born in 1904. By the middle 1950s, he had become one of the most famous and most successful children's book writers around the world. His books are very popular with young readers. They enjoy the invented words and the pictures of unusual funny animals and plants.

    In 1954, Life magazine published a report about school children who could not read well. The report said many children's books were not interesting at all. Doctor Seuss read it and strongly wanted to help the children and decided to write books that were full of fun and easy to read. He used words with the same ending sound, like bike and like. He did not receive any training in art. However, he drew wonderful pictures for most of his books.

    In 1957, Doctor Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat. He used less than 230 words to write the book and even a 6-year-old kid could read it. It was a fun story and easy to read. Children loved it very much. Their parents loved it as well. Today it is still one of the stories they like best. The success of The Cat in the Hat made him really want to write more books for children. In 1960, he wrote a book using less than fifty words. The book is called Green Eggs and Ham.

    In 1984, Doctor Seuss won a Pulitzer Prize. He was honoured for the education and enjoyment his books provided American children and their parents. He died at the age of 87, but his influence remains. Millions of his books have been sold all over the world. People say his books helped change the way American children learnt to read. Up till now, his books are loved by people of all ages. Doctor Seuss once said, "I do not write for children. I write for people."

The Angel of the North

    The Angel of the North is a modern sculpture (雕塑) in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, designed by Antony Gormley. Completed in 1998, it is a steel sculpture of an angel, 20 metres tall, with wings measuring 54 metres across. The angel, like much of Gormley's other work, is based on the shape of his own body.

    According to the artist himself, the Angel of the North symbolises (象征着) the change from the industrial to the information age and stands proudly as a beacon (灯塔) of hope for the future of the region.

    It cost £800, 000 to make, with the money coming from the British government. It took four years to make the sculpture. It was made in three parts, the body, which weighed 100 tons, and two wings, which weighed 50 tons each. Angels are usually thought of being white, as they represent light, but Gormley's Angel of the North is a reddish brown colour. This is because the steel has a special paint to protect it from strong wind.

    The parts of the angel were moved from Hartlepool to Gateshead at night in big trucks. It took 5 hours to move everything, even though the journey is very short. The Angel of the North was put on the hill in Birtley on the 15th of February, 1998.

    The sculpture was made in memory of the coal miners who worked hard in the dark earth below the hill to bring wealth to the North East in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is a sign for Gateshead.

    The sculpture has since become one of the most famous landmarks in England as can be seen in television and film. It is the largest sculpture in Britain. Over 150,000 people come to Gateshead to see the sculpture every year.

    One day an American was in Africa. He wanted to go to a small village in the hill. He got on a bus and the driver said: "The yellow ticket is one dollar. I have two other tickets. The red one is fifty cents, and the green, ten cents." "A green one, please "said the man. The bus started to get up the hill. Suddenly it stopped. "Red ticket passengers, get out and walk. Green ticket passengers, get out, close the door, and push the bus." shouted the driver.