William Shakespeare was a writer of plays and poems. Some of his most famous plays are Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth. He wrote thirty-seven plays in all. They are still popular today.

    He was born in England. At school he liked watching plays. He decided to be an actor when he finished school at the age of fourteen. In 1582,he married a farmer's daughter. She was eight years older than he was. Their first child was a daughter. Later they had twins. In 1585, Shakespeare left his hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon. His wife and children stayed behind. No one knows why he left or what he did between 1585 and 1592.

    At twenty-eight, he moved to London and joined a theatre company which opened the Globe Theatre in 1599.He became an actor, and he also wrote plays. He usually acted in his own plays. He made almost no money from his writing. But he made a lot of money from acting. With the money he bought a large house in his hometown.

    At the age of forty-nine, Shakespeare retired（退休）and went to live in Stratford-upon-Avon. He died at the age of fifty-two in 1616. He left his money to his family. He left the genius（天才）to the world. You still see his plays in English and in many other languages. He is one of the most famous writers in the world.

    Little Bob was born in a poor family. What's worse is that his father has been ill for a long time and can not do any housework at all. Bob's mother is very busy with the housework besides working in her factory. Bob can understand her mother's hard work and he always does some housework for his mother, though he is only eight years old. Here is what he usually does every day.

    Keep his bedroom clean. Take good care of his things and put them away every day. If he makes them dirty, he will clean them up quickly.

    Ask his mom what he could do. His mother will probably have suggestions for things he could do for her.

    Feed the pets every day. There is a parrot, a cat and a dog in his house. He feeds them and gives them water every day. And after school, he often plays with his dog.

    Wash his own clothes. When his clothes are dirty, he will wash them by himself, he says it's a good thing to make his mother happy.

B

    Alice was now in a long dark room with doors all round the walls, and she could not see the white rabbit anywhere.

    She tried to open the doors, but they were all locked (上了锁的). "How will I get out again?" she thought sadly. Then she saw a little glass table with three legs, and on the top of it was a very small gold key. Alice quickly took the key and tried it in all the doors, but she couldn't open any.

    Then she saw another door.The door was only forty centimetres high. The little gold key unlocked this door easily, but Alice couldn't get through it—she was much too big. So she lay on the floor and looked through the open door into a beautiful garden with green trees and bright flowers.

    "I'd like to be out there—not in this dark room. Why can't I get smaller?" It was already a very strange day, and Alice was beginning to think that anything was possible.

    After a while she locked the door again, got up and went back to the glass table. She put the key down and then she saw a little bottle on the table. Round the neck of the bottle was a piece of paper with the words "DRINK ME" in large letters.

    "It can be dangerous to drink the liquid(液体) in the bottle," she said. "What will it do to me?" She drank a little bit very slowly. The taste was very nice and very soon Alice finished the bottle.

    "I think I'm getting smaller and smaller every second, " she said. "And now, " she said happily, "I can get through the little door into that beautiful garden."

    She ran at once to the door. Then she remembered that the little gold key was back on the glass table. She ran back to the table for it, but she was now much too small! The key was high above her, on the top of the table. She tried very hard to climb up the table leg, but she couldn't do it.

    At last, tired and unhappy, she got angry with herself. Soon she saw a little glass box near her on the floor. She opened it, and found a very small cake with the words "EAT ME" on it.

    Nothing could surprise Alice now.