Mark Twain left school when he was twelve. He had little school education. In spite of (尽管) this, he became the most famous writer of his time. He made millions of dollars by writing. His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, but he is better known all over the world as Mark Twain, his pen-name.

    Mark Twain was born in 1835 and he was not a healthy baby. In fact, he was not expected to live through the first winter. But with his mother's tender care, he managed to survive. As a boy, he caused much trouble for his parents. He used to play jokes on all of his friends and neighbors. He didn't like to go to school, and he constantly ran away from home. He always went in the direction of the nearby Mississippi (密西西比河). He was nearly drowned (淹死) nine times.

    After his father's death in 1847, Mark twain began to work for a printer, who only provided him with food and clothing. Then, he worked as a printer, a river-boat pilot and later joined the army. But shortly after that he became a miner. During this period, he started to write short stories. Afterwards he became a full-time writer.

    In 1870, Mark Twain got married. In the years that followed he wrote many books including Tom Sawyer in 1876, and Huckleberry Finn in 1884, which made him famous, and brought him a great fortune (财富).

    Unfortunately, Mark Twain got into debts in bad investments (投资) and he had to write large numbers of stories to pay these debts. In 1904, his wife died, and then three of their children passed away.

    At the age of 70, his hair was completely white. He bought many white suits and neckties. He wore nothing but white from head to foot until his death on April 21, 1910.

    More and more birds are flying to settle at Qinghai Lake, one of the highest inland lakes in China, thanks to the protection efforts of local governments. Covering an area of over 4,000 square     kilometers. Qinghai Lake is also the country's biggest salt­water lake. Located in Northwest China's Qinghai Province, the lake is famous for the two islands at its northwest point—Cormorant Island and Egg Island. The two islands have plenty of floating grass and various schools of fish, offering rich food sources for birds. The islands have become a paradise for different kinds of groups of birds and have been called“Bird Islands”．

    Each March and April, when ice and snow covering the Qinghai­Tibet Plateau starts to melt, over 20 kinds of birds fly to the Bird Islands to lay eggs.  During the months, flocks of birds cover the whole sky over the islands and birds eggs can be found everywhere. Visitors can hear the singing of birds from miles away. These have become a world famous symbol of the lake.

    To protect this paradise for birds and support calls for ecological protection, China set up the Qinghai Lake Natural Protection Zone at the end of 1997.Meanwhile, the State has pointed out the Bird Islands and Spring bay of the Qinghai Lake as central protection zones.

    Inspection officials and management employees often patrol the lake, improving local residents' knowledge of related laws and spreading knowledge about animal protection to visitors. They are making great efforts to call on people to love and protect the birds. At the same time, they have built special fences around the island area to prevent wolves, foxes and other carnivorous animals, as well as illegal hunters from breaking up the birds' nest­building, egg­laying and breeding. As a result, more and more birds are coming to the islands for sheltering and breeding.

    My first book had been rejected by every major American publisher. My first agent, wasn't communicating. My dream of a life as a successful author was in tatters.

"It isn't going to happen," I said to my friend. "And I have to accept it."

"If you lose faith in your product, no one else will have faith in it," she told me.

    And, I knew she was right. But, how could I believe in myself when I hit a wall at every turn? I knew I had a good product. The book featured interviews with world-famous people who had learned how to succeed and lead—the hard way. It had information that could help other people. As a consumer, I would have loved that book because it had the great wisdom I so desperately needed. And, their stories made for good reading. I had a good book. What I didn't have was a publisher. I had to find a way to get that book sold and on the shelves. But, how?

    The hardest challenge was forcing myself to do battle again. I had to find the strength to believe in myself when it seemed like no one else believed in me. When I hit a wall, I usually need to get more information to figure out what is going wrong. So, I did some research and found out that my initial vision for the book-where all the interview subjects got their own chapters-wasn't marketable to big publishers because that format does not sell tons of books. What I had to do was recognize, restructure and rewrite.

    I needed an agent. There are thousands of agents. Surely one of them was right for me. So, I started sending out query（询问）letters. Within a week, I had a dozen agents who wanted the book. I chose the one who I thought would believe in me and my dream. She did get me my choices of publishers.

    Hard won Wisdom wound up being a best-selling book. But, it almost never was.

    These days, it seems like everything is going digital. You can find almost everything on the Internet.

    Many people find this way of life more convenient, because they can complete their daily chores（琐事） from the comfort of their own home.

    Firstly, online shopping can be far less stressful than hitting the high street shops. There are no huge crowds of people or boring long queues. With online shopping, it's just you and your computer. It's like you have the whole shop to yourself! Secondly, online stores don't have opening and closing times. This is perfect for anyone with a busy schedule. If you want to, you can even place an online shopping order at three o'clock in the morning!

    In the busy modern world, there are clearly many advantages to online shopping. However, in my experience, there are also several cons… With online shopping, you can't try before you buy, and that's a definite disadvantage for me. Often, when my new clothes arrive, I find they don't fit very well. It's always annoying when a dress is a little too big, or when sleeves are too short… Sometimes, the clothes are not what I was expecting. A piece of clothing might look great in photos online, but quite different in real life.

    In these cases, you want to return the item, but here lies the biggest problem with online shopping. You have to pay for your order's delivery, and for an item to be returned to the warehouse! These charges are often very expensive, which suddenly make online shopping seem a little less convenient… That's why I don't choose to shop online very frequently. For now, I will continue to find the time for a trip to a real shop, where I know exactly what I'm buying!

    My teacher, Mr. August J. Bachmann, was the most influential teacher I ever had.

    I had gotten into trouble in his class: Another student had pushed me for fun, and I became angry and began to hit him. Mr. Bachmann stopped the fight, but instead of sending me to the office, he sat me down and asked a simple question, "Penna, why are you wasting your life？Why aren't you going to college?"

    I didn't know anything about colleges or scholarships. No one had ever considered that a fatherless boy from the poorest neighborhood had a future. That day, instead of rushing off for lunch, he stayed and explained possible education options to me. At the end of our talk, he sent me to see a secretary who had a child at a state college. This was in 1962 at Emerson High School in Union City, New Jersey.

    Well, 55 years have passed, and what have I done with the knowledge he gave me？I gained a PhD from Fordham University when I was only 29.I taught English and social studies and then moved up the chain of command from teacher to principal(校长).

    I've sat on the board for Magnet Schools of America and represented that organization at the United Nations. I've won a number of great educational awards. But where would I be if a truly caring teacher had not taken the time out of his lunch period to speak to me? It was without question only his confidence in me that helped me forward.

    I have repaid his kindness hundreds of times by encouraging misguided youngsters to aim higher. If I have saved any children, it is because of him. If I have been a successful educator, it is because I had a great role model in Mr. Bachmann.