“Reading makes a full man,” novels written by famous writers help us to know more about our history, culture and many other things.

    Jane Austen was one of the most well-known women writers of the world. She was born in England in 1775. Jane liked reading and writing. She wrote a number of famous novels in her life. Among them, Pride and Prejudice written in 1779 was the most popular.

    Ernest Hemingway, an outstanding American writer and reporter, was born in 1899. His life experience had a great influence on his writing style. Hemingway lived in France and Italy between the 1920s and 1950s. Most of his books such as The Sun Also Rises were written at that time. He won the Nobel Prize in 1954 mainly because of the novel The Old Man and the Sea.

    It was nearly seven o'clock, when a man walked into a bar, ordered a drink and turned to watch the television.

    The seven o'clock news was on and it was showing a man standing on top of a tall building. He was looking down at the crowd of people below.

    On the ground, a police officer with a megaphone(扩音器)was trying to tell him not to jump.

    "Let's talk about your problem," the police officer was saying. "Perhaps we can help you."

    The man turned to the bartender(酒吧侍者)and said, "I bet you a hundred dollars he doesn't jump.

    The bartender looked at him. "You're offering me a hundred dollars if he jumps? Is that right?"

    "Yes. I don't think he'll jump."

    The bartender smiled. "OK. You've got a bet."

    The man turned back to the TV and watched it carefully. The bartender, however, did not seem to be very interested. He continued washing glasses and serving the other customers.

    Then, after about five minutes, the man on the building threw himself off the building and fell to the ground.

    The man in the bar turned to the bartender.

    "He jumped," he said. "You win."

    He held out a hundred dollar bill to the bartender, but the bartender would not take it.

    "I can't take your money," he said. "I knew I couldn't lose. That story was on the six o'clock news. I saw him jump."

    "Well, yes, so did I," the man said, "but I didn't think he'd do such a stupid thing twice."

    "Joe, you are a very old dog," said policeman Fred. "Today is your birthday again. I remember you were 14 years old last year. But you are still the best police dog in the world!"

    "ARF! ARF!" barked Joe.

    "You are welcome," said Fred." Now let's get your birthday dinner. Show me where you want to eat.

    Joe led Fred down the street. Good smells came from all the eating places. But Joe wandered on闲逛. At last he stopped at a small place. He smelled around the door. Then he pushed the door open.

    "Is this where you want to eat?" asked Fred. But Joe did not bark an answer. He put his nose to the floor and ran across the room. Then he jumped on a man at a table!

    "Good boy, Joe!" said Fred. Joe and Fred have looked for the robber for ten years. "And now you have found him!"

    Joe and Fred took the robber to the police station. Then Fred said, "All right, Joe, you have done your work. Well done! Congratulations. Now do you want that birthday dinner?" "ARF!" barked Joe, "ARF! ARF!" "Let's go," said Fred. "I'm hungry, too."

    I entered St Thoma's Hospital as a medical student at the age of 18 and spent five years there. I was an unsatisfactory student, for my heart, as you might have guessed, was not in it. I wanted, I had always wanted to be a writer, and in the evening, after my high tea, I wrote and read. Before long, I wrote a novel, called "Liza of Lambeth", which I sent to a publisher and was accepted. It appeared during my last year at the hospital and had something of a success. It was of course an accident, but naturally I did not know that. I felt I could afford to give up medicine and make writing my profession; so, three days after I graduated from the school of medicine, I set out for Spain to write another book. Looking back now and knowing as I do the terrible difficulties of making a living by writing, I realize I was taking a fearful risk. It never even occurred to me.

    The next ten years were very hard, and I earned an average of £100 a year. Then I had a bit of luck. The manager of the Court Theatre put on a play that failed; the next play he arranged to put on was not ready, and he was at his wits' end. He read a play of mine and, though he did not much like it, he thought it might just run for the six weeks till the play he had in mind to follow it with could be produced. It ran for fifteen months. Within a short while I had four plays running in London at the same time. Nothing of the kind had ever happened before. I was the talk of the town. One of the students at St Thomas's Hospital asked the famous surgeon with whom I had worked whether he remembered me. "Yes, I remember him quite well," he said. "One of our failures, I'm afraid."